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Show ; The Salt Lake Tribune o GRIZZLIES, NHL US. WOMENS SOccER USU BEATS NMSU; 32-30 NBA Cyclocross can be a grueling’ sport, but the : C2 @-2 C8 competitors wouldn't haveit any other way. Gumaanns C-10, 11 RECREATION, C-12 SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2002 BYU 35, WYOMING 31 Another ML Franchise in SLC? Maybe Evenvictory over Wyoming is big deal for BYU these days aybe it was a bad night to M: LarryMiller the question. Sol thought, anyway. The Jazz were losing to Detroit at the Delta Center,and the buii seemed half-empty. You could have landed a hot-air balloonin the BY PATRICK KINAHAN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE stands without blocking anybody's view. Notthat anyof the 15,000 on PROVO. hand would have minded, tion for the Cougars, whop: inced out of LaVell Edwards Stadiumwith broac miles Sanday night. t's] pretty good, considering where we were.” Whoopee.Lightthe firecrackers. the only major league team in town was royally ticked. Afterinitially reJecting my requestfor a brief inter- No, really, these are good times for BYU football. Less than a month ago, this team was an embarrassmentto the great Cougar tradition. view,the eminently decent man reconsidered, and wetalked — for After nearly two hours. three conference games, which wereall humiliating defeats, the Cougars pos- The question | wanted answered was only indirectly related to the sessed the Mountain West's worstoffense. And the defense was not a whole lotbetter. But the weather is not the Sige It stemmed from a recentartiin the Tribune aboutthe strugie ofthe Utah Grizzlies relative to ticket sales. The emptygreen seats in the Delta Center concurrently prompted and cast a shadow over the samequestion. only thing that changed in No- vember. Although it has not come against the conference's Whatare the chancesof the Salt Lake City market drawing another majorleaguefranchise — in hockey, best teams, the Cougars can now make keydefensive stop baseball or football over the next decade? Miller started in on his answer and score a touchdown when absolutely necessary. A little confidence does wonders. with a quantitative analysis com: paring overall population of the community . . blah,blah,blah Sos FAST FACT Malt Berry threw for a career-best 360 yards. UP NEXT Saturday, New Mexico at BYU, 4pm COLLEGE FOOTBALL Only two unbeatens — Miamiand Ohio State — remain after No. 1 Oklahoma and Bowling Greenfall C-4,5 “Any time you goonaroll, said tight end Spencer Nead. * “We feel good about the way we’replaying right now." The good timesthat began against San Diego Statecar- confidence just builds,” . with peroentagesor denreahie . blah, blah, blah based on averages. To be viable, hockey would be rouie same as basketball . . blah . but baseball ah frottatl” blah,blah, blah . would takedouble the money. ed coach Gary Crowton, after BYU “Hey, we're 5-5, beat Wyoming 35-31. sucked down a potato, the owner of income . A come-from-behind winovera horriblefoot- ball team normally doesnot create much excitement around theseparts, butthis is not a typical BrighamYoungseason. Anything positive is sufficient enough causefor jubila: how the home team was playing. Miller himself might not have minded. Land the darn thing directly in frontof his courtside seat and spare him the agony. Watching from his customary spot, looking as though he had ried over to the lowly Cowboys.This time, though, BYU had to sweatit out much more. Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune Midway through the third quarter, the Cougars were BYU running back Marcus Whalen heads upfield against Wyoming. He gained 124 yards on 26 carries. See COUGARS,Page C-7 Then, Miller dropped a mini- bombshell. “If you had asked methis ques- UTAH 28, UNLV 17 tion 10 years ago, I would have answered,‘I don't see a second team the [Minnesota] Twins madea call here inquiring aboutour interest in them. Wehad neverreally looked at that kindof possibility. Inside of 72 hours, welooked atit seriously. 