Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Longhorns lose crowd to 5A football title game

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Sunday, December 24, 2000

Longhorns lose crowd to 5A football title game
High-school championship contest outdraws Texas-A&M CC by more than 27,500 fans
By Mark Zuckerman
Caller-Times
It's common knowledge that football is king in Texas. But so much so that a high school football game would outdraw a University of Texas basketball game more than six times over?
   That was the case in Austin last Saturday, when the Longhorns' game with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi drew 4,753 spectators. Across the street at Royal-Memorial Stadium, Austin Westlake and Midland Lee played for the Class 5A Division I state championship in front of 32,285 fans.
   The crowd at the Frank Erwin Center, Texas' smallest in 12 years, did not go over well with head coach Rick Barnes, who blasted fans for not showing up.
   "We should all be embarrassed by it," he said. "We really should. We should really be embarrassed."
   Attendance woes are the least of Barnes' problems these days, though. The way the Longhorns are playing, it's no wonder no one's coming out to watch them play.
   Despite it's 7-2 record, UT has not played well through the first two months of the season. The 'Horns were overwhelmed by a mediocre South Florida team on Dec. 9, then nearly lost to A&M-Corpus Christi last Saturday.
   Fans and the local media spent the better part of December clamoring for the return of guard Darren Kelly, who was academically ineligible during the fall semester. The senior did finally make it back in time for Wednesday's game at Houston, and scored 23 points to lead UT to a 71-60 victory.
   "We're asking a lot of him, but he's a difference-maker," Barnes said of Kelly. "I'm harder on him than I am anyone we've got, but that's because he's got a chance to have a tremendous impact on our team."
   If Kelly keeps it up, don't be surprised if the Longhorns' season turns around and the Erwin Center once again plays to a full house.

GOODMAN FLYING CHAI: Hailed as the "Jewish Jordan" after gaining fame at Baltimore's Talmudical Academy, Tamir Goodman is starting to make a name for himself on the college level. The 6-foot-3 point guard has cracked the Tigers' starting lineup and last week had a season-high 16 points and six assists against Liberty.
   Goodman earned national recognition after initially signing with national power Maryland last year, in part because he averaged 35.4 points per game in high school, but more for his devotion to Orthodox Judaism. He wears a yarmulke (skull cap) on his head at all times, keeps kosher and refuses to play, practice or travel on the Jewish Sabbath (from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday).
   Those restrictions were a large reason why Maryland pressured Goodman to back out of his commitment to the school. He transferred to Towson, which has gone out of its way to accommodate him by creating a schedule with no Friday night or Saturday afternoon games.
   Attendance at Towson home games is up 32 percent, with much of the increase coming from Baltimore's large Jewish community. The school has even added a kosher concession stand, with beef hot dogs, knishes and popcorn.
   "I don't have any hard feelings towards anybody," Goodman told The Washington Times. "I'm where I want to be. Everything I dreamed of is here."

UPSET OF THE WEEK: Thank heavens for Casey Jacobsen and his running 10-foot jumper that gave Stanford a thrilling 84-83 win Thursday night over No. 1 Duke and rectified our fast-faded season.
   Now, with the record firmly at 1-3, we look to make it two in a row. Unfortunately, the holiday week doesn't offer many games to choose from, so we kind of have to grasp at straws to come up with an upset.
   When it's all said and done, we'll take Pepperdine to knock off Charlotte on Friday in the first round of the azcentral.com Classic in Tempe, Ariz.

DISASTER OF THE WEEK: Everything was going so smoothly for Oklahoma State in the first game at the newly renovated Gallagher-Iba Arena. Expanded to a capacity of 13,611, twice as many seats as previously, the new-look arena was drawing rave reviews, and with less than a minute to go, the Cowboys were comfortably ahead of Arkansas Little-Rock by 10 points.
   That's when it all came crashing down. Literally.
   Hoping to bring the crowd to its feet with a thunderous dunk, Oklahoma State's Jason Keep shattered the backboard into thousands of pieces. Only seconds away from a postgame celebration, everyone had to wait through a 34-minute delay while the shards of glass were picked up and a new backboard was installed.
   We've heard of christening a new boat by smashing it with a bottle of wine, but never christening a new arena by smashing the glass.



Includes information obtained from other sources. Staff writer Mark Zuckerman can be reached at 886-3747 or by e-mail at zuckermanm@caller.com

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