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Friday, January 16, 1998
Texas' Gabe Muoneke getting unwanted attention
By RANDY RIGGS / Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN -- Get Gabe Muoneke in a social setting and prepare
to be charmed. He's witty and intelligent, armed with a wide smile
and a refreshing consequences-be-damned honest that is disarming
in a Charles Barkley sort of way.
But get him on a basketball court, and look out. That, in fact,
is the problem. Muoneke believes. The University of Texas' intense
power forward also attracts attention in a Barkley sort of way,
and claims the guys with the whistles are looking out for him
more than is warranted.
Ô'There are referees out there telling me before the
game that they're looking for me," Muoneke said. "I'm
in there fighting just like everybody else is fighting, and they
pick me out specifically. People say I've built up my own reputation,
but it's just not right.
"I'm no evil guy."
Muoneke picked up his team-high third technical foul of the
season Monday night in the Longhorns' 91-75 loss at Oklahoma.
And he wasn't happy about it because he believes it was a "T"
he got for his reputation more than his actions on the play. Muoneke
came up with a loose ball in a scramble in front of the UT bench
and dropped it on Sooners forward Eduardo Najera, who had fallen
at his feet.
Muoneke said that the referee nearest the play merely warned
the players to calm down, but that the ref who Muoneke claimed
warned him before the game that he was watching him came over
and issued the technical.
"The referee right next to the play said, ÔHey,
hey, chill out, chill out,' " Muoneke said. "Then the
other guy ran over and said, ÔThat's a tech.' I didn't think
I did anything to shame the guy (Najera). He's a friend of mine.
The referee's taking it that I'm being a bad person, (that) I'm
being a mean person.
"It's difficult when refs have preconceived notions. These
guys don't know me from Jeffrey Dahmer (the convicted cannibalistic
murderer)."
Of course, there are those who acknowledge there might be valid
reasons why some referees could have preconceived notions. There's
no debating that Muoneke, a bullish (6-foot-7-inch, 245 pounds)
sophomore from Houston, is emotional, and that while he might
not necessarily go looking for trouble, it isn't difficult for
it to find him.
UT coaches believe opposing players try to provoke Muoneke,
and Coach Tom Penders is trying to teach him not to respond. But
every time he does, the Longhorns know he's not helping himself,
or them, in the eyes of the refs.
"In a way, you've got to look at it from their standpoint,"
junior co-captain Chico Vazquez said of the officials. "If
I was a ref, I'd have to look at it, too, because it happens game
in and game out."
Penders, who notes, "I love the kid. I love him like a
son," said he has sent Muoneke to a counselor to try and
get a tighter rein on his emotions.
But in the scope of Monday's hard-fought game -- there were
five technicals -- Penders believed the technical on Muoneke was
unjustified.
"There was a lot of stuff going on, but I don't think
the technical he got was really deserved," Penders said.
"It was a play where the guy (Najera) really yanked and pulled
him down. Gabe could have gotten hurt. He just dropped the ball.
He didn't throw it at him."
Yet Penders stopped short of agreeing with Muoneke's contention
that he receives special, unwanted attention from the refs. Muoneke
ranks third on the team in personal fouls with 46, behind Vazquez's
52 and Chris Mihm's 47.
Muoneke, Vazquez and Kris Clack each has fouled out of three
games to tie for the team lead in that category.
"I don't want to say he's being picked on," Penders
said of his precocious sophomore. "He's got to control himself
and I've worked with him. I've talked to him and I've got him
seeing a counselor about it. I can't do any more than that."
Penders added that, "He's a competitive kid. Sometimes
he just loses it." But Muoneke believes he doesn't do any
more than anyone else on the court, and is worried about what
he believes is the unfair image of him.
"I don't want anybody to think I'm a thug. I'm not,"
he said. "I don't play like that on the streets. I get frustrated.
Coach P's been telling me about some of the stuff I do on the
court. But I'm not that type of person."
Muoneke also worries that his untimely technicals and occasional
intentional fouls are hurting the team more than his 11.9 points
and 6.1 rebounds per game are helping.
"Maybe I'm doing a little more bad than good, I don't
know," he said.
"Maybe I need to step back. Coach P's working with me
to calm me down, but I really don't see that much difference between
me and other players. If someone else sees it, tell me and I'll
shut up."
------
Distributed by The Associated Press
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