I said Alan Turner. And someone replied:

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- South Carolina State coach Murray Garvin had a lone question after Texas A&Ms Tyler Davis scored 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting in the Aggies 83-76 victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday night.Can No. 34 transfer to us? Garvin kidded afterward. Hes a load in the paint. He posts so deep, its hard to send a double team on him.A&M (7-2) led by at least eight points throughout the final half until a last-second 3-pointer by SCSUs Greg Mortimer. Eric Eaves scored 23 points and Edward Stephens added 18 for the undersized Bulldogs (2-7).The Aggies doubled up SCSU 48-24 on points in the paint, but none of that mattered to Davis, who said he was irate at A&M only winning by seven against a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opponent.You give up 45 points in the second half against a team you just killed in the first half, Davis said. Your focus and effort has to stay the same. You cant just turn the switch on and off.Admon Gilder contributed 16 points for A&M and teammates D.J. Hogg and Robert Williams added 15 each. The Aggies reserves outscored SCSUs reserves 18-7.We played too immature, we played like the game was over, especially in the second half, A&M coach Billy Kennedy said.He added that he tried sticking with a bigger lineup as practice for future SEC games, but the Aggies had trouble with SCSU repeatedly breaking their 1-3-1 zone defense.I thought we were mature enough to do it, and we werent, Kennedy said. This team is not ready to do things that it hasnt worked on a lot.The Bulldogs stayed within striking distance by shooting 52.2 percent from the 3-point line (12 of 23), compared to 20 percent for the Aggies (4 of 20). Stephens made 6-of-11 3-pointers for the Bulldogs.I told our guys in the locker room that there are no moral victories, Garvin said. Were not going to eat cake and ice cream or anything like that. But I was proud of our fight.BIG PICTUREA&M wrapped up the cushiest portion of its schedule, with double-digit victories against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Denver and a closer call against SCSU (7-point win) with no significant injuries, the most they can ask for in playing this type of home schedule in early December.SCSU has won just two of its nine games, but the Bulldogs can take heart that theyre almost through the woods of a rugged nonconference trail. Playing in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference shouldnt be anything like playing the likes of Wichita State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Miami, A&M and next week Clemson in November and December.TURNING POINTThe Bulldogs had whittled a 21-point second-half deficit to single digits with a little more than seven minutes remaining when A&M guard Admon Gilder collected a steal and a layup to push A&Ms lead back to double digits at 72-61. The Aggies would then lead by double digits for all but the last second of the game.STAT OF THE NIGHTDespite the relatively tight final score (83-76), the Aggies held the lead for the entire game, save for its first 35 seconds.EYE OPENERThree minutes into the second half, SCSUs Eric Eaves drove the right baseline and threw down a highlight-reel dunk over A&Ms JC Hampton, and even Eaves appeared surprised by the ferocity of the slam in pausing for a moment after landing.HE SAID ITThank God we dont have to beat Texas A&M to win our conference.- SCSU coach Murray Garvin, on a tough nonconference schedule helping prepare the Bulldogs for Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play.UP NEXTThe Aggies travel to Houstons Toyota Center, home of the NBAs Rockets, on Saturday to face No. 20 Arizona as part of a doubleheader with Texas and Arkansas.The Bulldogs continue their robust nonconference schedule on Tuesday at Clemson. Custom Dallas Stars Jerseys . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Wholesale Stars Jerseys . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay. https://www.cheapstarsonline.com/ . Supported by three-run homers from Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, the young right-hander went seven strong innings in the Washington Nationals 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. Dallas Stars Pro Shop . -- Its been a long road back for Sean Bergenheim. Dallas Stars Store .ca! Hi Kerry, Heres an interesting one. I know its common knowledge that all players are responsible for their sticks. We witnessed that when Zack Kassian hit Edmontons Sam Gagner in the face after a missed check. I made my Test debut in the same match as Graham Gooch. He got a pair.I was at midwicket when Jeff Thomson bounced Zaheer Abbas once. Zaheer spooned it up into the leg side and both myself and Thommo went for the catch. We got there at the same time and somehow our arms got locked together as we fell. He got a popped shoulder; I got knocked out.Sam Trimble was Queenslands leading run scorer