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Show ! dvii Golf European, Singapore Masters (3-8- PGA, PODS Championship 3-- 1 p.m. TGC Men's College Basketball Mountain West Conference Tournament mtn. 1 p.m. Air Force vs. Wyoming 3:30 p.m. mtn. UNLV vs. Utah mtn. 7 p.m. San Diego St vs. Colorado St. 9:30 p.m. mtn. TCU vs. BYU performance keeps getting better and each match it is somebody else that steps up for us and pushes us over the hump." Admission to the match is free and a free raffle will take place for all those in attendance. BYU student and faculty parking will not be available to the public, but parking is available on the roads adjacent to the facility and south of campus. Big East Conference Tournament 10 a.m. Georgetown vs. Villanova Notre Dame vs. Syracuse Noon Louisville vs. W. Virginia 5 p.m. vs. Pittsburgh Marquette 7 p.m. I Pair of Cougars head to NCAA swim championships: Junior Angela Goodson and freshman Tawni Jones of the BYU women's swim and dive team head to ESPN ESPN ESPN ESPN Big Ten Conference Tournament Minnesota vs. Michigan 10 a.m. ESPN2 ESPN2 Northwestern vs. Mich. St. Noon Penn StNs. Illinois 2:30 p.m.ESPN2 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. It will be Goodson's second trip to the NCAAC and will be competing in the 200 IM, 100 fly and 200 fry. Jones will be competing in the - and diving events. "I'm excited for both of the girls and I know they'll do well," said BYU women's swim coach Stan Crump. "Angela is seeded a little lower than last year but she should have a great meet and have some fast times." Goodson won Mountain West Conference titles in the 100 fly (54.29), 200 fly (2:01.22) and 200 IM e 800 free (2:03.16) and was part of BYLTs relay (720.49) and 400 medley relay (3:42.76) squads at the 2007 MWC Championships. Last year at the 2006 NCAAC Goodson placed 14th overall in the 100 fly with a time of 54.30. Jones placed fourth at the 2007 MWCC in the dive (281.95) and third in the (304.15). Then at the Zone E Division 1 Diving Regional on March 3 Jones placed eighth in the (504.50) and third in the (601.60). "Tawni has done very well these last two weeks," said BYU dive coach Keith Russell. "She was very consistent at regionals and I expect her to have a good meet." The NCAAC will be held at the University of Minnesota and begins today. Check www.byucougars. comswimmingdiving for updates on NCAA results. 1- Conference Tournament Paclfic-1- 0 Oregon vs. Arizona UCLA vs. USC vs. Stanford Wash. St. vs. Wash-AS- 1 p.m. 3:30 p.m. 7 p.m. 9:30 p.m. Cal-OS- FSN FSN FSN FSN Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament N.C. State vs. Duke ESPN2 5 p.m. Big 12 Conference Tournament 7 p.m. Baylor vs. Missouri ESPN2 NBA 6:15 p.m. Chicago at Orlando San Antonio at Sacramento 8:30 p.m. TNT TNT Radio Men's College Basketball lp.m. 1160 AM 700 AM BYU vs. TCU Utah vs. UNLV 7 p.m. College Baseball Gonzaga at BYU 5 p.m. 960 AM women's College Basketball extend win streak to five BUFFALO, N.Y. Wojtek Wolski scored the goal 1:41 into the third period, extending the Colorado Avalanche's winning streak to five games with a victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. Paul Stastny set up two goals to extend his point streak to 17 games and match an NHL rookie record set in 1993 by Winnipeg's Teemu Selanne. Milan Hejduk had a goal and assist, and Brett McLean also scored for the Avalanche, who are on their best roll since winning eight straight midway through last season. The ninth-plac- e Avalanche moved to within six points of idle Minnesota for the Western Conference's final playoff spot, and won their fourth straight road game. It's the team's longest streak since winning four in a row in January 2004. Jason Pominville and Nathan Paetsch scored for the East leading Sabres, who lost for the third time in 12 games Chatman announces resignation from LSU d 3-- 2 (34-29-- ). I Boie Jackets 3, Kings 2, OT: At Columbus, Ohio, David Vyborny scored twice including a goal with 21.4 seconds left in overtime to lead Columbus over Los Angeles. Vyborny's 15th goal tied it 2 at 5:02 of the third period The victory was the Blue Jackets' third in a row. The Kings dropped their third straight. LSU women's basketball coach Pokey Chatman, who twice took the Lady Tigers to the Final Four after taking over as head coach in 2004, unexpectedly announced her resignation Wednesday. "I have notified the university today that I will step down as head coach of the women's basketball program in order to allow me to pursue other career opportunities," Chatman said in a prepared statement that did not give details about those other opportunities. The Chatman said she would stay with the team through the upcoming NCAA tournament and will be under contract untU April 30. "To eliminate any further distraction from our preparation for and participation in the NCAA tournament, I will have no further comment and answer no questions on this subject," she added. Michael Bonnette, a sports information director at the school, confirmed the resignation and said it was unexpected. "I was stunned," Bonnette said. Tennis 2-- Dementieva withdraws from Indian Wells INDIAN WELLS, Calif. Marc Haddock NORTH COUNTY