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Show ., , ' ' . , it 1 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL SPORTS · - SU cruises past IUPUI vvithout coach BY JASON ERICKSON AND LYLE GOULDING . JOURNAL STAFF VVRITERS we want to move forward and I don't want to worry about it anymore.· The SUU Athletic Department refuses to comment on the Southern Utah University swept a four games series situation, saying only that it is a "dead issue." against Mid-Con foe IUPUI Apr. 13-14. However, three of its The 'Birds dominated the Jaguars in the first game of Friday's doubleheader 20-3, SUU then rallied past the Jags wins came without Head Coach Kurt Palmer. 9-8 in the Palmer was suspended by nightcap. the MidSUU's Chris Continent Nelson drove in fiv·e runs in the Conference for three games 20-3 blowout. because of The T-Birds "unethical swept conduct." In a Saturday's game against games at Oral Roberts Thunderbird University on Field 8-1 , 8-0. April 7, Palmer In the opener reportedly lost Justin Kittrell his temper with threw a the umpire complete game, after two close stiking out eight .::alls at the Jaguar batters. plate brought in Jason Ingersol the tying and ./. and Travis winning runs f Hatch each had for Oral Qtwo hits for the Roberts. g 'Birds iR the According to victory. the Tulsa - , , ~ • ·•. z In the nightcap World • ffi of Saturday's newspaper, ...S_U_U_'_s...,_D_a_n_Wi_n_'g_h_t_p_ut._s_a_ll_h_e_h_a_s_in_t_o_h-is_s_w_in-g-as_S_U_U_s....,w'-e-p_t_lU_P_U_l_i_n_M_id-_C_o"""n_a_c_tio_n__, . g~~~~~~~~~~n Palmer chestbumped the had a three-run umpire and threw a chair from the·dugout toward homplate. homerun to help the 'Birds to victory. Palmer, assistant coach Jarod Ingersol and three SUU The 'Birds will now head to Provo to face Brigham Young players were ejected from the game. University today at 4 p.m., and again tomorrow at 3 p.m. :rhe "I do not want to talk about it,• Palmer said. "It's past and next home game for SUU will be Apr. 27-28 against Oakland. · .I SUU extends Evans' contract through 2005 .BIRDWATCH • SOPTBALL1 SUU dropped two games to BYU Friday 4-0 and 12-0. SUU's Hana Michiue and Joni Bardsley got the only hits for the 'Birds in both games. • GOLF: John Busby finished ninth but it wasn't enough to offset a mediocre per:forrnance by the rest of the squad as Southern Utah's golf team finished 17th at the Grand Canyonffhunderbird Invitational Tuesday. Busby fired a three-over par 219 to finish 13 strokes off the pace set by Cal State Stanislaus's Mark Lawless, but just five strokes out of fourth place. Unfortunately for -the Thunderbirds, however, the next highest SUU finisher was Jake Turley,, in 55th place at 230. Grier Hatfield finished 69th at 236, while Robb Evans was 88th at 245 and Seve Rivera was 90th at 246. The team finished at plus-65 929, 61 shots behind Grand Canyon, which finished at plus-4 868. SUU is off until April 19 when it competes in BYU's Cougar Classic, with the Mid-Continent Conference championships scheduled for April 23-24 at Battle Creek Golf Club in Tulsa, Okla. • TRACK: At the San Diego Invitational SUU's Anna Bullock placed first in the discus with a toss of 48.76 meters. Bullock also finished second in the hammer throw with a toss of 54.25 meters. Bullock has thrown the discus farther than any other discus thrower in the Mid-Continent Conference this year. Teresa Rice . finished first in the 1,500 meter run with a time of 4:26.00. Kassandra Harrell brought home a first place finish in the shot put with a throw of 14.07 meters. .. • SOCCll!R: Southern Utah head women's soccer coach Brian Stock announced Tuesday the signing of three players, the first soccer recruiting class in school · history to National Letters of Intent to play for"the Thunderbirds in their inaugural season this fall. The Thunderbirds received NLls from Elysia Cannon, a defender from Kaysville, Utah's Davis High School, Andrea Neilson, a defender from Layton High School and Sarah Sillitoe, a midfielder from Henderson, Nev.'s Green Valley High School. • . > • •• • 9 • . • 'O • • • Southern Utah University announced Tuesday that it would extend the contract of Head Basketball Coach Bill Evans through the 2005 season. Evans, the second-winningest coach in the school's history, guided this year's men's basketball team to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. Evans has won 138 games and has led the Thunderbirds to two-straight appearances in the Mid-Continent Conference championship game. "I appreciate the loyalty Southern Utah has shown me and look forward to being here and continuing to be a part of the program," Evans said. "We've accomplished some good things over the past few years and we want to continue to help our program. I am grateful to the University for its support of me and our basketball team.