before Stuart Law. And he was born in New South Wales. That still sends shivers down my spine. Im a New South Welshman and would never play for anyone else.I rejected the WSC offer after I found that these matches would be played in direct opposition to the Australian Cricket Board matches that were being sponsored by British American Tobacco, the company that had employed me since 1969. I felt I couldnt turn my back on a company that had supported me in cricket for nearly ten years, and by then I wasnt really enjoying playing cricket for a living.Some joker calling himself Michael Angelow ran naked across the Oval pitch, jumped the stumps at both ends and when two police officers escorted him off, one put his helmet over his backside the other over the blokes nether regions.In 1975, the NSW players were being paid A$8 per day. The guy at the SCG gate got $30 per day.Before the 1975 World Cup, apart from England and a lot of the West Indies players, who had been playing county cricket in England, there wasnt much one-day experience. Australia had only played a handful of one-day internationals.Rod Marsh once said, I bet that Im the tallest in the team sitting down. He threw down ten bucks on the table and ran a book on it. Rod mustve got his information from somewhere, because it turned out he was right. Short legs but a long upper body.In my first Test England captain Mike Denness won the toss at Edgbaston, put Australia in, we scored 359, and then it rained. Wickets were left uncovered back then, only the bowlers run-ups were covered. Australia won by an innings. Denness never played another Test for England.Geoff Boycott, Englands best batsman, made himself unavailable in 1975. No matter what the excuse, it was clear that he did not want to engage with Lillee and Thomson.Tony Greig brought an intensity to the England team which made them more competitive.Our first World Cup match, at Leeds against Pakistan, was my first appearance for Australia. I helped get us off to a fast start with 46.Against Kent in the 1975 tour game, Ian Chappell declared at lunch on the last day with Australia 354-odd ahead. I sat near Ian and Colin Cowdrey at lunch. Colin told Ian that he believed himself to be a little beyond first-class cricket and that he was contemplating retirement. After lunch Kent lost an early wicket. Enter one MC Cowdrey, to face Dennis Lillee, Alan Hurst, Gary Gilmour and the rest. Fifteen minutes before the end, Cowdrey walked off with 151 runs and a four-wicket win for Kent. He played another year after that. I scored 156 in the first innings.During the 1980s and early 90s, I managed Benson and Hedges sponsorships, including cricket.I was not selected for the 1977 England tour. McCosker was still not fit for the Jubilee Test at Lords, and second wicketkeeper Richie Robinson opened the batting with Ian Davis.Greg Chappell took over the captaincy from Ia, in 1976, and while he wasnt quite the leader that his brother was, he led mostly with his bat. To say that Greg was a great player at that point in time was an understatement.I underestimated the toughness of an Ashes battle. It was a lot more intense than I imagined, and I failed to distinguish myself with the bat.The Australian cricket administration failed to acknowledge the growing unsettledness of the players and ignored their approaches for greater remuneration. Cricket was becoming a business, and historically, businesses that subjugate their workers more often than not end up with industrial action.I only ever had two overs in first-class cricket, both at John Edrich and Geoff Boycott, when NSW played the MCC in 1970-71. After one over, Boycott said, Im not going to face any more of that. I asked him whether he was scared of my bowling.The World Cup final was an epic event at Lords. Clive Lloyd played a masterful innings.It was my first tour, 1975 to England, so I thought Id see if I could room with my friend Gary Gilmour, who was on his first tour too. Ian Chappell said, No way, hes rooming with Max Walker and youre rooming with Ross Edwards, so you can both learn something.I played my last Test in Auckland in February 1977 and was dropped for the Centenary Test. We had three openers: myself, Rick McCosker and Ian Davis, and the selectors wanted to find room for David Hookes in the middle order. While we were in New Zealand, Hookes had scored five consecutive Sheffield Shield centuries. That demanded his selection for the Centenary Test.My career with British American Tobacco Australia lasted 43 years, during which I had management roles in finance and accounting, sales, marketing, and supply chain.By 1973, Australian cricket was sponsored and television money had started to flow into the game. Players received little more than what they had received since the 60s. The cricket administration was na?ve and shortsighted not to recognise the playeers right to share in this situation.dddddddddddd. The administrators created a situation whereby a breakaway tournament like World Series Cricket