STAFF Liar. 15-1- 0 Expo Center Samfy 'Gear rV The Lone Peak High School HOSA club is teaming up with the BYU football team to host what they hope will be set a single day record for blood donations in Utah this Friday. The blood drive will be held at the high school from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Little Theater. Appointments can be made by calling Allie at . or Kyle at Appointments are preferred, but walk-i- n donations will be accepted throughout the day. The HOSA club is geared for students interested in health occupations. BYU football players will be signing autographs through- 362-454- SportsExpos.com 7-- 6 first-roun- Add Elena Dementieva Col lege Foot ball Shannon era opens as Miami starts spring workouts CORAL GABLES, Fla. Randy Shannon got on the ground on a sunny, breezy Tuesday afternoon, barking out instructions while showing a group of offensive linemen the correct way to corral a loose ball. d "Do it right, or you run," Shannon warned tackle Chris Barney. Spring practice was barely 15 minutes old, and already, Shannon was in the process of reshaping the Miami Hurricanes. Miami's new coach has added new rules among them, any player caught with a gun is off the team and players must wait two years before moving plus maintain a 2.5 grade-poin- t average to stay there. He's demanding accountability on and off the field, all part of the plan to push the Hurricanes back to prominence. That process truly started on Jan. 1, when Shannon replaced Larry Coker, and Miami's former defensive coordinator said there was no extra feeling of excitement Tuesday running his first real practice as the boss. "Not at all," Shannon said. "If you're a coach, you can coach. You just mingle and go from side to side, you get into drills, you get involved. You don't sit back and just wait. ... You just bounce around. You see different things. Players have got to understand you're part of them, not separate from them." So he spent the afternoon scanning the entire field, looking at dozens of returnees and a few newcomers run around in shorts, jerseys and helmets, all under the watchful eye of a coaching staff that was season. revamped following a The big question for Miami entering spring practice will either Kirby Freeman or Kyle Wright emerge as the starting quarterback? will be unanswered until just before the start of the regular season. Shannon isn't allowing the quarterbacks to this answer questions until the fall; they're 7-- 6 off-limi- spring. He's laid down new laws, and his players are clearly taking notice. "We're not really supposed to be talking about the quarterbacks," running back Javarris James said, sidestepping a question. So how did the quarterbacks look Tuesday? "Don't know," Shannon said, smiling. bleeders try to set record for friend BYU-bl- ue Scit Lake City (last year). "Now I'm going to miss a couple of tournaments." Dementieva felt soreness while practicing in Moscow last Week and has been in constant pain since, making sleeping and breathing difficult. Now she joins No. 2 Justine Henin, No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo and No. 5 Kim Clijsters on the list of top names missfield of the $2.1 million event. ing from the Top ranked Maria Sharapova, the defending champion, and No. 4 Svettana Kuznetsova are the top seeds. No. 29 seed Meghann Shaughnessy, who is ranked 41st, is the top American in the field. Wild card Mirjana Luck took another step in her comeback after nearly four years away from the game due to personal and financial problems. She earned a 64, (4) win over Lindsey Nelson in a d match on stadium court. Lucie, a few days shy of her 25th birthday, said she never doubted that she would return as a great player, but financial difficulties prevented her from hiring a coach and doing the necessary traveling. Now she plans to, "just play from tournament to tournament and play as many matches as I can. Right now, I feel like I just won a Grand Slam. Right now, every match is huge for me." The Lucie, who said she still plays the same "strong, aggressive, powerful" game she did before Anna Chakvetadze her absence, will face No. in the second round. Americans Jill Craybas, Meilen Tu and Shenay d winners. Perry also were first-roun- first-plac- Hockey 7:30 a.m. TGC five-matc- d DemenA right rib injury forced the tieva to withdraw Wednesday from the tournament that is already missing three of the world's top five players. Dementieva has a stress fracture that could sideline her for six weeks. Demen"I feel very disappointed," the tieva said. "I wanted to play here. I was in the final fifth-seede- Television 4) 369-4719- out the day, and the school is even planning door prizes for donors. BYU football got involved in the project to support Kevin Long, a former Lone Peak football standout who hopes to earn a sport on the BYU team bout after a with leukemia. Long, who graduated from Lone Peak in 2005, was diagnosed with leukemia last year while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daSaints in Pennsylvania. Before his mission, Long had become acquainted with BYU team members, and he had hoped to make the ((Vv y V team when he returned from his mission. His father, Kevin