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Show THE DAILY --EiWiiiniMiiiMwii CHRONICLE UTAH mm mnmn in m wiin wii i utimi immOimi ii 11 iiiiwiiMHin Men's Hoops to Face the Lobos ERIC WALDEN Chronicle Sports Editor though, normalcy is about the least likely thing he's bound to encounter. But that won't stop him from try- In a season that has already redefined the boundLAS VEGAS ing. His aries of bizarreness, acting coach Dick Hunsaker of the Utah men's basketball team is just searching for a little normalcy. Given that his team must play its Mountain West Conference Tournament game(s) in the city of sin, Utes have already encountered a lifetime's worth of distractions this yer, between the ongoing saga of Rick Majerus' health issues right through this week's rumors that UNLV, foiled in its quest to land Rick Pitino as its top-seed- rj coach, would now pursue Utah's head man. Having experienced all of that, Hunsaker felt no desire to further expose his team to the inherent distractions that come from the neon lights, the glitz and glamour that define the city of Las Vegas. Consequently, while the other men's participants were all playing on Thursday because the Utes had a semifinal round bye, Hunsaker did not even bring his team to Las Vegas until Thursday afternoon. On top of that, the U team is staying in Henderson, Nev., rather than in - Vegas. ' "With the bye, I wanted us to stay one more day at school and just keep the regular routine," said Hunsaker. "I wanted to keep an exactly identical approach and treat this as just the next game." Of course, the simple fact that the Utes did not play an opening-roun- d contest and could afford to come in a day late is, in itself, an unexpected twist one that, incidentally, does not come without its own set of negative characteristics. For while every other team has known its first opponent in advance, been able to prepare accordingly and even have a game to work ou the kinks, Utah gets no such opportunity. "The biggest, most unsettling " A win over 8YU tonight puts the Utes in the the season series with the Lobos. see MEN'S HOOPS, page 11 t "In a way, I think we did not come out playing as well as we had to," said Ute cen'ct I aurea Beck- 'J man. "We might have been looking too far ahead," added Amy Hwert, ths MWC's of the Year. ' In the end the disaster was averted, as Beckmaa and Lindsay Herbert combined to score 25 of the Hope They Got Kinks OutVsAFA ERIC WALDEN Chronicle Sports Editor " Coach Optimistic Heading Into Free and Slalom RANDALL HARRINGTON Chronicle Sports Writer Second day and second place for (the Utah ski team at the 2001 NCAA Championships has coach Kevin Sweeney scratching his head about the team's performance. "I don't think we have been skiing to our potential, and I know we can be skiing better than we are. I don't know the reasons why we are not skiing at our full potential right now," Sweeney said. The Utes are chasing first place and defending champion Denver University, trailing by 60 points. Sweeney says his team still has a chance at the title. "It's still within our reach," Sweeney said. He said both Denver's men's and women's teams are most vulnerable in the slalom event. "If we can capitalize on that, we can defidiffernitely make up that ence." Utah has two days and the freestyle and slalom events left to try to catch 60-poi- nt Denver. "I am being optimistic that now we have gone through two events and got e some of the jitters out of us. We are definitely ready to charge," said Sweeney. After the men's and women's events in the giant slalom, Utah finished with 306.5 team points. On the men's side, Utah placed ahead of Denver skiers in all but one event. Jernej Bukovec finished ninth, Jed Schuetze finished nth and Scott Woodland took 17th place. Woodland finished his first run under 1 minute and had a chance to place higher, but hit a rough patch before the end of his second run. "Scott had some trouble on the second ran, and that is unfortunate," said Sweeney. "He had a great run going and just didn't anticipate this one gate. What's going on right now is, with all this new snow, if you get out of the line just a little bit you are going to be into some really soft snow, and it is just really going to slow you up." Oh the women's side, all three Denver skiers finished ahead of the tliree Utah skiers. Utah took over second place when Northern Michigan dropped out of the picture because it did not qualify an alpine team for the championships. In fact, only four teams in competition roster qualified to bring a full defending-charnpio- n - first-rac- BASEBALL SKIING USE UtaTT ,. v-- ; at at New Mexico NCAA Meet 38-- 9 37-1- 0 Middlebury,Vt. P Albuquerque, N.M. Only two days of ed , to the tournament The classic freestyle competitions' will take place today, saving the slalom finale for Saturday. Sweeney says his slalom team may be the best in the country. They will have to be if Utah is to win its ninth NCAA Skiing Championship in the last 18 years. 80-3- " " competition remain at the NCAA SOFTBALL Utah Utah vs Utah New Mexico BYU 39 $2:30 p.m. PT vs 9 p.m. FT Las Vegas, Nev. 39 CHRONICLES PORTS EDIT0.R . ERIC "WALLY" WALDEN , Las Vegas, Nev: . career-hig- h 2s, while Beckman hit-- the game's last two baskets which changed a 9 IT defdf info a 53-lead and, eventually, a whu 'And while the Utes we undoubt, edly breathing s sigh cf relief, they 50 50-4- cannot savor' their, ; resurrection from experience for too near-deat- h beg, as the next opponent awaits. . . That opponent is, 3YU the tournaments fourth seed md a vie- see ufsiH'S "HOOPS; page!? Championships in Middlebury, Vermont. WOMEN'S HOOPS . . Utes' 26 second-ha- lf points. Her- bert scored 15 of those en route to a . MEH S HOOPS " . er To this point in the a it's been dream season for year, UtaVvwniens has- - " the ketbaUteam. Wednesday night, however, the underdog Falcons invaded the Utes,-'REM cycles in a serious way, nearly yanking them back to reality. , ; Less than a week after , being 3 dealt a Iiianiliarirsg 06S at the ' : Huntsman Center, the 'Academy actually led the Utes in their first-' round MWC Tournament game , with just over two minutes to go, i4th-rarJc- Skiiers Second After Day Two Championship. Rival Cougs-Aw.aimesin aeminnais LAS VEGAS The Utes swept MWC NIS Utah State at vs Tampa Tourney 39-1- 0 Tampa, Fla. EWALDENCHR0NICLE. UTAH.EDU 581 - 7041 UC-Sa- n Diego 310 & Sanpiego |