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Show The Daily Utah Chronicle s PORT S Thursday, December 3, 1998 Brandon Winn, Sports Editor: winnchronicle.utah.edu New BGS System Chronicle - 7 Hammon Back in Salt Lake Will Only Ruin College Football rTjr The Daily Utah i Brandon Winn Chronicle Sports Editor Twenty-tw- o times, the Colorado State women's basketball team has come to play in the Huntsman Center. Twenty-on- e times, it has gone home a loser. The Rams will try to take their second ever win in Utah as they face the Utes tonight at 7:00 in the Huntsman Center. It took triple overtime for the Rams to get their only win in Utah, in 1997. Colorado broke the home winning streak the Utes w'ere on at the time, but it lost both games to Utah last season. The Rams and the Utes last met on Feb. 14. The game marked Utah coach Elaine Elliott's 300th career win and the final home game for Utah backcourt duo Ali Bills and Julie Krommenhoek. But that was last year. This year, Colorado St. is ranked No. 15 in the nation. Utah is a young team trying to find its game. Colorado enters tonight's game at The Rams won the PreScason Women's NIT, defeating Rutgers in the final. Utah is without much cxperi-ence as a team. This year, the Utes don't have Bills and Krommenhoek. But the Rams still have Becky Hammon. Hammon was last year's !WAC Mountain Division Player of the Year. She averaged 24 points', per game a season ago and is just under 18 points per game this season. One key to the Utes' win last season was Bills and Krommenhoek 28-ga- For about the past io years, college football has been seeking the perfect way to determine which college football team should be awarded the national championship trophy at the end of the season. The possibility of a four, eight or playoff system has been discussed, but never seriously considered. Instead, the national championship was left up to voters members of the press and football coaches each had their own poll, which determined the title team at the end of the season. But that obviously didn't work. Last season, both the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Michigan Wolverines won national m 8-- 0. nth-rank- g 5 move, 1994? Nebraska finished first in both polls. Penn State second. Naturally, Nittany Lion fans were outraged. To remedy this problem, the college football brain trust has come up with this thing called the Bowl Championship Series, which ranks teams based on strength of schedule and win-lopercentage, among other factors. This system was supposed to solve all our problems. In fact, it has only made things worse. Right now, Tennessee is ranked No. i, followed by UCLA. Unless either the Volunteers are upset by Southern Miss, on Saturday, or the Bruins get upended by Miami, this will be the national championship game on Jan. 4 at the Fiesta Bowl in Tucson, Az. It could be a decent game, but I'm not running out to buy my tickets. The real team plays in the Midwest. It is Kansas State, and it should be able to play for the national title. But because of all the strength of schedule nonsense factored into the BCS rankings, the Wildcats won't be able to finish any higher than No. 2 in the nation. Kansas State is playing Texas A&M Saturday in the Big 12 Championship, but it won't help its strength of schedule. Why? Because last week A&M lost to Texas, which automatically lowered the Wildcats' strength of schedule rating. Kansas State was punished because the Aggies let the best running back in the country, Ricky Williams of Texas, run all over their defense. y 3-- 1, titles. The coaches, in a bit of a sympathy voted for Tom Osborne and his Huskers in what was his last season as a head coach. The press, which I'd like to think has a better handle on things, voted for Charles Woodson and Co. So who was better? We'll never know because the two teams never had a chance to duke it out on a playing field that had no voters only yard markers and uprights. Controversy arose whenever two undefeated teams had to wait for the polls to tell them which team was better. Remember when Nebraska and Penn State both finished unbeaten in ed b 5 g 3 Kristina Anderson (left) and liana Fuertes face Colorado State tonight at 7. 10.8. "They've got penetration skills, they've got quickness and they have good outside shooting." Elliott said. "They don't have a big post game, or a strong kid inside, but you can get a long way without that." Utah doesn't enter tonight's game totally outgunned, however. The Utes have three players of their own averaging double-figur- e scoring, and are drawing contributions from everybody. Lauren Beckman, Kristi Rose, and Katherinc McColl are all averaging around six rebounds per game for the Utes. The Utes have also rejected 18 see women page 11 Utes Fall to Rhode Island in Great Eight Utah knew that it had to slow down Rhode Island star Lamar Odom if it would have a chance to beat the Rams on Wednesday at the Great Eight in Chicago. And in the first half, Utah did just But Odom found his game that. The Utes held Odom to seven points at halftime, and went into the at break with a lead, the break. The plan seemed to be working at that point. 36-3- 5, some-- where in the locker room at 4,:$ time, then Alex Jensen picked up his fourth foul with over 10 minutes left in the second half, and that was prct- ty much it as the Rams beat the No. ; K XL; 7 J,Tv7 'til'! ; half- -' ss see winn page 9 shutting down Hammon, holding her to just eight points. "Julie and Ali defended Hammon very well," said Elliott. "We need Julie to come back from Switzerland and play her again." Those peskyNCAA eligibility rules will keep that from happening, so the Utes will have to find another way to stop the Colorado star. "I expect to have more problems with her this year," said Elliott. "We're going to have a freshman on her sometimes. I don't really know what to expect." You can expect Colorado to bring some other weapons to the floor. The Rams' Katie Cronin is scoring 16 points per game and grabbing 6.4 rebounds. They also have Heather Haanen in double digit scoring with Jh ' ; if 20 Utes 70-6- 3. Odom took over the game with Utah leading 1 and scored seven quick points. Antonio Reynolds-Dea- n added another three, and the Utes just kept falling from there. Jensen has been prone to foul trouble, and when he went to the bench with , four personals, the smaller Jeremy Killion had to guard Odom. That's when Odom got going. The Rams switched to a zone defense, which sent the Ute offense completely out of whack. Rhode Island let Andre Miller pretty much do what he wanted, rather concerning itself with not letting any of the other Utes get into the game. Miller scored 28 points, but the g point producer for Utah, Hanno Mottola, only scored 13 points. No other Ute was in double figures. Odom finished with 15 for Rhode finIsland, while Reynolds-Dea- n ished with 22 to lead the Rams. Utah has struggled against the zone all season. To beat a good zone defense, you must hit from the outside. That's something Utah could not do against the Rams. Even though most of the looks were open, the Utes only hit eight of 20 attempts. Utah led 6 in the first half, but when Majerus went to his bench and put three freshmen on the court, the Rams ended the half on a 8 run to get back into the game. Utah is now 3 and travels to Long Beach State on Saturday. 46-4- next-leadin- . 28-1- 19-- 3-- Ben Crockett and the Utes fell to the Rhode Island Rams in the Great Eight tournament last night. Brandon Winn |