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8 • The Red and Black • Wednesday, February 14, 1990
Gymnasts will retain crown
Chris
Lancette
Hollo, Mr. National Championship.
A shy Georgia gymnastics team stepped forward
last weekend in Alabama and made an announce
ment: The Lady Dogs are going to repeat their na
tional championship. But they didn’t use words to
express themselves. They tumbled and flipped and
danced until the point was made.
Watching their performance early this season, I
saw a potentially unbeatable, infant-like team crawl
through practice trying to learn to walk. The ability
was certainly there. It just couldn’t get all the limbs to
work together.
The Lady Dogs were winning meets, but wins don’t
matter in gymnastics — the score does. Every time a
gymnastics team takes to the floor, it’s competing
against everyone else in the nation.
Fans wondered why they couldn’t just bent the heck
out of everybody from day one.
There are u lot of answers.
The first is that the team’s fortunes rest largely on
the shoulders of the six-member freshman class. It
can’t be expected to set records from the first day. No
freshman class can, not even the Gym Dogs’ best in
the nation. Not only do freshmen have to adjust to col
lege life, they have to adapt to a whole new system of
competition. In international gymnastics, the rule is
all for one, one for me." Reaching the Olympic team
means beating everybody — no exceptions.
In college, it is the team that wins and loses. It
takes a while for frosh to understand that.
Another reason the team started slowly is because
the rest of the team wasn’t hitting consistently. An
drea Thomas struggled on beam before regaining her
tunnel vision sticking a 9.90 against Ohio State. Cor-
rinne Wright had some problems too. The 1989 all-
around champion wasn’t hitting everything in sight
as she did last April and was getting frustrated.
She got benched and got over it.
The sophomore class was shaky as well.
And heading into Hama land, they recognized that
it was time to begin their performance peak toward
nationals.
More importantly, they realized their team unity
tank was running low.
Poor coach Yoculan has been looking pretty sickly
over the last couple of weeks. Anybody could see the
pain and sense of helplessness in her eyes. What the
team needed was more than she or the assistant
coaches could provide — that elusive sense of team
unity. The coacning staff can preach it but the women
themselves must believe it.
The same was true, only more so, last season as
Georgia made its annual West Coast trip. They got
ripped by UCLA and hit rock bottom both physically
and emotionally.
Then came one very special meeting in a hotel be
fore a meet against Utah State. Staff and athletes got
together and aired everything out. It was time to put
personal problems aside and get down to the business
of winning a second national championship.
Reporters aren’t allowed it team meetings but I wns
with everybody after they came out it. I felt like I had
just witnessed a resurrection.
A similar meeting took place before the team met
Alabama. The 1990 team is a lot stronger than the
1989 team so the meeting wasn’t as emotional; wasn’t
ns huge. The team didn’t have as far to go.
The point of the pre-Alabama meeting was the
same though. They’re together now, and the ailing
gymnasts are getting over beaucoups of injuries.
They’re going to start nailing more routines; start
working their way to the championship title. I believe
them. I’ve seen it happen before.
Once everyone is healthy, they’ll be able to score
whopping 193s. And, if healthy, there is no one in all
of college gymnastics that can beat them.
Hello, Mr. National Championship.
Hawks trade Carr for Kenny Smith
r he Associated Press
ATLANTA — The Atlanta
Hawks, needing help in the back-
’•art because of injuries, obtained
Kenny Smith Tuesday in a four-
pi.iver deal with the Sacramento
Kings.
It gives us three quality NBA
u.iint guards at a time when it’s a
iiTicult commodity to obtain one,”
Hawks general manager Stan
Knsten said.
The Hawks sent forward An-
f oine Carr, gunrd Sedric Toney and
i second round pick in the 1991
draft to the Kings for Smith and
forward Mike Williams.
We thought we were getting
close to this deal or a similar one
when Bill Russell was fired two
months ago," Hasten said.
The Hawks have been short-
handed in the backcourt with inju
ries to Glenn Rivers and John
Battle.
Rivers, the starting point guard,
is expected back within two weeks,
but Knsten says no one knows how
hell do because of a back injury.
Spud Webb has moved into the
starting lineup at the point, but
Smith is expected to see action at
the position when he joins the team
on Wednesday.
