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Show E Wednesday, March 28,2007 DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Making history, ahead of time NL Central DICOU WANTS TO SEE MORE UPSETS continued from Page 7 ca free, and that's what makes the NCAA basketball tournament unlike any other sports event. Any school, be it Coppin State or Valparaiso, has the chance to become a national champion if it's good enough. All a team has to do is win its conference championship, dispose of a couple of low seeds and BOOM—it's off to the races. Sounds easy enough. While such a run is highly unlikely, the teams are at least given the chance to test themselves against the best in the country, which I'm sure you recall wasn't the case for the undefeated 2004 U football team. When compared with the crooked, moneymongering caste system known as the BCS, the NCAA Tournament seems unsoiled and pure. Only a handful of schools actually stand a chance of achieving glory under the BCS system. It's all about shutting out the have-nots while hoarding the money for the big schools, whereas the NCAA Tournament is all about inclusion. The Huntsman Center hosted the first two rounds of the tournament in 2003, so I had the opportunity to watch four games in person, including No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 16 Vermont. Fans in the Huntsman Center whose only connection to Vermont prior to the tournament had been their love of Ben & Jerry's ice cream began rooting their guts out for the upstart No. 16 seed. Vermont hung in there for much of the first half before eventually losing. But the same scenario is repeated all across the country in every arena every year of the tournament. If a high seed has a chance to send a low seed packing, suddenly the entire crowd is trying its best to sing along with the lyrics of the underdog's fight song and encourage them on to victory. Those fans don't care about future match-ups. They just want to see David kill Goliath. If I were asked to name the last five teams to win the title, I'd be stumped. But I will never forget when Bryce Drew drained a desperationthree at the end of a first-round game against No. 4 Ole Miss in 1998, catapulting No. 13 Valparaiso into the second round of the Big Dance. The Valpo win over Ole Miss and its win over Florida State in the second round are moments that define what March Madness is all about. Who can forget the way Drew dove onto the court after he hit the shot or the crowd going insane or the coach-father and player-son embracing exultantly? Match-ups? Ha! Saying that the tournament is somehow better when no smaller programs make it to the Sweet 16 ignores what makes the tournament special. That's not to say that the tournament hasn't been highly entertaining this year despite its lack of Cinderellas. The tournament is great every year—that's a constant. But hoping for the elimination of all Cinderellas is the point of view of an evil stepmother. n.dicou@ chronicle.utah.edu Preview The Brew Crew is back, baby! defense budget this offseason to feed into the very same vile competitive market that has forced the Cubs into the doldrums for the last 98 years, all in a last-ditch attempt to salvage his job, but why would that bother me? I'm a baseball analyst, not a fan. I bleed numbers. And results. (If I ever bled, at least.) I know scoring runs is good, and you can't tell me Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez won't be good for a few of those. According to Chris Bellamy's patented INV4EEEK.23 system of projecting future offensive power statistics, they will combine for 300 home runs. Jeez, huh? That's pretty considerable. Home grown hurlers Carlos Zambrano, Rich Hill, Sean Marshall and Angel Guzman are the cornerstones of this staff, not Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, or the $61 million free agent signings 1. Milwaukee Brewers (120-42) I don't know if you know this, but as a baseball preview expert I'm qualified to rate any prospect based on minor league statistics and what I read in Sports Illustrated. Based on this evidence, the 2007 Brewers will remind Larry King of what it was like to watch the 1927 Yankees with his father, back when Larry was just a strapping young 40-yearold man. Rickie Weeks is Ricky Henderson. Johnny Estrada is Johnny Bench. Bill Hall is Bill Mazerowski. Prkice Fielder is Cecil Fielder. Ben Sheets is Ben Franklin. Corey Hart is the cure for heart disease. To summarize: They have lots of tools. In one big box. 2. Chicago Cubs (100-62) General Manager Jim Hendry spent the equivalent of the national Boylen's background 1983-87:Captained the Maine University basketball team, upset Michigan State. (Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis). Their limber arms and the aforementioned 300 home runs should be just enough to keep the Cubs in contention for a wild-card berth—which may or may not be directly related to this writer's gambling fortunes. 