Aggies Open Exhibition Slate Against All-Stars
Nov 11, 1999 | Men's Basketball
November 11, 1999
The Texas A&M basketball team opens its 1999-2000 exhibition schedule on Thursday against the California South All-Stars at 7 p.m. at Reed Arena (12,500 cap.). The Aggies return five lettermen and one starter from last year's team that finished 12-15 overall and tied for 10th in the Big 12 Conference with a 5-11 mark. However, second-year coach Melvin Watkins welcomes a class of newcomers that was ranked as high as No. 14 nationally by some publications.
Scouting Report
The California South All-Stars are 2-3 after beating Georgia Tech, 95-85, on Tuesday and losing to Nebraska, 107-99, on Wednesday in overtime. The All-Stars lost to Kentucky (73-66) and Clemson (81-60) in their first two games before beating Vanderbilt, 86-79, on Saturday. The All-Stars are led by forward Mark Sanford (6-9, Washington '97), who scored 23 points with 14 rebounds against Kentucky and had 32 points against Gorgia Tech. Also slated to start for the All-Stars are center Cornelius Holden (6-8, Louisville '92), guard Eddie Shannon (5-10, Florida '99) and brother tandem Derrick Higgins (6-5, Cal State-Northridge '98) and Keith Higgins (6-6, Cal State-Northridge '97). Sanford earned All-Pac 10 honors at Washington, while Holden started for Louisville's NCAA Tournament team in 1992. Shannon was a four-year starter for the Gators. Other players to watch are guard Shaddrick Jenkins (6-3, South Florida '99), and forward Kenyatta Clyde (6-8, Southern Utah '99), the 1998 Mid-Continent Conference newcomer of the year. After playing the Aggies, the All-Stars travel back to the southeast for games against Florida, Florida State and South Florida before returning to the Lone Star State to end their tour against Texas.
Coach Watkins Comments
(On exhibition game): "It will be a learning process for us because we are still fooling around with the lineup a little bit. We'll play a lot of different combinations and try to see what works. Sometimes in practice you can get some false confidence because you're going against each other so much. It's going to be good for us just to see some different faces and see how some of the kids respond to different circumstances."
(On how newcomers have looked): "Good at times, but at other times they will have me pulling my hair out. That's what you get with freshmen and new players. They are still trying to impress us and show us they're good. We're trying to say 'we know your good, now play within what we are trying to do.' Overall, I've been pleased with what I've seen. "We've got some kids with good basketball IQs and have a chance to be some special players with a lot of work and continued commitment. We've got the type of players I'm used to having. So, yes, I am excited about that. You have to factor in that they are young and will make some mental mistakes. I also get excited about the fact that we can go to our bench now. That was a problem for us last year. We played kids too many minutes and our rotation wasn't what we wanted it to be. But this year, if everyone stays healthy, we can get kids down to the type of minutes where they can play harder and longer."
(Comparing last year to this year): "We're ahead of where we started last year. Does that mean more wins? Only time will tell. But we are ahead of where we were. We have some players back who have gone through it a year. They have helped us in that transition period with the new guys. The biggest thing I've noticed is that the talent level is definitely much better than it was last year."
(On Andy Slocum returning to practice): "He's finally gotten into practice now. In spurts, he's looked good. His conditioning has suffered some and at times we've held him back a little because we don't want him to overdo it with that nagging injury. But he's looked good in spurts. He's a big body down there and we are surely going to need that, especially when we get into conference play. We're trying to gradually bring him along and spoon feed him because we know we'll need to get him into the Big 12 wars. But we're not trying to rush him."