"We think the trade will be mu
tually beneficial,” Hawks coach
Mike Fratello said.
He said the arrival of Smith
gives Atlanta immediate help in
dealing with the Rivers injury situ
ation, adding that Smith can play
either guard spot.
“Smith can play almost any com
bination you want in the back-
court,” Fratello said.
Smith, a North Carolina product
in his third year in the league, en
tered the season with a 15.8
scoring and 7.4 assists average per
game. So far this season he’s aver
aging 15 points and 6.6 assists per
game.
Williams saw action in 16
games, scoring 15 points and grab
bing 22 rebounds.
Carr, who had expressed a de
sire to be traded where he could
play more, was averaging 7.6
K lints and 3.4 rebounds for the
awks in 44 games. Toney aver
aged 2.8 points and 1.6 assists in
32 games.
Georgia on the road to Vanderbilt;
Golden’s game running smoothly
Shaun Golden: Freshman dishes off in Alabama game;
Bulldogs ready to take on Vanderbilt tonight in Tenn.
By JAY WILSON
Sports Writer
Georgia faces a difficult chal
lenge tonight against Vanderbilt
in Nashville, perennially a stum
bling block for the Bulldogs. The
game between Georgia (15-6, 8-4
in the SEC) and Vanderbilt (12-9,
5-7 in the SEC) will be televised
at 8 p.m. by Jefferson-Pi’.ot.
In order for Georgia to walk
away with a victory, it will need
superior play from its bench, in
cluding freshman Shaun Golden.
Golden has successfully made
the transition from high school
star to college role-player in his
inaugural season. The adjust
ment has been tougher than
Golden, a 6-3 point guard from
Taylors, S.C., expected.
‘The college game is a lot
tougher than high sch<x>l. There
are a lot more leaders in college.
The physical demands of the col
lege game are greater. The inten
sity level is always high,” Golden
said.
Coach Durham is pleased with
Golden’s performance so far this
season.
"He’s doing a good job. He’s got
a good ottitude and he is a hard
worker," Durham said.
Like most freshmen, Golden
has no trouble taking the ball to
the hoop, but Durham says that
he needs to improve his defensive
skills.
Golden echoes Durham’s
statements concerning his role on
the team.
"I need to ignite the team on
defense*. I must control the tempo
of the fast break. I must play the
point position well. Now I need to
be a contributor, later I can worry
about being a starter,” Golden
said.
While Golden clearly under
stands his role on the team and is
comfortable with it, things have
not turned out the way he ex
pected. Golden wns recruited by
former assistant coach Larry
Gay, who has since left the
Georgia staff for Louisville. Gay’s
leaving disoriented Golden at
first.
"It took me a while to adapt to
Coach Gay’s departure. I was
also confused at first by the
system. But that’s life. I have
adapted totally to the changes,’
Golden said.
A major obstacle for Georgia to
overcome if they are to claim
their first regular season SEC
crown is winning on the road.
Georgia is 1-4 on the SEC rond
this season, with a notable win at
LSU. Georgia plays four of its
last six games on the rond and
Golden savs that the Dogs have
finally solved their SEC rond
problems.
"It’s hard to explain the rond
losses. Losing is mostly mental.
In order to win we must believe
we can do it. We must play hard
but under control,” he said. We
played a pretty good game
against Kentucky but we made
too many mental errors. We must
keep the crowd out of the game.”
Golden feels Georgia must
take tonight’s game in stride.
‘They are not that big but they
have good shooters. We must
play great defense. Memorial
Coliseum is a tough place to win
in. In order to win we must be
level-headed and we need to play
our normal game," Golden said.
Golden eagerly anticipates the
rest of his first season.
“I’m expecting more playing
time. I expect to keep improving.
I just want to play. I’m going to
go with the flow,” Golden said.
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The Answer: Agriculture
The Question:
Where can you work to help
keep our food supply safe?
N othing’s more important to our future than a safe supply of
food. The job requires men and women who are concerned
about America’s health. But there is good news: the UGA
College of Agriculture may have just the program of study
to help you be a part of that effort. And there’s better news: jobs
in the food industry — from field to grocery store — have high
salaries and excellent potential for advancement. Sound good?
Give us a call at 542-lbl I or stop by 102 Conner Hall. We'll be
glad to give you the rest of the good news.
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College of Agriculture