· Te nnis squad gets pair of Mid-Con wins Southern Utah University's tennis team picked up two conference wins this weekend. SUU defeated Chicago State on Thursday 6-1 . The Thunderbirds then shut out Mid-Con foe UMKC 6-0. Southern Utah's women's tennis team improved to 8-5 on the season, 5-1 in Mid-Con play, after defeating Mid-Con foe UMKC, 6-0, Friday morning in Chicago, Ill. Katie Payne, Melinda Wilkins, Ashlee Berge and Kelly Patterson each recorded singles wins, while Jenn Case and Kendra Gleason's matches weren't played. The doubles teams of Payne and Patterson, and Wilkins and Berge compl~ted the sweep with a pair of wins. The Thunderbirds now look to the Mid-Continent championship April 20·21. The winner of the Mid-Con regular season will host the tournament. The winner of the Mid-Con tournament will receive an automatic spot into the NCAA regionals, which will be held May 11-13 at a site to be announced. O O O I .... t. OUT OF BOUNDS SPORTS COMMENTARY BY JOHNNY WRIGHT MJ Chapter three? If there's one thing that Michael Jordan loves, it's a challenge. He needs it, he lives for it, and for that reason, the greatest athlete of all time is about to try his luck at professional basketball one more time. A few weeks ago, MJ took a vacation to the West Indies. If you know anything about Jordan, you'd expect him to head to the · blackjack table. He didn't. Not that he's given up gambli ng-you' d -have to check the temperature in hell if that happened-it was because the maximum bet at the table was a paltry $300. More than a month's rent for some of us, Jordan spends more than that for socks. He headed to the Bahamas to test the high limit action. The rumors out of the Caribbean are that Jordan won a million bucks, cold hard cash. The gamble is what pushes Michael; that is why I think. he's coming back. Jordan continu~s to say that he is "99.9 percent sure" that he is not returning. I would take those odds in a heartbeat. The more l think about it, I'm 99.9 percent sure he is headed back to the NBA to rescue the pathetic Washington Wizards. No one close to Jordan will deny he might come back. Wizards owner Abe Pollin told the Washington Post he believes the odds are that Michael is coming back. Some reports have said that Jordan has been working out for up to six hours · a day. Jordan insists that he is trying to lose the spare tire he has acquired since leaving NBA in 1998. I believe that as much as I believe that Darryl Strawberry is really going to stay clean this time. You don't need to play ball for six hours a day to fit back into $5,000 custom suits. His Airness is trying to overhaul his game. There are fans who don't want to see Michael come back and ruin the storybook ending he had three years ago. The picture is burned into my memory: MJ crossing over Bryon Russell, knocking down a mid-range jumper to win his sixth championship, and holding the pose, as if he was admiring what ~ he had just done. That kind of thing is nice for Sportscenter and lmax films, but I really don't think Michael cares about that sort of thing. If that were really the case, he wouldn't have come back the first time. He had the three-peat, and most important, his father had seen his last game. You'll remember, James Jordan was murdered the following year. Jordan needs competition, he is one of the most competitive people to ever walk the earth . In colleg~. if Jordan lost to his roommate playing pool, he couldn't sleep in the same room that night. Winning defines his life, I'm sure it kills him to watch the NBA and think that he could still dominate. If Michael Jordan does return, he will no longer be the game's best player, but he will be the game's best winner. Not only that, if Jordan announces his third coming, I'll guarantee two or three big name free agents will follow. How many young players would do anything to play with their idol? They'll line up. I'm not exactly sure I want him to return, however, if Air Jordan does come back, I'm 99.9 percent sure I won't miss a game. |