Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Kicking team out of practice gets Isles' attention

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Saturday, December 11, 1999

Kicking team out of practice gets Isles' attention
Estes delivers message to team with ejection
By Matt Young
Caller-Times

In the middle of a three-game losing streak and a six-day hiatus, Sheryl Estes needed something to get her team's attention.
   According to the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball players, kicking the entire team out of practice did the trick.
   In preparation for their game against Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum, the Islanders showed a lack of intensity during Thursday's practice. Displeased with the effort, Estes sent the team home and brought it back to finish the practice later that night.
   "It definitely got our attention," Islanders guard Rocky Grayson said. "We knew our intensity level wasn't where it should have been in the afternoon, but when we came back we had a great practice. Our intensity and our focus were way up."
   The lack of intensity is one of the culprits that has the Islanders on their three-game slide. A&M-Corpus Christi left home with a 4-1 record and limped back from the road trip 4-4. The road trip included a 25-point loss to Lamar and losses to Arizona State and Nevada in the Wells Fargo Classic in Tempe, Ariz.
   With six days to recuperate from the brutal trip and prepare for Oral Roberts, the Islanders expect better results tonight. A&M-Corpus Christi will have to step up its game to challenge Oral Roberts, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season.
   "We're out to prove that we're better than a .500 team," Islanders center Jean Clark said. "We didn't play well on the road, and we have no excuses for that. We got beat all three times. Now, we want to get past that and prove that we're a better team."
   Clark's play was actually one of the few positives that came from the road trip. Clark was named to the Wells Fargo Classic all-tournament team and averaged 17 points and 7 rebounds on the trip.
   "I'm not really doing anything different; I'm just being me," Clark said. "Not much has changed. I know that if I go hard and work hard, I can score 20 points out there. It's all about continuing to work hard and being scrappy."
   While Clark has emerged as a leader in the box score, she and some of her teammates will have to show some of that leadership on the court.
   If the Islanders learned anything from the road trip, Estes hopes they learned the importance of leadership.
   "We've had time to work on several things like passing into the post and taking care of the ball, but probably the biggest thing we need is leadership on the floor," Estes said.
   The emergence of leaders showed in practice the day after the entire team got the boot.
   "(Thursday) was pretty rough for all of us, so we made sure that it didn't happen again in (Friday's) practice," Grayson said. "This time when things started to get a little sluggish, our leaders stepped up and decided things were going to change. We had a much better practice because of that. I think that kind of improved leadership will show on the court during games."



Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-4304 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com

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