The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2000 Page: 18 of 24
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18
THE RICE THRESHER SPORTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2000
Chris Baskifi
THRESHER SPORTS/commentary—
Please get rid of those
blurple gym uniforms
I've got a mountain of workout clothes in my closet:
cool T-shirts I've collected over the years with the necks
and sleeves painstakingly excised; an arsenal of wife-
beaters; sweet nylon pants with zip-down bottoms;
thieved doctor's pants; bitchin'
ripped Adidas shorts and practi-
cally an Eastbay catalog-full of Nike
gear. But alas, this groovy workout
wardrobe is about as useful as tits
on a bull as long as I'm at Rice.
Some of you may be wondering
why this is, but if you've ever had
the fortune (or misfortune) of
using any of the facilities at Autry
Court, you already know why we
can't don our gay apparel when
working out. It's because of that hideous rule that
forces everyone attempting to engage in any form of
physical activity within the decrepit confines of Autry
to sport one of those horrifying "blurple" gym uni-
forms. Seriously, if our neighboring Houstonians didn't
already think we were a batch of monster nerdlocks for
merely attending Rice, they need only catch a glimpse
of a couple of typical Owls bumping around the Outer
Loop in those bad boys to confirm their suspicions.
By now I'm sure you're all familiar with the drill.
You head over to Autry for HPER 101, to hoop it up,
to get in a pump session or perhaps for a game or two
of badminton. Sure enough, you don't have to worry
about getting any of your own clothes stinky and
sweaty because our wonderful university, proving
once again that it's always on the ball, happily
provides — err, forces upon you — a beneficent roll
of clean togs for you to soil at your leisure.
Students, faculty, alumni, employees and even the
occasional visitor must all participate in this grammar-
schoolian barter of ID-for-gym-uni that occurs
whenever anyone dares use any of those so-called
facilities. You flash your badge, state a size and
perhaps exchange a pleasantry or two with a member
of the fabulously friendly HPER window staff. In a few
seconds, you're handed your very own basket of
goodies, the likes of which you haven't seen since *
your days of grab-ass in the junior-high locker room.
Indeed, every time you're handed that roll you
know there's a surprise waiting for you inside it, just
begging you to make its horrifying acquaintance. It
could be any one of these obvious culprits: built-in
BO; a shirt with a neck-hole down to your belly
button; shorts with the drawstring removed; perfo-
rated socks without the elastic to keep them up; a
razor sharp jockstrap or the equally nefarious wet
(undoubtedly toilet-dipped) lock-and-key."'
You learn not to fret about the mismatched shirt-
to-short size ratio that inexplicably makes every top
three sizes too large and every bottom three sizes too
small. They must do this one on purpose fo ct)ver for
our ungodly large tummies and inhumanly short
gremlin legs. Either that or they think we enjoy the
gratuitous crotch shots whenever somebody attempts
to bench or, worse yet, stretch on the mats.
But the Daisy Duke bottoms aren't only a problem
with regard to the shorts. All you brave men who
have ever slipped into an official Rice swimsuit know
that those babies are pretty snug as well, as one of my
more corpulent fellow students demonstrated a
couple months ago in the locker room. Indeed, I will
always chuckle at the memory of this heavyset fellow
unknowingly splitting a huge crack in the Speedo
material betwixt his Cheeks and faithfully proceeding
to the pool area with his hairy butt exposed for all to
see.
Personally, I would rather skip the whole locker
room scene in general. Now, I can't claim to have
experienced what it's like in the female dressing
areas, but I will say this: A men's locker room,
especially the one at Autry, is not a pretty sight. I
don't know about you, but I don't need to see my
English professor letting it all hang out. I don't need
to see a bunch of dudes lined up for the nightmarish
"naked weigh-in." And I don't need to see the pimply
kid from my psych class bare-butting the changing
station in front of my locker. Sorry, that's just not my
bag, and I doubt it's yours either. .
So on behalf of all my colleagues in the Rice
community, I ask — no beg — the powers that be, to
please divest us of this unnecessary burden of
inconvenience. Torch those gnarly blurple gym
uniforms and let us take back our individuality. We're
not in middle school anymore and we're not convicted
felons. Give us the freedom lo choose our own
workout gear. It is a simple freedom and one we most
definitely cfeserve.
Owls look for positives in recent struggles
Injuries have hurt team's record but provided freshmen with valuable experience
Chris Baskin is a Sid Richardson College senior.
by Ryan Keedy
THRESHER STAFF
If you look at its record, the men's
basketball team didn't have a very merry
Christmas or a particularly happy New
Year's.
Since the beginning of December,
Rice has defeated only Rockhurst Col-
lege and Northwestern State Univer-
sity.
In the meantime, they have lost to
Stephen F. Austin State University, the
University of Houston, Texas A&M Uni-
versity, Lamar University, Duquesne
University, the University of Texas-Pan
American, Southern Methodist Univer-
sity and the University of Tulsa.
As a result, in the span of a month and
a half, Rice's once-promising season has
taken a turn for the worse.
But the 2-8 mark the Owls accumu-
lated during that stretch does not tell the
whole story.
'We get experience to see
what real conference
basketball is about. We've
all got a chance to start
games and see what it's
like to be in pressure
situations.'