Top Recruiting Class
The Aggies eight-man recruiting class, one of the largest in the country, was ranked as the 14th best class in the nation and the second best in the Big 12 by Bob Gibbons' All-Star Sports Report, who called the haul a "recruiting bonanza." The top-rated player in the class, Louisiana Mr. Basketball Bernard King, was rated by Gibbons as the 33rd best prospect in the country. Another Louisiana product, Andy Slocum, was rated No. 94 by Gibbons. Meanwhile, Brick Oettinger of The Sporting News ranked Jamaal Gilchrist as one of the top 30 high school point guards in the nation last year while Gibbons called him a "playmaker supreme." Overall, the class includes six true freshman, two junior college transfers and one university transfer, Keith Bean of North Carolina State, who was rated as the 33rd best prep player by Gibbons in 1997-98. "History will prove me right or wrong, but this class has the potential to be as good as any I've been involved with in recruiting," A&M coach Melvin Watkins said.
1999 TOP 15
RECRUITING CLASSES
(Bob Gibbons' All-Star Sports Report)
1. Duke
2. Florida
3. Virginia
4. Michigan
5. Cincinnati
6. Stanford
7. Kentucky
8. Arizona
9. Alabama
10. Tennessee
11. Kansas
12. Arizona State
13. Arkansas
14. Texas A&M
15. Baylor
UNLV
Youngest Aggies Ever
With seven freshmen and three sophomores on the roster, not to mention just three returning scholarship players from last season, the 1999-2000 Aggies are the youngest team in school history. The 1978-79 team had six freshmen and five sophomores while the 1991-92 team had six freshmen and three sophomores. The youngest player on the team is guard Bernard King, who turned 18 on July 24. On the other end of the spectrum, the Aggies' four seniors will all be 23 by the start of the season and Paul Jacobs turns 24 on Feb. 15. The Aggies will possibly start an all-freshman back court for only the third time in history. In 1994-95, Kyle Kessel and Waseem Ali formed the starting back court as freshmen on a 14-16 team, while in 1976-77, Dave Goff and Steve Sylestine started as an all-freshman back court for a 14-14 squad. Sylestine is now head coach at San Antonio Jay High School, where he coached A&M junior forward Carlton Brown.
Mr. Basketballs
Two Aggies were named Mr. Basketball in their respective states as prep seniors. Senior Jerald Brown was named Texas Mr. Basketball at Aldine High School in 1996 and freshman Bernard King was named Louisiana Mr. Basketball last spring at Gibsland-Coleman High School.
Impressive Recruiter
When freshman forward Larry Scott made his official recruiting visit to the Texas A&M campus last April, he expected to meet the usual people - academic advisors, professors, coaches, etc. Instead, he met the former leader of the free world, President George Bush. The A&M coaches took Scott to lunch at a restaurant near campus and in walked the former President and his wife, Barbara. "It was totally by coincidence because he walked in and everyone was like 'What?'" Scott said. "The president just walked in. I just thought, 'Wow." Then, Bush came over to meet Scott. "He came over, shook my hand, patted me on the back and told me I should be an Aggie," Scott said,adding that Bush was not the reason he signed with A&M, but it sure didn't hurt. The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located on the Texas A&M campus and the Bushes are frequent visitors.
The King and Fizer
Iowa State standout Marcus Fizer is from Arcadia, La., which is located just eight miles from Bernard King's home in Gibsland. "When I was home from spring break in March, Bernard totally amazed me at how complete a player he has become," Fizer told Mike Jones of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I've told him he's going to have to get a lot stronger physcially, but I've seen him grow from someone who was just happy to be out there playing into someone who can totally dominate a game."
From Far and Wide
Texas A&M's roster includes 15 players from nine states or countries, the most states represented on a roster in a school history. The 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1994-95 teams included players from eight states or countries.
Ress Assured
Freshman forward Tomas Ress, a native of Italy, speaks four languages - Italian, German, English and Spanish. He learned English and Spanish last year while attending high school in Florida. As a native of the tiny village of Pochi in the Italian province of Bolanzo, located near the border of Austria, Ress is fluent in German and Italian.