1 called [Buzz owner]Joe Buzas to ask if the Twins could playon alternat- ing nights with the Buzz at Franklin-Coveyuntil something else could be worked out. We actually talked with the Pacific Coast League and others. “There were a ton of questions, comingat us fast, and,I discovered, an array of circumstancesthat might makeit possible. A distressed franchise beingsoldin fire sale for a price — it was something like $100 million — that would work here. “In retrospect, what happened was wegotused asa pawntogetthe Metrodometo give up certain con- cessions and they eventually made thedealto stay in Minnesota. But, thepointis, it was worth looking at.” And thepoint remains, under specific circumstances, it might be worth looking at again. “There are realistic conditions that could occur ind could bring {major league] baseball to Utah,” Miller said. “franchises,from time to time, seem to be available for a cost that this marketcould afford.” Headded, though, that acquiring an expansion team, in any league, in any sport, at an inflated price makes no sense for Salt Lake City. Luring in a “distressed”franchise is the efficacious way ‘There are factors, as well, such as playing on Sunday obvi Pee pe eine depend U. Ends 6-GameSkid It wasn’t the prettiest game, but Utes will take victory over Rebels So even though only a FAST FACT few dozen fans from among if Rerouisposts his| the original crowd ofper ony yard game noeae BY MICHAEL C, LEWIS the game McBride was thrilled to Wyoming, 10 a.m. climb a podiumanddirect the marching band as it The Utah Utes were hardly perfect in their game against UNLV on Saturday night. But against a team willing to make more mistakes than they did, they didn't havetobe. Andthey didn't care. Snappingtheir six-gamelosing streak with a 28-17 victory over the Rebels at Rice-Eccles Sta- SUNDAY SPECIAL Ute lineman Jordan : Gross has NFL aspirations attempts, a slew of senseless penalties and a late gamelull that gave them scare. “You can't be disappointed with a win,” quar. terback Brett Elliott said. ‘The Utes especially so. It had been “two months and two days” since their last victory defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham recited the exact span and the interveninglosses had spoiled a promising season and probably cost coach Ron McBride his job. C4 played the school fight song while his players chanted and room. sang in the locker “T haven't seen him this happy sincetheLas Vegas Bowl,” wide receiver Paris dacksonsaid. dium was far more important than thestyle points they might havelost with three missed field-goal theofficial paid attendance was 28,525 catia ‘THE SALT LAKE ‘TRIBUNE haps 12,000 remainedafter Jacksonwasabig reasontheUtes finally shook their longest losing streak in 16 years. He caught two amazing touchdownpasses as the Utes built a 21-0 halftime lead, thoughthey couldn't quite slam the door on a teamthat lookedterrible for most of the game. The Rebels had appearedto quit when Utah's Brandon Warfield ripped off a 61-yard touchdown runto answer their first touchdown and give the See UTES,Page C-6 ‘Trent Nelson The Sali Lake Tribune Utah’s Brooks Bahr hauls down UNLV quarterback Jason Thomas during the Utes’victory, which snapped a six-game losing streak. PREP FOOTBALL CLASS 5-A VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Skyline Uses Experience to Sweep Past Viewmont ro luxury suite and advertising Stijl, while other pro team own: ~ like the Grizzlies’ David , who can’t envision a second Peer eee tony i De Be Uadt srg an Jazz, Miller said BY LYA WODRASKA THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Great hitting, setting and defense helped the Skyline Ea day at Utah Valley State College. But something else, experience. helped them win it The Eagles won their third championship, beating Viewmont15-1, 15-13. Viewmont, which wonits region for the first time since 1987, and up set topranked Cottonwood 7-15, 15 12, 15-10 to advanceto the champ) { t COPY| Vikings still were trying to InpRANRS bright while lights the Ea gles were busy putting away kills. The result was an easy first game to get Skyline halfway to another title. “We've been playing well all week, and we knew it was important to come at them hard in the first game,” Skyline coach Jami Hutch ins said. “Viewmont is a great team, but they were a little caught up in everything pated in the title contest before yy The second game was much clos er, with the Vikings taking a 50 lead, but the Eagles rallied, and tied it at Skyline, winners of ninestate ti CLASS 3-A Lehi 28, Cedar City 3 North Sanpete 20, Pine View 0 Wasatch33, Dixie 14 ToraniWatsand used to the onship match. never had partici thes, was unfazed by all of the hoopla surrounding the final match. The CLASS 4-A get warmed up les reachthe Class §-A statevolley ball championship match on Satur straight Cas In the meantime, he'll try to keep the first one afloat, too. A4-ATITLE PLAYOFFS Bonneville 34, Timpanogos 14 nace cominghere in mylifetime,’ “ he said. “Butthree or four years ago, See SKYLINE, Page C-9 CLASS 2-A Enterprise will tage Richfor title CLASS 1-A duan Diego, Manta advance to final PAGE C-3 |