Long, said Jason came home and started treatment for the disease. He recently underwent a stem cell transplant at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, and is doing welL ; nrrnic (totalis? misfit " " vr? MA TOURNEYATA nfflNGPOM tabbed as a Getting darling in leading to Selection Sunday is like catching the bouquet the bride tosses over her shoulder at a wedding. It's an endorsement, not a guarantee. "For starters, I like two teams from our league, but if we're talking about somebody coming from way back, say an 11th seed like us, instead of a No. 5," George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said Tuesday, "I'll take DrexeL" And for all the Dragons' heroics this season they have a 23-- 8 record, road wins at St. Joseph's, Villanova, Syracuse and Creighton, and an RPI hovering near 50 Drexel will still need some breaks and a few friends on the selection committee just to get an invitatioa Whether that's progress depends on who's talking. Last season, the committee took a flyer on another Colonial Athletic Association team with a similar profile and everybody knows how it turned out. George Mason became the best NCAA tournament story in years, riding the league's first at4arge bid to wins over Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut and all the way to the Final Four before getting knocked out by eventual champ Florida. The only people who weren't charmed by the Patriots' success were the commissioners of the major conferences, whose second-tie- r finishers were left out of the tourney to make room for George Mason and a handful of college basketball's other little guys. What we'll find out Sunday is whether they can do anything about that. The NCAA tournament is at a tipping point, something the selectors finally acknowledged last year in a big way. What began as a subtle shift in the balance of power a dozen years ago is beginning to look more and more like parity across the landscape. The reduction of scholarships per team in 1993 from 15 to 13 freed up roughly 200 players who would have sat on the benches at powerhouse programs in the Big East, ACC and Big Ten to sign on with and play right away. The best underclassmen still land with the name programs, but they head to the NBA after a season or two, forcing the coaches and teammates they leave behind to reshuffle the deck season after season. The increased pressure to recruit top 100 players means Roy Williams at North Carolina and Jim Calhoun at Connecticut cant take on projects and wait for them to develop into stars, but that teams like George Mason can. And do. "Then there's the TV factor," Larranaga said. "So many games are on that kids don't have to be at the big programs to get exposure. Then factor in how many big games these kids play in high school, and how many times they face each other in summer leagues and camps and such and the fear factor tapers off pretty quickly" Even before the critics weighed in, NCAA selection committee chairman Craig Littlepage justified the inclusion of so many by saying, "I think the message in this is that there's great basketball played throughout the country." Backers of the Big East and ACC still think that means their leagues should send nine teams to the tournament, and they've got a good argument. Marquette, for example, is the sixth seed in the upcoming Big East tournament and there were plenty of times this season when you would be d to name five teams in the country, let alone the league, that was better. But the other message the mid-majo- mid-majo- ""JN ' i "He's starting to work out and he's planning to be --- back on the football field in .' ".'.t:':-- --)in. '.1 2008," Kevin Long said. But getting him stabilized so he . could undergo the stem cell treatment required a lot of blood products. Friday's blood drive is an opportunity to give back some of that blood. To donate blood, a person MARIO RUIZDtily Htrrt) must be at least 17 and must Michael Reed (3) confronts Orvgon'$ Jackie Bates at the Pioneer weigh at least 110 pounds. Those under the age of 18 must Pure Vision Las Vegas Bowl on Dec, 21, 2006. Reed and other BYV football players will participate in a blood drive at Lone have signed parental Peak today. - it :: ! r 3 vt s Pacific Life Open. ON THE AIR National rankings were released Tuesday and the BYU women's tennis team (7-surpassed its highest ranking of the season as it jumped from No. 32 to No. 29. The surging Cougars host the struggling Rice University Owls ) today at 11 am at the BYU Indoor Tennis Courts. BYU enters today's competition on a h roll with a 1 record at home this season. Rice is only the third team that is not ranked that BYU has played this season. "We feel like we just keep getting stronger with each match," said BYU coach Craig Manning. "We're starting to build confidence and momentum. Our Adventure Travel Sii Jason Franchuk !rAvJ to the growing list of star players to pull out of the Cougars tennis teams hosts Rice Fishing 'Hunting Mil MWC. iKh 3:30 p.m. mtn. p.m. mtn. BYU SPORTS South Town Women's BYU vs. TCU 1 PAGE FRIDAY TODAY Men's MWC IBRIMNG Avs Thursday, Marti ft 2007 HERALD DAILY B2 hard-presse- committee passed along last See UTKE, B5 |