OCR Text |
Show SPOR' 12 THURSDAY 219 Daily Utah Chronicle Utes head to hostile territory in the Pit Utes look to go 10-- 0 Tye Smith Sports Writer in MWCplay assists. Utah will have to bring its A game if the group expects a win. New Mexico is undefeated at home this year against MWC opponents, (19-basketball team No. The 25 U women's unbeaten streak in conferthe Mountain 9-- 0 MWC), currently leading part of a West Conference with an undefeated league ence games played at the Pit, dating back to 2 season. record, heads to the road today for one of its the four last In will the Utes season. The of the years, the Utes have won only toughest games face the MWC's No. 2 team, New Mexico (14-- once in the Pit, but three of the four contests 6-- 2 MWC), tonight in the Pit in front of a were determined by four points or less. In other words, Utah usually gives New Mexico crowd of more than 16,000 fans. The Utes have already defeated the Lobos a good run for its money, but in the end the once this year, but that game took place in home court advantage almost always pays off. After nearly two months of missing out on vthe friendly confines of the Huntsman Cen-j ter, where the Utes are on a winning the national spotlight, the Utah women re enseason. tered the top 25 in the AP Poll earlier this week streak dating back to the 2001-200- 2 This time, it's in one of the most unfriendly at No. 25. Before the season started, the Utes were environments in all of college basketball. TVis in the top 25 of almost every major prefor ranked "We will definitely have to get ready 1 f , them," sophomore shooting guard Shona diction service. The women remained ranked I i V: f Toin national and a and both ESPNUSA is Pit hostile Thorburn said. "It the polls (AP ... ., f x J . , tfe. hard place to play." day) until early January, when a road loss to took their loss total to four games, Oklahoma MWC week's this features The game Player in a the Utes out of the polls. New of Moore Mandi of the Week, Mexico, dropping Since then, the Utes have done nothing but showdown with last week's MWC Player of the win streak, Week, Utah's Kim Smith. Averaging 16 points win. Currently riding a nine-gam- e and seven rebounds a game, Smith was an ob- Utah is now the proud owner of the nth lonvious selection as her consistent play has led gest win streak in the nation, qualifying the the Utes all season, but Moore's selection was team as one of the hottest in the country. "The nice thing is that we're not even going a bit less expected. said U head coach Elaine Elliott of her a on the 10 there," game Only averaging points team's win streak. "Our kids have come current earned her selection Moore by posting year, one of the finest individual performances in and they've played each game and they're not the history of the MWC. In the Lobos' game worrying about this streak or that streak. It's against Air Force last weekend, Moore came not like we're having meetings about how to within one assist of posting the league's first keep a win streak going or how many in a row triple-doublShe shot 80 percent from the we've won. We're just trying to be prepared to field en route to career highs in points (20) play games." tsmithchronicle.utah.edu Shona Thorburn dodges New Mexico's Jenny Shetters in a game last January and rebounds (11), while also dishing out nine burn and the Utes go on the road to face the Lobos this Thursday. w ," 4, X ':.n f ft, 2001-200- 7, ftxft 26-ga- - d : C.. : . 1 r ;. n ,. . e. Sports Writer The U gymnastics team heads to Tempe, Ariz., this weekend to face the No. 24 Arizona State Sun Devils and the Air Force Falcons, but it will be doing so without the services of its best gymnast, Annabeth Eberle. Eberle has been competing with an ankle injury that will require surgery at the end of the season, but according to U coach Greg Marsden, it's time to give the ankle a rest. "That ankle's been getting sore the last couple of weeks, so we've decided to give it a rest and see if it will get any better," he said. "Lately, she's irritated it on landings, so at this point we need to see if we can improve her situation before the end of the season." Eberle is currently the No. 4 all around competitor in the country, and is in the top 10 in three out of four events. She has hit all 22 of her routines this year. This is clearly a major blow to the Red Rocks, who will take a 1 record and the No. 4 national ranking to Tempe in hopes of climbing into the senior Vero-niqu- Leclerc will vault. Leclerc has perhaps the biggest shoes to fill, as Eberle is the nation's No. 3 vaulter. Last week, Leclerc scored a 9.8 for her vault, but is capable of a higher score and " BURNS INTERCOLLEGIATE February ) 2003 Honolulu. Haw. TBA PAGE 14 1 Chicago Cubs. r r I t - Si I T The parallels to "Star Wars" are nerdy, but obvious. There's a reason the Yankees' nickname as The Evil Empire has stuck. George Steinbrenner (the Emperor) is the purely evil, sinister madman sitting on his throne at the 4 A ' - J r f r head of the corrupted galaxy. Joe Torre (Darth Vader) is the faithful servant to the Dark Side that you just know, deep down, isn't all that bad, yet he serves the Dark Side ' try y, l K Mr! --- anyway. And Rodriguez, the best player in the major leagues and the last great hope for fans of the other 29 teams - In a win over Iowa two Fridays ago, Annabeth Eberle scored a 39.675, will keep the meet's best score.. Her nagging