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1
MONDAY
February 15,1999
Vol. 106, No. 102 | Athens, Georgia
Sunny and warmer.
High 60 | Low 36 | Tuesday 64
ONLINE: wwwLredandbiack.com
An independent student newspaper serving the University of Georgia community
ESTABLISHED 1893, INDEPENDENT 1980
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TOUGH TIMES FOR MEN’S BASKETBALL
Hopes for
NCAA bid
dwindling
By BRANDON ZIMMERMAN
The Red a Black
Explanations of Georgia’s 75-64 loss to
No. 23 Florida Saturday ranged from not car
rying out the game plan to not coming ready
to play to simply not playing hard enough.
And because of it, Georgia may be sitting
around in March trying to explain how a
team with the SEC’s top overall scorer, top
scoring freshman and four veteran seniors
has done nothing but unravel through the
peak of its season.
With losses in seven of its last 10 SEC
games and an 0-5 record against top-25
opponents, Georgia (14-10,5-7 SEC) has
shown no signs that it deserves an NCAA
tournament berth.
But all is not lost. It seems the Bulldogs
can always count on a matchup with the
Kentucky Wildcats as an opportunity to
return vitality and worth to their season.
Aside from winning the SEC tournament
in March, Wednesday’s game at No. 8
Kentucky will likely be Georgia’s final oppor
tunity to keep its NCAA tournament bubble
from bursting.
"I think we’ve got to stick together down
the stretch,” said senior Ray Harrison, who
scored nine points and dished out seven
assists Saturday. “We know people are going
to shy away from us, but you know, these
last four games are going to test our pride.”
It seems Georgia’s pride is already in
question after it failed to execute head
coach Ron Jirsa’s game plan and couldn't
seem to keep its intensity level up, although
it had a chance at moving to within half a
game of Florida (17-6, 8-5) for third in the
SEC East.
“We didn't play hard enough to beat
Florida,” Jirsa said. “I think we could have. I
think we ran into an outstanding shooting
exhibition.”
With Florida red-hot, Georgia’s shooting
was awful. The Bulldogs shot 37 percent
from the field, 30 percent on three-pointers
and 56 percent at the free-throw line.
Georgia’s Jumaine Jones added to his
conference-best scoring average with 24
while freshman D.A. Layne scored 18.
“Coach Jirsa gave us a good game plan,”
Harrison said. "We just didn’t follow
through.”
Jirsa’s early game plan to stop Florida's
perimeter game was a 2-3 zone which
allowed the Bulldogs to keep four players
roaming the arc.
It didn't work, as the Gators canned 15 of
29 three-pointers.
“We didn’t come ready to play. You don’t
come out and play for five or 10 minutes,
you’ve got to play for 40,” said senior point
guard G.G. Smith. “We had a good game
plan — we just didn’t carry it out.”
So now, a dejected Georgia team with a
fragile psyche must pick up the pieces and
prepare for the Wildcats. Georgia was in a
< Georgia
forward
Michael
Chadwick
trie* to
rebound
the ball
over two
Florida
players in
Saturday’s
loss to the
Gators. The
75-64 set
back
dropped
the
Bulldogs to
14-10 and
5-7 in SEC
play, which
may not be
good
enough to
land them
in the
NCAA
tournament
In March.
This week’s
matchup
with
Kentucky
begins a
crucial
stretch of
games for
the Dogs,
said senior
Ray
Harrison: “I
think we’ve
got to stick
together
down the
stretch. ...
These last
four games
are going
to test our
pride.”
similar situation last year, holding a 14-11
record and a 6-7 SEC mark when it went to
Lexington in late February.
The Bulldogs managed to build a seven-
point halftime lead, but they lost 85-74 en
route to an NIT berth.
Beyond the Kentucky game, Georgia
hosts LSU and Tennessee before closing out
the regular season at South Carolina.
“These four games is all we’ve got,”
Harrison said. "We’ve just got to stick
together as a team.”
THE SO A ELECTIONS
SGA99
MEET THE CANDIDATES
GODFREY
A ticket of cell phones, suits
By TOM LASSETER
The Red a Black
Four minutes into his speech and
Clay Anthony is on a roll.
“The key issue is this —do you
have an SGA that’s working for you?”
Anthony, a candidate for Student
Government Association president,
asks the members of College
Republicans. Gesturing to himself, to
his heart, he implores the crowd to
hear his plea for a better University.
Then he catches a motion. It’s his
campaign manager, Brian Ely, twirling
his right index finger in the air, signal
ing Anthony to “wrap it up.”
Dressed in a heavily starched shirt,
sharply ironed slacks and wing tips,
Anthony speaks clearly, measuring
the cadence and emphasis of his deliv
ery. And then it’s over and he’s out of
the room and off to his next appoint
ment.
Ely, wearing a somber, dark suit,
gives pointers as they walk to the car.
’’Smile. Hey, you have to smile
more; you’re happy to be here, speak
ing to your voters,” Ely says in an
insistent tone.
Anthony is passed off to Scott
Butler, a volunteer, who drives the
presidential hopeful to a meeting of
the University’s 4-H Club.
Welcome to one man's bid in the
1999 SGA elections, where databases,
cell phones and executive dress are
the prevailing motif.
