November 06, 1998
The Texas A&M men's basketball team opens the Melvin Watkins/Reed Arena era on Sunday at 7 p.m. with an exhibition game against the Australian All-Stars. All tickets are $5 and can be purchased at Reed Arena.
The Aggies open the regular season on Friday against North Texas at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena.
The Australian All-Stars are 1-3 so far on their American tour, which began on Sunday at Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth. On Tuesday, the Australians fell to North Texas, 99-96, in Denton, but bounced back on Wednesday to edge Sam Houston State, 70-67, in Huntsville. The Australians lost to Stephen F. Austin, 108-93, on Thursday, and played at Lamar on Saturday night.
After playing the Aggies on Sunday, the Australian All-Stars meet Houston on Wednesday, Texas on Thursday and Baylor on Friday.
The All-Stars' top player may be 30-year-old Allen McCowan, a 6-2 guard who was a standout player at Georgetown College in Lexington, Ky. Against North Texas, McCowan scored 25 points and he added 17 against Sam Houston State, making 13-of-13 from the free throw line.
Other players on the team who played for American colleges are 24-year-old Faron Hand, a 6-4 guard who played at Nevada-Reno, and 25-year-old Phil Rodman, a 6-7 forward who played at Boise State.
The Aggies are led by senior forward Shanne Jones, the top returning scorer in the Big 12 Conference. An undersized 6-5, Jones has a knack for scoring over taller players, averaging 18.0 points last season.
Also returning are 6-8 center/forward Aaron Jack, a sophomore who averaged 8.3 points and 6.5 rebounds last year, and 6-6 guard Michael Schmidt, a sophomore who averaged 8.9 points and led the Big 12 in three-point field goal percentage in league play at 42.1 percent.
Jerald Brown, a 6-8 junior guard, is a former Big 12 Freshman of the Year who hopes to bounce back from a lackluster sophomore season in which he averaged just 7.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
Among the newcomers expected to make an immediate impact are junior college transfers Clifton Cook and Paul Jacobs. Cook is a 6-1 points guard who has emerged as one of the team's top performers in preseason workouts, while Jacobs is a 6-9 forward who could be a premier shot blocker and defender. Freshman Joe White, a 6-10 center, has been hampered by injuries but could also emerge as a force in the paint.