was possible.On day one [of the Centenary Test], McCoskers jaw was broken by a bouncer from Bob Willis and I was asked to get my gear flown to Melbourne. The Queen was to attend again on day five, and if the match finished early, there would have been a one-day game, in which I was to play.At one point I was Ranwick Cricket Clubs first grade captain and president. So I ran the team and the board.As a senior player you have an obligation to young players to make sure they have fulfilled their potential.During the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan in Melbourne in 1976, a number of personal, one-on-one discussions took place between the players and an anonymous representative of an Australian businessman, which later, of course, turned out to be Kerry Packer.I saw Tom Graveney play for Queensland. He was in his forties by then, but still made batting look easy, just nudged it around, no fanfare. He had 50 on the board almost before you realised he was out there.I played junior cricket with Jeff Thomson in NSW. He played a couple of games for us before he went up to Queensland and then I had to play against him for the rest of my life.We were told that WSC would cover three years. Money was discussed and agreed on the condition that no one said anything. Secrecy was imperative.Before the 1975 Ashes, we went on a ten-day development tour of Canada. Ian Chappell had some connections out there. Matches were played on coir matting stretched over rolled mud. Wed never played on this surface and struggled with the pace, spin and bounce. We won most of our games but lost one to a Toronto team, containing a lot of former West Indian first-class players.No one said much to me before my first Test. You were an Australian, youd got there because you could play, and you were expected to man up.I scored a hundred before lunch against Sri Lanka at The Oval in 1975. This was the first one-day international century scored by an Australian.If I walked into a Test match dressing room today, youd have trouble finding a place to put your backside down to sit, because theyve got so many hangers-on, coaches for that, mentors for this. We had a manager who managed all the off-field stuff and a captain who managed the on-field stuff. The senior players were your mentors.Today youd be rooming with your wife. When my wife came to see me on that [1975] England tour, I had to move out of the team hotel. Doug Walters wife was the only one who travelled around with us, but even she wasnt allowed on the bus. She had to travel on the baggage cart.By the end of the 1975-76 season, Australia were the best side in the world, but on their day West Indies could beat anyone. We beat them 5-1, but the one Test they won, in Perth, in four days, was the most convincing victory in the series.That Australian team was very committed to each other and to the cause. There were no divisions. Viv Richards ran me out in the World Cup final, but I thought I had made my ground. After looking at the replays, Ian Chappell agreed with me. If it werent for Vivs three run-outs, wed have won that game.I walked into the NSW dressing room for the first time aged 18 and someone asked me my name. I said Alan Turner. And someone replied: Well call you Fitteran [A fitter and turner manufactures mechanical parts and assembles those parts together to manufacture a mechanical device.] The nickname stuck.It was so windy during the 1977 tour match in Wellington that we had to play without bails and trust the batsmans honour that theyd walk off if the ball hit the stumps.We were having breakfast in our hotel just north of Leeds before the start of the last day of the 1975 Ashes Test, when someone from Headingley arrived and asked Ian Chappell and our manager, Fred Bennett, to go down to the ground for a meeting. When the rest of us arrived an hour later, we found that vandals, supporters of convicted murderer George Davis, had dug holes in the wicket and also poured oil on it.During the 1975 World Cup, 60 overs per team made for a long day and a three-day turnaround between matches meant players had to focus on recovery, particularly the bowlers.John Snow was every bit the excellent bowler and fierce competitor that I imagined he was after seeing him in Australia in 1970-71, when hed bowled England to victory.Ian Chappell was a tremendous captain. He put his heart and soul into every match, he backed his players to the hilt. His leadership was exemplary and his strategy spot on. He was probably the best captain that I ever played under.I was chairman of the Benson and Hedges Company between 1991 and 1994. When Mike Whitney got 11 wickets against India in Perth in 1992, I gave him the Man-of-the-Match award. That was nice for both of us, as Id been Mikes captain when he started playing first-grade cricket at Randwick Cricket Club. I got to the WACA just after lunchtime, went up to have lunch, and then Michael cleaned up the tail, so I had to rush down to the presentation. He still owes me lunch. ' ' '