OCR Text |
Show C2 AMB RIEFING P 1 v TODAY TODAY NCAA Tourney NBA Midi Mcm(jhis ? x (f,''". St. CBS p.m. MLB ON THE AIR sending 4 teams to Europe for another preseason tour in 2008 NBA back to F.urope U)MX)N The for another preseason tour next season. The Miami Heat, New Jersey Nets, New Orleans Hornets and Washington Wizards will play two games each on the October trip to prepare for the 2IHIMK) season. "Our third consecutive year of the NBA Europe Live is another step in our ongoing efforts to bring the excitement of the NBA to our loyal and passionate fans across Europe," NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement. The Heat and Nets will play each other in London and Paris, while the Hornets and Wizards meet in Berlin and Barcelona, Spain. "I am looking forward to expanding the game of basketball to these great cities with my teammates," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said, "Being a part of Team USA Basketball in the Olympics, I know the importance of taking the next step in making the NBA a global sport." Unlike in previous years, however, the NBA teams will not play local teams on the tour. The first game between the Heat and Nets will be in Paris at the Bercy arena on Oct. 9. They will meet again on Oct. 12 at the 02 Arena in London. The Hornets and Wizards then play each other on Oct. 14 in Berlin at the 02 World, followed by another game between the two on Oct. 17 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, The trip is less than two months after the Beijing Olympics. London will host the 2012 Games. "Having played in international competition, I am very aware of the passion of the European fans for the NBA, so it will very special to bring the NBA to both Paris and London," Nets guard Vince Carter said. "I am sure that my teammates will truly enjoy this unique experience." The NBA is also expected to return to China for another preseason tour next season. In 2006, the NBA's first European tour included the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs. Last year, the Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Tim- - Dodgers vs. Colorado 8 p.m. FSN Men's NCAA Tournament South Region semis Midwest Region semis 5 p.m. 5 p.m. CBS CBS The Giants opened the doors of AT&T Park on Wednesday to show the media what's different in the ballpark this season. But we already know w hat's different. Gone are the enormous banners that adorned the light standards. Gone is the mural that covered the d wall. Gone is the counter showing career home runs. Gone are the rubber chickens. Gone, we can presume (though the clubhouse was locked), are the personal TV and invisible ropes in the corner. Gone: any sign of Barry Bonds. "It's not relevant," said Staci Slaughter, the team's senior vice president. Also missing was the Splash Hits counter, but the team 7 p.m., KJZZ TGC at Utah promises that will be back in place by opening day. The removal of the counter (which is now at 60, with 35 of those belonging to Bonds) was not due to the park-widBonds extermination. It was removed for construction in the right field wall of McCovey Cove Loft, one of two large corporate party suites added to the ballpark. The other is the Legends Club on the suite level In this, the 50th anniversary of the team's arrival in San Francisco, the celebrating of team legends is a very big deal. But one team legend has been rendered invisible. Radio e ' - NBA --; 7 p.m. 1320 AM at Utah berwolves and Toronto Raptors played around the continent. Roy out 4 games with groin injury: At Portland, Ore., Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy will miss the next four games because of a groin injury. reserve, was injured in Tuesday Roy, an night's 102-8- 2 victory at home over the Washington Wizards. He did not travel with the Blazers for Thursday night's game against the Golden State I Trail Blazers guard Brandon NHL Penguins down Islanders All-St- PITTSBURGH Jarkko Ruutu had a goal and two assists and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Islanders 1 on Thursday night in Sidney Crosby's first home game in more than two months. 3-- Warriors. after The team said Roy would be the four games. The second-yea- r guard averages a ; team-hig- h 19.3 points and 5.8 assists. Forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who missed the game against the Wizards with a sprained right ankle, did travel to Oakland, Calif., for Thursday night's game decision. and his availability was a game-tim- e ) have 10 games left and need The Trail Blazers four more victories to finish with a winning record. I Bruins 4, Maple Leafs 2: At Boston, Tim Thomas made 30 saves, Phil Kessel and Peter Schaefer each had a goal and an assist and Boston eliminated Toronto from playoff contention. I In other NHL scores: Rangers 3, Devils 2; Capitals 4, Lightning 3 (OT); Sabres 4, Senators 3 (SO); Thrashers 3, Panthers 2. (38-34- Long