TCU men's basketball coach Neil Dougherty has temporarily suspended player availability to the media following Saturday's 75-49 loss to Air Force. Dougherty said player-media relations will be re-evaluated after tonight's game against San Diego State."They've gone through a lot," Dougherty said. "It's not that they've been shut off, but as a coach, sometimes I feel the need to protect my players."

Men's basketball head coach Neil Dougherty said he is hoping the Horned Frogs can reverse their season before it's too late."We're struggling with wins," Dougherty said, "but we're working hard to play better."

The Horned Frogs are 0-3 in conference play and 4-13 overall. Despite their losing record, Dougherty said, the point differential has been consistently small.

"The gap between winning and losing in a lot of our games is a thin one," Dougherty said. "For example, the New Mexico game was a two-point game."

After seven days of speculation and second-guessing, one Horned Frog football player says the team will be returning one of its most dangerous weapons.Junior wide receiver Cory Rodgers, just one week after he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he was declaring himself eligible for the NFL Draft, has decided to return to TCU for his senior season, a team source said Tuesday.

Junior safety Eric Buchanan said Rodgers told him Tuesday that after further considering his options, Rodgers decided to return to his teammates and finish the remaining hours on his degree plan.

TCU-area residents will meet tonight in hopes of settling the storm brewing over what some consider to be inconsiderate student neighbors.A public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in the Kelly Alumni Center, to allow local residents, students and nonstudents to respond to recommendations concerning parking problems, loud parties, littering and drinking in the Frisco Heights and Bluebonnet Hills neighborhoods.

As the curtain fell on the last production of the TCU Theatre fall season, the actors, actresses, sound and set technicians, and costume designers breathed a sigh of relief knowing that for another semester they had put on three successful shows for the TCU community.TCU Theatre, now in its 61st season, is not your average collegiate theater department.

The amount of work put into each show is evident through the acting, costumes and set design.

It takes around five to six weeks to build each of the sets, sew the costumes and rehearse for opening night.

With new equipment allowing improved DNA sequencing research on the TCU campus, students in the College of Science and Engineering will have increased opportunity in the job market upon graduation, said Phil Hartman, professor of biology.The DNA research that used to take weeks, will now take days with the 4300 DNA Analyzer, Hartman said.

"DNA sequencing is an important technique because it was only talked about theoretically," Hartman said. "Now graduate students will have hands-on experience. This makes our graduates more marketable."

'Twas 19 days before Christmas, and the Lady Frogs were a mess.Fresh off a 40-point loss to No. 2 Duke on Dec. 6, the TCU womens' basketball team was a disappointing 2-5 and had lost to three top 15 teams by a combined score of 249-157. After just seven games, the season was already slipping away.

Sophomore guard Adrianne Ross said that while things looked bleak early, the players forced themselves to keep a positive outlook.

"We looked at ours as one of the tougher nonconference schedules," Ross said. "We were mentally tough."

A new position and new responsibilities await the recently named assistant vice chancellor for marketing and communications as the spring semester begins.Tracy Syler-Jones, formerly the director of communications, will assist in the development of new media initiatives, refining school and college marketing and communication plans, and overseeing planning and implementation of institutional advertising. These duties are in addition to those of her former position as head of the Office of Communications.