4. St. Louis Cardinals (8676) The W o r id series winners didn't 3. Houston suffer any major offseason lossAstros (87-75) es (unless you count Jeff SupA c c o r d i n g pan), but it's going to be tough to Street and for them to overcome major inSmith's Base- juries to both Albert Pujols and ball, a rival scout Chris Carpenter. claims the Astros "appear to I know, you can't predict inhave taken a step back." juries, but I have two sneaking This is a major rival scout suspicions: we're talking about. I mean, I 1. Pujols will sever his right leg don't know what else to say. when he slips on some marbles That's a scout, man. Like, some- doing charity work at a nursery, body PAYS that guy to know and lands in a bear trap. about baseball. I mean, I thought 2. Carpenter wiJl join Steve I had credentials, but wow. Kerr in a vengeance mission on A scout. the Middle Eastern death squad Anyway, I had them at 88 wins after the acquisition of See VIPER Page 10 BOYLEN NAMED NEW RUNNIN' UTE COACH continued from Page 7 1987-92: Graduate assistant/assistant coach at Michigan State University under head coach Jud Heathcote. 1992-2003:Two NBA championships as Houston Rockets assistant coach under RudyTomjanovich. 2003-04: Assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, tutored NBA star Jason Richardson. 2004-05:Assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks. 1 2005-07: Assistant coach at Michigan State under head coach Tom Izzo. March 27,2007: Named head coach for the Utah Runnin'Utes. Carlos Lee and—by default— better health than they had at any point during last year's disastrous campaign, but I'm going to have to scale them back to 87 now. One game is equal to one step, right? be proud of." Boylen will take over the job three-anda-half weeks after former coach Ray Giacoletti resigned with a losing record. Despite showing potential with wins over ranked opponents Washington State, Air Force and Virginia early in the season, the Utes struggled with consistency and looked to be lacking motivation. But above all else, it was the Runnin' Utes' defense that led them to the school's worst record since the 1973-1974 season. That porous Utah defense allowed opponents to accumulate an average of 72.2 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field. Needless to say, that problem will surely be addressed before the start of next season. Boylen comes straight from the defensive-minded Big 10, where the Spartans allowed an average of just 57.2 points per game. "I think the biggest need for our team is to improve our toughness and improve our competitive edge," Boylen said. "If we do those two things, I think we have enough talent and skill level to win games. Those are the two areas that we are going to focus on and improve, and that's why I'm here." Boylen has never held a head coaching position before, but has been part of a coaching staff since graduating from Maine University in 1987. Straight out of college, Boylen joined the MSU staff as a graduate assistant and was promoted to assistant coach shortly thereafter. Initially, he coached the Spartans forfiveyears before making the jump to the NBA. He served 13 years in the NBA as an assistant for the Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks before returning to Michigan State for the past two seasons. "We're going to start today and try to build something special and it's going to take everyone in order to do it," Boylen said. "From here on out, there is no T in Utah basketball. It's only we, us and the MUSS." c.brunner@chronicle.utah.edu Check out The Chronicle online! www.dailyutahchronicle.com College of Science • www.science.utah.edu Crocker Science House AN INDIAN Special THE Knot So Kneady (20 minute session) ForUofUstudents & staff, just bringyour University ID. AMERICAN INDIAN EXPERIENCE? * Discount can be used towards an upgrade Offer expires May 31, 2OQ?. One coupon per customer. Offer available at the. SLC studio only. 2670 South 2Oth East, Suite 208 Salt Lake City GET REAL TAKE A N ETHNIC STUDIES COURSE. Schedule an Ethnic Studies class this fall and delve into the real world, which is anything but vanilla. Visit us online at www.ethnic.utah.edu. We'll fill your Diversity requirement; more important we'll fill your mind. wvnv.ethnic.utah.edu THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH' 801.467.6g88 (Near Cactus & Tropicals, Next to Maverick) We knead Park City too 435.615.8440 ^warded to eac* scholar residence! 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