Together with Stacey Godfrey, who
is running for vice president,
Anthony’s ticket —with the slogan
“For the people, with the people” —
for the top SGA office is a tightly
structured apparatus.
Both the candidates, their manager
and several volunteers are involved
with the campus chapter of Young
Democrats —Anthony is the presi
dent, Ely the director of communica
tions, Godfrey the volunteer coordina
tor and Butler the executive director.
It is an aggressive coalition of
young politicians, one which does not
hesitate to appear en masse at a
College Republicans meeting and
make its pitch.
► Set' SGA Page 3
COMING TUESDAY
Candidate profiles continue, focusing on Buck
Levina and Jennifer Martin
University
sorts out
trial legacy
Student: Guilty
verdict would’ve
set good example
By TOM LASSETER
The Red a Black
With the roar of President
Clinton’s impeachment saga
come and gone, the issue now.
many University students and
professors agree, is the ripple
effect it’ll have on the office of
the nation's chief executive.
The Senate’s
vote against
conviction on
counts of both
perjury and
obstruction of
justice — 55 to
45 and 50 to 50,
respectively —
has left pundits
and onlookers
to sort out the
political puzzle.
If there is an
overall message, said Dan
Coenen, a University law profes
sor and authority on constitu
tional law, it is that for the
Senate to remove a president,
the bar must be high.
"There is an important prece
dent being set here,” Coenen
said. “The higher the number of
votes on the not-guilty side, the
firmer the precedent.”
Not only was there a lack of a
simple majority voting against
the president — both articles of
impeachment needed two thirds
of the Senate to pass — but 10
Republicans voted not guilty on
the perjury measure, and five did
likewise on the obstruction of
justice charge.
Both Republican and
Democratic senators have been
quoted in the national press as
expressing a desire to move on,
away from the business of
impeachment. Even those who
seemed to feel bitterly about the
outcome agreed.
“Let’s move on. He won. He
always wins,” Sen. Bob Smith,
R-N.H., told the Associated
Press.
Indeed, the president has
been winning big with the
American public for some time
now, said James Bason, director
of the University’s survey
research center.
Clinton posted high' approval
ratings before and throughout
the time he was investigated by
Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr, Bason said. According to
both the center’s and other
national polls, 60 to 70 percent of
the American public has been
giving the president the thumbs
up all along.
One University student
wasn’t convinced. Reflecting on
the situation as he waited for the
North-South bus in front of the
science library, Jason Schall, a
senior from Fayetteville, said
while he knows Clinton isn’t the
first president to lie to the coun
try, he wishes he would be the
last.
"Finding him guilty would set
a good example that presidents
shouldn’t lie,” Schall said. “It
might encourage more honest
ones in the future."
CLINTON
wide open Spaces
A Up to 150 spaces may still be open for the new North
Campus Parking Deck, set to open April 1. The University
has extended its deadline for applying for spots in the
deck. Story, Page 2.
Doctoral student faces charges of molesting 1 i-year-old girl
Judiciary panel
will weigh case
By KATE DOUGLAS
The Red a Buck
Student judiciary is deliberat
ing on the case of a University
student accused of sexually
assaulting a child.
In a student judiciary hearing
held Friday, panelists heard alle
gations that Angelo Lother, 34. a
doctoral candidate from Brazil.
molested an 11-year-old girl dur
ing the summer of 1997
Although the Athens-Clarke
district attorney's office decided
not to press charges against
Lother, the University doesn't
make its decision to prosecute
cases based on what local offi
cials decide, said Bill Bracewell.
director of Judicial programs. The
University's regulations are dif
ferent from local laws, he said.
The girl, now 13, lived in
Lother's neighborhood. She testi
fied that when she was 11, Lother
fondled her in a neighborhood
swimming pool.
Lother said he never touched
the girl in any Improper way. He
said he only played with her and
her sister for a few minutes.
In an affidavit entered into evi
dence, one of Lother's lawyers,
Kenneth Kalivoda, claimed when
he spoke to A-C police 8gt. Janet
Richardson, she said she didn't
believe Lother was guilty.
Richardson speculated the
girl's father concocted the case
to gain money from Lother, he
said. Richardson wasn’t at the
hearing.
The hearing ran from 3:30 to
11 p.m. Friday Several witnesses
were called, including three char
acter witnesses testifying on
Lother’s behalf — University pro
fessors who said they had no wor
ries about Lother spending time
with their own daughters.
The third character witness
was Lother's ex-girlfriend, who
said she had always trusted
Lother with her own children.
A Sexual Assault Center of
Northeast Georgia counselor who
worked with the girl was also
questioned for the hearing.
Most of the testimony came
from the girl, who was questioned
for more than an hour. There was
a pause in her testimony after a
defense lawyer asked her why she
didn't run away or call for help.
“You don't act the light way —
you never do," she said. “You
always want to take things back
and do it again, but...”
She burst into tears, and a
recess was called so that she
could leave the room to collect
herself.
Minutes later, she returned to
teL' the panel, "I think about it
now — how I should’ve screamed
out and stuff, but I was scared
and I was little.”
The defense submitted 11
photographs of the area around
the pool to show Lother would
have been acting in plain view of
many apartment residents.
Lother said his native country
is not as “repressed” in dealing
with children.
“I think it's pretty silly how
people treat children here — how
people educate children here," he
said. "We don’t sue people who
want to play with our children.”
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