Academic Success
Last year, A&M had four members of the Academic All-Big 12 Team, tying Kansas for the most in the conference. Three of those players return this year seniors Aaron Jack and Jason Boeker and sophomore Andy Leatherman. Those three, along with freshman Larry Jackson, also made the 1998 Big 12 Commissioner's Fall Semester Honor Roll.
Sizing 'Em Up
The 1999-2000 Aggies may be the largest in school history in terms of both height and weight. Five players are at least 6-9 and eight are at least 6-8. In addition, three players weight in excess of 250 pounds and five tip the scales at more than 240 pounds. Freshmen Andy Slocum and Tomas Ress each wear a size 18 shoe. The only other player in recent history to wear a size 18 was Brad Stricker (1995-97). Freshman Larry Jackson (265) and sophomore Keith Bean (273) are the two heaviest players in school history. Shedrick Anderson (1990-92) also weighed in at 265. Of the veterans, Paul Jacobs put on the most muscle in the off-season, gaining 13 pounds to tip the scales at 225. Aaron Jack weighs in at 243, eight pounds above his playing weight last season.
Good Bloodlines
Four A&M players had fathers who played professional sports, while several others have fathers who played college sports. Jerald Brown's late father, Jerald, Sr., played pro baseball with the San Francisco Giants, Aaron Jack's dad, Bobby, played in the Atlanta Braves organization, Paul Jacobs's dad, Larry, played pro football with the Philadelphia Eagles, and Jacobs's cousin, Edgar Bennett, is a star running back with the Chicago Bears and helped the Green Bay Packers to a pair of Super Bowl victories. Larry Jackson's dad, Larry, Sr., played college basketball at Western Connecticut, while Bernard King's father, Victor, and mother, Stephanie, both were standout players at Louisiana Tech. Victor King was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. Keith Bean's father played basketball at Jacksonville State while Andy Slocum's dad played at Arkansas A&M. Jamaal Gilchrist's cousin, Tony Moore, was an integral part of Duke's 1995 Final Four Team.
Attendance Rises
A crowd of 9,424 attended the Texas game last year, the largest home crowd in Texas A&M's 87 years of basketball. Overall, home attendance last season rose 18.6 percent, the largest increase in the Big 12 Conference. A&M attendance for Big 12 games rose 14.2 percent and for non-conference games, attendance rose 28.7 percent. An average of 4,083 attended 14 home games, A&M's best full season average in 14 years (since 1984-85). The conference average of 4,523 is also the program's best since 1984-85, while the 3,497 average for six non-conference games was the best since 1981-82.
Looking Ahead
The Aggies play their second and final exhibition game on Tuesday against the Global Sports Next-Level All-Stars, a team that features Clifton Cook (6-2), last year's Big 12 Newcomer of the Year at A&M. Global Sports is 3-4 on its tour going into Friday's game against Auburn, but has beaten Alabama (87-85) and Tulane (84-77) as well as Old Dominion (76-68). Their losses have been to UNC Charlotte (90-80), South Alabama (70-58), LSU (78-70) and New Orleans (86-84). Prior to playing A&M, the team will also visit Troy State and Texas Tech. The squad also features guard Litterial Green (6-1), who left the University of Georgia in 1992 as the school's all-time leading scorer and assists man. Green was a second-round pick of the Chicago Bulls in 1993 and later played for the Orlando Magic. Other standouts on the roster include Wyoming's Jeron Roberts (6-4) and H.L. Coleman (6-7). Roberts earned All-WAC honors after leading the team in scoring with a 19.0 average in 1998, while Coleman is a two-time All-WAC pick who led the conference in rebounding in 1996 and 1997. Torrey Harris (6-9) was a three-year starter at Tennessee and last year Steve Meyer (6-3) earned all-conference honors at Texas-San Antonio. Center Rodney Odum (6-11) played at UNC Charlotte from 1992-94 when A&M coach Melvin Watkins was an assistant at UNCC and Aggies assistant Bobby Kummer was a player there. Odum started two years at UNCC after transferring from San Jacinto JC and UCLA.