— Brandon Evans
Freshman center
t
"We're a lot better than we were a
month ago," head coach Willis Wilson
said. "Our defensive effort has been very,
very good. The best example is that we
held a Tulsa team to 67 points ... and
they're a team that's been leading the
league in scoring."
Granted, the Owls did hold the Uni-
versity of Tulsa to 67 points, but the 19th-
ranked Golden Hurricane held Rice to
just 49 in Sunday's regionally televised
game.
The loss, which dropped the Owls to
0-2 in Western Athletic Conference play,
was somewhat of a moral victory. Rice
was,j5uppoged to lost^by much more but
instead stayed with Tulsa until early in
the second half.
The Owls' inability to play well dur-
ing the game's final 19 minutes was a
symptom of one of their main prob-
lems.
"One of our weaknesses right now is
consistency," senior center Alex
Bougaieff said. "We play well in spurts.
We just have to put it all together."
The glue that would have gone a long
way in helping is still not available. Jun-
ior forward Erik Cooper and junior guard
Shawn Tyndell are still out with broken
feet that were supposed to have healed
«l qu.rf.ri~™ |
•sWI
CARTER BROOKING/THRESHER
Junior point guard Mike Wiiks takes a jump shot against the University of Tulsa at
Autry Court Saturday. Despite Wiiks' 17 points and five rebounds, the Owls lost 67-49
to the 19th-ranked Golden Hurricane.
by now. Instead, rumors have begun to
swirl that one or both may be forced to
redshirt the season.
"Right now we're as healthy as we've
been all year with the exception of
Tyndell and Cooper," Wilson said. "In
their case, they're a long ways away
from being able to play. Shawn is fur-
ther along than Erik, but both are a long
way away. They're probably all but out
for the year."
A silver lining to the injuries is that
with two key starters out in an already
freshman-laden team, the newcomers are
getting a lot of playing time.
The Rice starting lineup has re-
sembled a game of musical chairs, and
freeman fonvard Jay Christian and
freshman guard Robbie Hudson are
the latest rookies to join Bougaieff,
junior guard Mike Wiiks and sopho-
more forward T.J. McKenzie for the
opening tip.
"We get experience to see what real
conference basketball is about," fresh-
man center Brandon Evans said. "We've
all got a chance to start games and see
what it's like to be in pressure situa-
tions."
Ayoung team so saturated with fresh-
men needs to look no further for leader-
ship, guidance and support than
Bougaieff, the team's lone senior.
So far, Bougaieff has liked what he's
seen from the rookies.
"All the freshmen have stepped it tip
and done an amazing job," Bougaieff
said. "They don't play like freshman.
They're out they're busting their butts
all the time."
Freshman big-men Brandon Evans
See BASKETBALL, Page 21
Women's swim team enjoying hot streak
bytlohn C. Chao
THRESHER STAFF
To say the women's swim team fared
well during winter recess would be an
understatement. To say the Owls washed
away the competition would be much
more like it.
With an impressive victory in the four-
team San Diego Invitational Jan. 8 and
with lopsided wins over the University of
Houston and New Mexico State Univer-
sity. Saturday, the team has surprised
even head coach Doug Boyd.
"We swam better than I ever ex-
pected," Boyd said. Though Rice is usu-
ally regarded as a third-tier team, Boyd
said this year's performances could el-
evate the Owls to the second tier.
Sophomore Elizabeth Williams led the
team at the cjpuble-dual meet at the Hous-
ton Pool by winning three events: the
100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breast-
stroke and 400-yard individual medley.
The Owls beat the Roadrunners 67-41
and stopped the host Cougars 89-48.
"" Sophomore Aprtt Martm paced Rice-
to the team championship in San Diego.
Martin, named the Western Athletic
Conference women's swimming and div-
ing Athlete of the Week, won the 100-
yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke
and 200-yard flystroke. In addition, she
anchored the winning 400-yard freestyle
relay team.
The Owls finished with 809, points
while host San Diego was second. The
University of Utah placed third and San
Jose State University, a WAC school,
finished fourth.
Rather than having one or two swim-
mers blow the competition out of the
water, the key to Rice's success has been
its depth. Consistency, as a result, has
been the team's best friend.
"Although we don't have any great
individual swimmers, everybody contrib-
utes," Boyd said.
One main reason for the team's re-
cent success stems from the annual win-
ter recess "bonding" trip. This year, the
Owls spent their vacation in San Diego
where they trained diligently while grow-
ling closer-a& teammates -and- fr-iendsr- - - -
The fruits of the hard labor have al-
ready paid off, Boyd said.
"The best that we have ever swam
was following the week of bonding," Boyd
said.
The team's two freshmen, Mandy
Mularz and Amber Castleberg, have
also shouldered their share of the load.
But both Mularz and Castleberg, who
come from swimming backgrounds that
were not as demanding as Boyd's, said
they have had a hard time adjusting to
the high level of training and competi-
tion.
Boyd feels that his rookies are do-
ing well but said he is concerned about
how they will respond to the high-pres-
sure atmosphere of the WAC Champi-
onships.
The Owls will get a taste of that kind
of pressure this weekend when they
face three nationally ranked teams. They
face Notre Dame University and North-
western University in South Bend, Ind.,
today and then square off against the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
-tomorrow; —1
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2000, newspaper, January 21, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246664/m1/18/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.