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Show iiy1UiBlrt'iiiirtj8ii V UNIVERSITY Journal PACE f 7 EDITOR t Thursday, March 3, 2005 Darren Vaughan, 586-199- 2 Oral Roberts (flJOOIIDDIMfflG picked to win Mid-Co- n title Oral Roberts sweeps mens and womens indoor titles As the college basketball regular season mds down and the conference tournaments ai e stai ting to form, sports fans are beginning to pi mt out their brackets Everyone is wondering who can steal themselves a bid, not only from the Mid-Co- n Conference, of which our beloved are a pait, but fiom the around the rest of the NCAA Who is going to take the coveted Mid-Co- n crown7 Will it be Valparaiso repeating last years triumph17 Or will IUPUI come away with their second title in three years'7 There is plenty more to it than just these two teams, so let s look into it a little further The first round match-up- s are as follows Oral Roberts vs SUU, IUPUI vs Western Illinois, UMKC vs Oakland and Valparaiso vs Chicago State I find it extremely difficult to pick against our beloved but with ORU essentially playing a home game, the odds are stacked too highly against us Regretfully, I pick Oral Roberts As for the other games, I will pick the higher seeds prevailing IUPUI, UMKC and Valparaiso This sets up ORU vs IUPUI and UMKC vs Valparaiso IUPUI looked unbeatable when they played at the Centrum Arena, but it is hard for me to pick against a team as strong as Oral Roberts I like Oral Roberts in a nailbiter The other semifinal will prove to be just as exciting, with Valparaiso overcoming UMKC In the final game, which will feature Caleb Green and Dan Oppland, the two best players in the conference, look for Oral Roberts sixth man the fans to take over and guide them to victory However, Oral Roberts will still only earn themselves a 13th or 14th seed and an early exit in the NCAA tournament, but the real fun is making it to the tournament anyways Outside of the Mid-Cothe most exciting conference to watch, as always, is the Atlantic Coast Conference This years ACC tournament promises to be just as exciting as last years, which in Maryland faced Duke in the final overtime Marylands a clinched victory bid tournament which they most likely would not have gotten otherwise This year, the usual suspects will be around to stir it up, but I dont think that there will be another team like Maryland to lock up a surprise NCAA bid The winner this years ACC tournament will be Wake Forest, solidifying their spot as a No 1 seed It will definitely prove to be an exciting tournament, though Another conference tournament to keep an eye on will be the Big East tournament With powerhouses such as Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Boston College and Connecticut all trying to take the conference tourney crown, it should make for a great weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York I think Pittsburgh, with gritty players such as Carl Krauser and Chevon Troutman, has the best chance to win this tournament Plus the Panthers have proven that they can win in hostile environments, beating Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, Connecticut in Storrs and Boston College by 22 points in the Conte Forum With success m the tournament, Pittsburgh should lock down a No 3 or possibly a No 2 seed in the NCAA touinament One of the best conference tournaments to watch every year is the Big 12 conference tourney The Big 12 boasts such teams as Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech (with everybodys favorite coach, Bobby Knight) and Texas Kansas has proven themselves as one of the elite teams in the nation, but they have a knack for losing the big game Look for Oklahoma State to take this conference tourney, with the Iowa State Cyclones making a tough final game Eddie Sutton s Cowboys are simply too deep and talented for anyone to beat them One conference that is not as strong as it has been in past years is the Pacific 10 Typically, you can count on Stanford being in or around the top 25, followed closely by Arizona, Oicgon, UCLA and Washington However, the confeience is going through a low right now and could possibly only produce two NCAA tournament bids, barring an upset in the tourney Arizona has this conference on lock down and should be able to take the conference crown pietty easily, but I cant stay away from the Washington Huskies As you may recall, I like them to make it to the Final Four, so why not like them to win the weak Pacific 107 I like Washington by double digits in the final over Anzona I don t really know why I am wasting my time picking the Big 10 and Mountain West touinament winners, but I will make it fast Utah could win the Mountain West tourney even if Andrew Bogut (a nominee for national player ot the year) sat on the bench As for the Big 10, Illinois hasnt lost a game all year and the tournament is taking place in Chicago It may huit them in the long run, but they will win this tournament easily, with a little trouble coming from Michigan State If you are as excited as I am, then the next few weeks leading up to the tournament will be almost as good as the tournament itself, with their own set of upsets and Cinderella stoi les By DARREN VAUGHAN com dvaughansuuournal The SUU indoor track teams were unable to successfully defend their Mid-Co- n titles, as Oral Roberts swept both the mens and womens titles Tuesday in Flagstaff, Ariz The men finished second to ORU, as the Golden Eagles outscored the T Birds 178 to take the title Western Illinois was third with 134 5 points, with Chicago State, Valparaiso and UMKC rounding out the standings The mens effort was led by Jess Baumgartner in the 5,000 meter run, as he beat teammate Chad Sanada by 26 seconds to win the event title Shaun Vernon, Kevin Sandall and Brad Parker followed Sanada and the swept the top five finishing positions Other strong performances by the men on Tuesday included Steve Hansens second place finish in the hurdles, as ORUs Brian Blocker beat him by just five hundredths of a second for the win Sham Manuele finished fourth in the event Phillip Britt turned in a third place finish m the dash, while the placed four runners in the top eight in the mile. er er including Charles Degnan and Aared Sampson The 4x400 meter relay team finished third in its race behind ORU and Chicago State Troy Gent represented SUU well in the shot put, finishing fifth with a