ankle Injury her out this weekend, and perhaps next weekend as well. SWIMMING (NA) at EBERLE Hold on. Time out. I've seen this movie before, and this is not the way it ends. The young, noble, conscience-bound hero resists the temptations of the Dark Side. The Emperor is brought down. Good triumphs over evil. That's the way the story is supposed to go, damn it! But then the hero of this story had to go and screw things up. You bastard. So goes the saga of baseball's golden boy, Alex Rodriguez. For years, he had the part of the MLB's Luke protagonist and he nailed it. Three years ago, he announced publicly that he wouldn't go the easy route and sign with the Yankees, and we all loved him for it. Say what you will about the absurdities of the $252 million contract he signed with Texas, but anyone who spurns the Yanks on his own volition is a friend of mine. Three years later, what does he do? He turns to the Dark Side. And the Yankees just for kicks nearly picked up Greg "I'll never play in the American League" Maddux as well, right out from under the noses of those loveable ); GOLF UTAH SEE rr- - 5-- top three. But Marsden sees this detrimental situation as a blessing in disguise of sorts. "Obviously, it's not a good thing for A.B. Eberle not to be there, but we're at the middle of the season and at some point I was going to mix up the lineup anyway," Marsden said. "So we're going to kill two birds with one stone, and rest A.B.'s ankle while we give some other people an opportunity." Replacements for the junior All American will vary based on the event, but all are up to the challenge, according to their coach. Freshman Stephanie Lim, A-Ro- practice. Leclerc also subbed in for Eberle last week on the beam, but fell off the apparatus and scored a mere 9.075. The other half of the Utes' junior class, Gritt Hofmann, is also expected to miss the meet in Tempe. She has missed the last four meets with a hip injury, but is expected to be back soon. e WOMEN'S HOOPS UTAH at (19-4- ) BOISE STATE at MWC CHAMPIONSHIPS NEW MEXICO (14-7- ) UTAH February 19, 2003 7pm Albuquerque, N.M. d in Boston but no! The union steps in and shuts down the deal, and Boston gets nada. And then boom! out of nowhere come the Yanks with the steal, swiping out from under everyone's noses! Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling that Vince McMahon is somehow behind all of this? So, how's the story going to end? Will justice prevail? Will the good guys somehow triumph over evil? Well I know you'll all be tuning in to find out, which is the one (and I emphasize, ONE) positive, albeit short-terside effect of the Yankees' latest blockbuster deal. Let me make one thing clear: When I say the good guys, I'm not just talking about my beloved Red Sox, or the Rangers, or the Angels or the I'm talking about every single team" in baseball other than the Yanks. They're all the good guys. There's only one bad guy-- not including, of course, the spineless, sheepish commissioner who supposedly runs the whole show. George Steinbrenner is the bad guy. I know it, you know it hell, even he knows it. I'm sick and tired of all the arguments I've been hearing lately claiming that Steinbrenner is just "playing by the rules." They say the Yankees just "want to win more" than any other team. What a load of crap. What we see here with Steinbrenner and the Yankees is capitalism at its worst, the rampant exploitation of the MLB's horrendous financial system and collective bargaining agreement. Not just exploitation, either. Steinbrenner is a neigh- A-R- Chris Bellamy Sports Editor across the MLB, ruined a perfectly good script and put the already questionable livelihood of any semblance of competitive balance on even shakier ground. (If Torre was Rodriguez's biological father, now that would really be something, and the analogy would be perfect. I'd like to see a paternity test just in case, but I digress...) As pitchers and catchers report this week, this latest nth-hodeal caps off the most absurd and competitive ' offseason that baseball has seen in decades, an offseason that saw the Red SoxYankees rivalry grow to previously undiscovered levels of complete and utter hatred. (Bitter? Please.) The Sox snag ace Curt Schilling. The Yanks answer with Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton. The Sox finally pick up a closer in Keith FoulT ke, while the Yanks lose Andy Pettitte to Houston. New York answers, picking up Kevin Brown and unheralded Javier Vazquez. Meanwhile, Roger Clemens announces a comeback approximately 11 minutes after "retiring," this time to join Pettitte with the Astros. Looking to make the biggest splash of them all, Boston brass sets up a pair of deals that will land them Alex Rodriguez and Magglio Orh and Mandonez for The deal set up, ny. gets says he can't wait to play No-ma- MEN'S TENNIS UTAH at 2003 TBA February Oklahoma City, Okla. Thor- Steinbrenner or: How I learned to stop worrying and love is coming off a good week of who has looked impressive at times, will replace Eberle on the uneven bars and the floor exercise, Kristen Riffanacht will perform to count on the beam for the first time this season in place of Eberle, and the Huntsman Center. Dr. Eberle out this weekend, perhaps longer Matthew Ouellette in (4-1- I PAGE 14 A-R- BASEBALL (4-3- February 20, 2003 5pm Eccles Tennis Center SEE ) UTAH at (0-3- ) ) CENTRAL FLORIDA (3-2- ) February 20, 2003 6pm Orlando, Fla. |