Beach Northridge better poise and right now, our weakness is passing." So this week in practice, BYU has faced a barrage of serves to improve its passing. Even Patchell, a former BYU standout, has gotten into the -B- Overall MPSF State YU 4 4 UCLA 0 97 Stanford ;. Pepperdine UC Irvine USC Haw ; UC Santa Barbara UC San Diego Pacific act. "My shoulder is worn out ". Patchell said. "We've been serving BB's at them." When BYU is passing well (and in system), the results are more to Patchell's liking. Take, h for instance, a sweep of Pepperdine on March 7 and 8, where the Cougars hit Thursday's match State at Long Beach UC Irvine, late Today's matches Pacific Stanford at USC at Pepperdine UC San Diego at UCSsntn Barbara UCLA Hope International t BYU at Northridge Saturday's matches two-matc- Pacific at Stanford UC Irvine UC Santa Pepperdine at USC at UC San Diego Barbara at BYU respectively. "We did not play against UCLA and Long Beach State like we'd been practicing," PatcheU said. "We played OK, but we didn't pass well and we need guys to step up. It all starts with the first contact. Our setters are a lot better if we pass well." In UCSB, BYU faces a team fighting for a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoff spot. UCSB's head coach, Ken Preston, is retiring at the end of this season after 30 years leading the Gauchos program. Patchell said he had just finished watching tape of UCSB a sweep of USC. "I've never seen a team play better on video than UCSB played against USC," Patchell said. "It wasn't close. UCSB blew them out. They're a dangerous team." For BYU, senior middle blocker Russell Holmes continues to have a stellar season and is tied for first in the country in blocks per game (1.60). He's also seventh nationally in hitting percentage (.457), Senior outside hitter Ivan Perez leads the Cougars with 4.45 kills per game, 11th overall. BYU is two matches behind Long Beach State in the loss column in the MPSF standings and one behind Northridge with six matches still to play. The winner of the regular-seaso- n MPSF title will host the n tournaleague's fjr a) 1 - Lm i? . Y f 4 1 i V. j t 1 ;-- MARIO 5 RUIZDaily the ball as David Mendoza attempts a block on Jan. 25. BYU's Jonathan Charette heraldextra.com (1 Herald 's 3) spikes Oral Roberts rallies twice to defeat Cougars DAILY fate as Vargas the previous HERALD inning. TULSA, Okla. Juan Martinez led off with a homer in the third to put ORU on the scoreboard, trailing Kelly Minissale hit a two-ohomer in the fifth for the Golden Eagles, closing the gap Oral Roberts overtook BYU in the sixth and eighth innings Thursday afternoon to claim a 13-- victory at J.L. Johnson Stadium. Dodging thunderstorms and to4-2- . Pinch hitter Michael Notaro swirling winds that helped eight homeruns leave the yard, hit the first pitch offered by reliever Blake Torgerson for the Golden Eagles, now a three-ru- n homer to put ORU overall, twice came from behind. The only two BYU homup 54 in the sixth. The Golden ers gave the Cougars leads of Eagles went up 64 in the seventh when Minissale doubled and rallied for and ended up scoring on a wild BYU, now homer five runs in the eighth to take a pitch. Then a two-ru- n 8 lead, but ORU surged again by Ryan Groth put ORU up 84. Golden Eagle starter Jerry in the bottom of that frame to 12 Sullivan tallied a career-hig- h take the lead for good. Leadoff doubles by Jonathan strikeouts before leaving the Cluff and Steve Parker in the game in the in the seventh with one out and Musso on third. first and second inning preBut a Cougar strikeout and ceded homers by BYU's Sean a sliding catch in the outfield McNaughton and J.T. Musso ended the inning. to give the Cougars their first BYU broke its leads. drought of scoring when McNaughton led off the Parker drove in Vargas in the third with a single, but was eighth to make the score, picked off first just before With one out, Parker joined Dan Vargas doubled. Parker Ko on base as Bryce Ayoso led off with a double again in the fourth, but he suffered the replaced Thomas Bills at DH e and ORU ace T.J. Kelly took same 4-- 9 ut 14-- 2-- 0 4-- 12-1- 9-- the mound. Musso was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Then Kelly walked Brandon Relf, followed by a three-ru- n double by Cluff to give BYU a lead. David Genao off BYUs new reliever in the eighth, Jared Miller. Miller struck out the 9-- 8 and 1 in Mountain West Conference play. All three doubles matches came down to close endings, with the Cougars' only win coming at the No. 1 position when Jonathan Sanchez and A.J. Young posted an win over Elliot Wronski and Bryan Miller. Cassidy Mears and Evan Urbina's 5 loss tied things up, but the Rebels claimed the point after a win on court two. 0-- 8-- 6 next batter, then walked the next two, the first of which was Martinez who scored the run when Minissale singled down the line. The two teams meet in the second of three