throw of 14 77 meters In addition to his win in the 5,000-meteon Tuesday, Baumgartner also won the 3,000 meter race on Monday, with the taking six of the top seven finishing spots In other events that took place Monday, the distance medley team claimed third place, finishing just 1 7 seconds behind ORUs winning time of rs See TRACK, Page 8 By DARREN VAUGHAN dvaughansuuournal com The SUU mens basketball team will attempt to pull off a major upset when they face Mid Con regular-seaso- n champion and preseason favorite Oral Roberts m the 2005 ToshibaMid-ContineConference Basketball Championship at John Q Hammons Arena in Tulsa, Okla Saturday night. TheT Birds earned the tournaments eighth and final seed, finishing 6 10 in conference play, five games ahead of 15 mark Oral Roberts Centenarys won the regular-seaso- n title with a key victory over UMKC, who slipped to second place as a result of late season losses to SUU and Valparaiso ORU finished 13 3 in conference play, and currently has a 23 6 overall record SUU coach Bill Evans said the matchup with the Golden Eagles will be a difficult challenge, especially because the game will be played in ORU s home city We played Oral Roberts close he said twice, They re a very team good Theyre going to have about 10,000 people there and well have about five or 10, but well appreciate all 10 MENS ORU is led by BASKETBALL Ken sophomores Tutt and Caleb Green, who have combined to score an average of 38 points per game in conference play Green averages 20 2 points per game and 9 7 rebounds per game against Mid-Co- n opposition, while Tutt has averaged 18 2 points on 41 percent shooting from range and 91 percent shooting from line Larry Owens has the also been a force against Mid-Co- n opponents, averaging 10 6 points and 7 4 rebounds per game The Golden Eagles have shot better than 49 percent from the field against conference opponents, while limiting the opposition to just 42 shooting ORU also has a decided advantage when it comes to 3 point shooting, as it shoots just under 40 percent while its opponents shoot under 35 percent The Golden Eagles average 79 points per game, while limiting their opponents to 70 points per contest In the two previous meetings this season between SUU and ORU, the T Birds were able to stay close, but could not come away with a win In both teams Mid Con opener Jan 4, the Golden Eagles took a 73 67 win in Tulsa, Okla In that game, Tutt had 22 points, while Green had 14 points and 11 rebounds for ORU Rand Janes and Tim Gainey had 15 and 14 points, respectively, for SUU, while guard nt 1 late-seas- PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JANA TAYLOR UNIVERSITY JOURNAL Seniors Tim Gainey, Jason Baker, Jeff Martini and DeAngelo Newsom of the mens team, as well as Jams Beal, Julie Williams, Sarah Hutton and Julia Allender of the womens team, show off their skills. The tournament. seniors will play a critical role for their respective teams this weekend at the Mid-Co- n free-thro- w Seniors leave SUU with many memories By JONATHAN DEAN jdeansuuOurnal com The basketball teams have finished another regular season, causing the veterans to look back and reflect on their experiences here at SUU Both the mens and womens basketball teams are losing four great, dedicated seniors from their ranks The mens program will lose DeAngelo Newsom, Jason Baker, Tim Gainey and Jeff Martini The women will lose Sarah Hutton, Jams Beal, Julie Williams and Julia Allender Baker is the only four year veteran on the mens team He is the last player left from the 2001 season when the T Birds won the conference championship and earned a berth into the NCAA tournament Baker is currently leading the Mid Con in 3 point percentage It has been a great ride as far as being able play basketball and get an education, Baker said These are the best times of my life I am excited to be graduating and just moving on and becoming a professional in some sort of field Newsom has been at SUU for two years and has made some landmark strides Newsom is currently in the top five in the Mid Con in steals He is known for an ability to provide energy for the team and the crowd with his aggressive dunks Newsom transferred into SUU from Northwest College in See See SENIORS, Page 8 MEN, Page 8 Birds falter against ORU; Mid-Co- n Oakland at play By JONATHAN DEAN jdeansuujournal com The T Bird womens basketball team lost a heartbreaker in its season finale to Oral Roberts on Monday despite Jams Beals career high 28 points We got away from what we were doing defensively in the second half and that is what let them back into the game, coach Joe Hillock said We scored enough points to win and we played very well, I thought, and for a not being able to stop them long time But there for about four minutes really hurt us The T Birds started out the game playing tough defense and capitalizing on turnovers The only time that the T Birds lost the lead in the first half was when ORUs Katie Langford 73-7- y hit a jumper to take the lead 4 at the 14 55 mark the that lead The largest accumulated in the first half was by nine points, when freshman Amy Young hit a 3 pointer However, Oral Roberts came right back, as Leah k Cannon hit to bring the game to within three another BASKETBALL Cannon hit 3 pointer 40 seconds later to tie the game with 2 55 left to play in the half From there, the Birds went 3 4 at the break run to lead on an 6-- fade-awa- back-to-bac- 40-3- 11-- See WOMEN, Page 8 t ITI L,jHibTi itiiri 223-11- Mens team faces ORU in tourney n, Coin a on MtGiegor is a sports columnist fo i the University Journal He can be reached at nicgi 8569suumatl net 10 40 53 B J Taylor took the individual title in the pole vault, clearing a maximum height of 4 9 meters, and Gent and Greg Watson both finished in the top five in the weight throw Following the meet, Sandall was named the Mid Con Newcomer of the Year, while ORUs Prince Mumba was named Athlete of the Year and Golden Eagles coach Joe Dial was named Coach of the Year Baumgartner, Gent, Hansen, Sanada and Taylor were named to the all conference team, as well The womens team competition was no contest, as Oral Roberts cruised to 5 victory over Western 9 the 1 CHRISTINA MEIER UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SUUs Sarah Hutton tries to fend off Alycia Seay during Oral Roberts Monday-nigh- t The victory against the Birds play Oakland Sunday in Tulsa, Okla. |