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Show DAILY THE CHRONICLE UTAH 17 Service With a Smile: Cuban Is Ideal NBA Owner Road Trip at ERIC WALDEN C.roCe Sports Ed tor RORY BRUNNER Cfiro-- ' -- V .':. A.fter last Saturday's i tcie Asst. Sports Ed tor In the biggest public relations event in Dairy Queen history, billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stayed true to his promise by serving up ice cream cones and working as a cashier at a CoppelL Texas, Dairy rush, Cuban donned a requested DQ shirt bearing the name "Tony," explaining he thought it would te funny, while the rest of the DQ regulars wore r. Maver- icks appareJ he provided. Why was the man who has enough riches to never work again participating as the manager for a day? Because like a second-gradbeing pushed off J the monkey bars, he was challenged. direcNBA Cuban commented that s tor of referees Ed Rush "might have 5 been a great ref, but I wouldn't hire him to manage a Dairy Queen." DQ naturally took offense, because the work of a DQ employee, especially a managerial one, is strenuous labor Of course, flipping burgers at Mickey D's is a different story). Dairy Queen challenged Cuban to work at one of its franchises for a day, and Cuban accepted. DQ got some exposure for simply d chain and being a picked-o- n Cuban's celebrity and cult status grew. Cuban delivered service with a smile everyone was happy, except NBA execs, who received a slap in the face. Cuban's pubescent, entertaining juvenile acts have made NBA execs look like boobs, and his frank, foot-imouth stance on officiating is getting a lot of media attention. Cuban complained about the preferential treatment of players, and Cuban thinks the NBA could sell a better product to the fans if they eliminated such treatment Cuban is a breath of fresh air in the troubled NBA. In the league with players fathering more children out of wedlock than James Bond, unpopular q new zone rules and is Cuban strategies, simply doing what is in his power to make it better (Maybe Planned Parenthood will sign him up next). He is the people's owner, and is not afraid to speak his mind. Is that such a crazy notion, considering we live in a h society? Cuban shows up to games not in the business dress, but in a Mavs or, before Dallas's game with Indiana, a DQshirt He's got a sense of humor. in a Cuban is a displaced, '"t-H- ' I ''I er back-breakin- f " ' " I - m4 , " . ; V,.- - H fast-foo- -- ar Hack-a-Sha- free-speec- T-sh- irt disappointment against Colorado State, the U women's basketball team attempts to get back on track, starting tonight, with its first MWC road trip of the year Tonight, the Utes (8- - overall, -i MWC) are in Colorado Springs, Cola, facing Air Force, and on Saturday theyll be in Albuquerque, N.M-- , battling New Mexico. "Well, there will be no rest for the weary, as we continue conference play," U coach Elaine Elliott said. "We are back on the road and well be right back at it with two more tough conference games. Our challenge is finding that comfort zone. We have to keep perfecting things and keep improving in order to be successful Perfection likely won't be necessary, though, against the undersized, undertalented Falcons, who CDme in at overall o--i MWC. They started the year off by losing their first seven, and nine of their e win first it games. A serfellow streak, garnered against vice academies Army and Navy, was quickly snapped with a 64-4- 3 home loss to New Mexico on Jan. 12. 4-I- Katherine McCo!l had a career-hic- h 17 rebounds versus Colorado State. VIOUEWS HOOPS it Utah Air Force (8-6- ) (4-1- 0) 117 st 7 p.m. Colorado d Springs, Coio. Historically, AFA has been even less successful versus the Utes, dropping each of the eight contests it has played against Utah. Despite the U's own struggles this rivalyear, the trend of this to doesn't figure change tonight ry Sophomore forward Araoy Jackson has been perhaps the lone bright spot for the Falcons, averaging 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Even her relatively good play comes with a caveat, though, as she is shooting just 39 3 percent from the field. No other Falcon comes close to double-dig- it scoring, and the Lack of consistent production from the rest of the roster is telling. Air Force has started 11 different players this year, and played 14 different players in each of the last three games. As a result, Air Force is last in the MWC in shooting and scoring, and sixth in both field goal defense and scoring defense, so the team gets outscored by an average of points so-call- per contest However, when the Utes play at O New Mexico on Saturday, theyll find themselves matched against a slightly different opponent are sporadiThe Lobes (12-almost always cally dominant, but 4, 1) see WOMEN'S HOOPS, page 9 Swimmers Look to Rebound After Big Loss LANCE CAMERO Chronicle Sports Writer Trying to get its program off the ground, the U swimming team will begin the brunt of its conference schedule, hosting New Mexico and Colorado State this weekend. With all the meets out of the way, the Utes are looking to roll against conference foes. Having already matched or bettered their win tally from last year, both the men's and women's teams are excited for what they can do, as is coach Michael Litzinger. "New Mexico beat us last year, and Colorado State did too, and CSUJ went on to finish second in the conference, so I can't think of two better teams to start off against this year," he said. "This will let us see how we measure up. It's good to see the competition one time before the conference meet." The Utes are also eager to put the memory of Pac-1- 0 team Washington behind them. Despite some good individual performances against the Huskies, Utah's final meet resulted in a blowout loss. "Heading into conference competition, we need to step up," non-conferen- ce non-conferen- ce V J .. - v. see swimming, page 10 SWIMf.flMG vs New Mexico Utah 118 at 6 p.m. d Ute Natstorium 11 y " v , - TrA'- ,tiih see ERUNKER, page e two-gam- g, n- triple-overtim- i- Queen during Wednesday's lunch all-st- Women Kic The swiiEirers tit the Ute Katatcriara fcr a pair cf r.eets with Kew Mexico and Colorado State this weekecl WOMEN'S TENUIS ) vs Utah State GYf.tflASTICS (0-0- Utah (0-0- ) 118 st 5 p.m. Eccles Tennis Center CHRONICLE SPORTS EDITOR ERIC "WALLY" WALDEN v$ Arizona (5-0- Utah (1-- TRACK Utah Snake River Open ) 0) 118 at 7 pja Huntsman Center EWALDENCHR0N1CLE.UTAH.EDU 119 All Day PocateHo, Idaho 581-704- 1 |