games tonight 8-- go-ahe- In singles play, UNLV's David Campbell secured another point for the Rebels after defeating Daniel Hwang Young handily defeated Andrew Giuffrida frO, 64 at the No. 6 position, keeping the Cougars in the match and remaining undefeated on the day. at 6 p.m., MDT. 6-- I BYU tennis: At Las Vegas, the BYU men's tennis team dropped another close match on Thursday as it lost 3 to UNLV. With the loss the Cougars fall to 12-- 8 on the season 6-- 4-- I I pair used to enclose words or figures so as to separate them from the context. But not in March. That's when brackets men's basketball tournament. I've had maybe a dozen ask me friends or how my bracket is shaping and give me confused up looks when I don't really know exactly how to answer the question. That's because for the last few years my cousin and I have discovered how thrilling pitting my knowledge and luck against those crazy 64 teams can be. We're crazy, absolutely insane when it comes to trying to find that perfect combination, but we love it. We live for those three days between Selection Sunday and the opening tip of the tournament. Most people fill out one or two brackets; this year we put together 25. See how replying to that Point system We decided that the standard systems (one point for first round games, two for second round games, etc.) was too boring and really played to picking the favorite. So our system is exponential (one, two, four, eight, 16 and 32 points for each game in each respective round) plus the seed number of the team if selected cor- Playing on court one, the No.69-ranke- Wronski d 64 win over pulled out a Sanchez, but Urbina came through with a win of his own against Rony Yeghnazary (7-- 6 ' 6 2) With UNLV up the Couk wins gars needed on the final two courts. After winning his first set 64, Mears eventually fell in a tough three-se- t match to Wesley Burrows, clinching the win for the Rebels. With the outcome of the match already decided, Thomas Shubert recorded a 64, 3 win over Luca Barlocchi at the No. 2 position. The Cougars remain in Las Vegas and continue conference play as they take on TCU at 10 a.m. today. 6-- 3-- back-to-bac- 6-- rectly. I Example: Villanova's win over Siena in the second round was worth 14 points (two for a second-roun- d game plus 12 for Villanova's seed. 2. Skill brackets We both believe we're college hoops experts, so therefore we display our skill by selecting winners. Here are some examples: Best: This is the one we think will end up with the highest total. I First: This sheet is our initial impressions after selec- tions are announced. I One bad day won't kill you as you pick each round seper-atelRound-by-roun- ' ' ' Innov'atiof! in person. I Goodbad: On this one we make legitimate picks but try to select the overrated teams because this one goes to the other person as well. See LLOYD, Dayligntiwj. Solatube is the brightest tubular daylighting system... PERIOD. 8-- stranded-on-third-bas- 1"""V' V 1 NATIONAL BASEBALL CARD DAY IN at: Mr. E's Sports Cards 720 South State Orem, a FREE Pack of Basebal Cords on Saturday, March 291 Receivt UT 84053 flOOffln Store 6:30pm Drawing lor: Barry Sandara Football 2007 Complata Sal Toppa Barry Bonda Jaraey And Otharal IwbmJL Low March 29, 2008 10am 6:30pm 10 Concepts uc (9I N N 7127 2 S. 400 W. Midvale 801-566-12- ji f A KM Toll Free 2 www.brlghterrooms.com Open 5 and bv appointment Mon-F- m 9-- Interest Rates Low Monthly for new homes Payments Rates and prices are better than ever, which means that now is a great time to get into a beautiful new home at Countryside Estates in Santaquin Utah. Only 15 minutes south of Provo - scenic east bench location - multiple floorplans to choose from - many custom features and amenities - starting from the mid $200's Call for mora information on our current deals and incentives and to visit our model homes. A ww i WW wwww y. I Bad: This set of picks is as bad as we can make it, then is given to the other :0; SOLATUBE. five-innin- g . become the defining term in the greatest event in all of organized athletics: The NCAA ." I Darnell Dickson can be by 1 ost people know to be a IIVII brackets of marks 1. HU 344-255- F v. Daily Herald Sports Editor or at ddickson BRACKETS affairs either. This is about seeing whether how well we know the sport and how lucky we can be. Here's how we do it: 24-2- reached at TO LOVE THE question about how I'm doing could get a little dicey? And these aren't just straight up post-seaso- ment April I li ova J left-fiel- NBA (as of Wednesday, March 26) Team .345. TGC Classic LPGA, Safeway Inter. MLB Preseason MPSF Standings Continued from Cl and TGC 1 p.m. 4:30 p.m. L.A, Clippers Yr : in Volleyball .379 8:30 a.m. European, L.A. Clippers 5V ?re5 gone at AT&T Park Golf PGA, Zurich 7 p.m. KJZZ J' . ! Barry Bonds references Television NBA is coming I .A. Clippers at Utah, R(iKf STPvATFlELD HOMES www.stratfieldhomes.com C4 |