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Show SPORTS Tuesday, March 13,2007 Page-6 Second disappointing season has program reeling Play ball! Oh wait, nevermind... don't Cody Brunner The Daily Utah Chronicle Ute baseball's home opener postponed For U men's basketball fans, there is only one word that comes to mind when describing the Runnin* Utes1 latest season: disappointing. Some would say that it is former coach Ray Giacoletti's fault, who resigned with two weeks left in the season. Others insist that it was just a lack of emotion. One thing is certain, though: The potential for greatness was definitely there. "Those guys weren't too far away from being pretty darn good," Giacoletti said. "Fix a few things here and a few things there and we could have made a run." The Runnin* Utes handled the nationally ranked Washington State Cougars early in the season at the Huntsman Center, 69-55. Now, the Cougars are a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Likewise, Virginia came to Salt Lake City in late December and couldn't find an answer for anything the Utes were doing, eventually losing 94-70. The Cavaliers finished their season ranked No. 24 and earned a No. 4 seed in the tournament. Again during Mountain West Conference play, Utah was able to shut down then-No. 13 Air Force's potent offense, and the result was an 85-79 upset victory. The win snapped the Falcons' 13-game win streak and sent their season into a downward spiral. With all of these quality wins, the potential was definitely there, but consistency certainly wasn't. They may have beaten a few nationally ranked teams, but the Utes shot themselves in the foot with a plethora of road losses against the likes of Rhode Island, Central Florida and Northwestern. "We never had trouble getting up for games against the better teams like Washington State, but when we played teams like Southern Utah and Albany, we knew we were supposed to win and just didn't execute well enough," Utah forward Shaun Green said. "That just goes to show you how young we were." Those upsets, coupled with a few ego-smashing defeats, sent the Utes on their way to their worst season of basketball since 1973-1974. 2 Chronicle Sports Editor KIM PETERSONfThr Daily Utah Chronicle Luke Nevill loses the ball in Utah's 69-55 victory over Washington State on Dec. 2. Nevill ended the night with four turnovers and 16 points. See R U N N I N ' Page 8 • it Chris Bellamy 7 Tourney Challenge When you've been away from home for a solid month and a half, one more day probably won't make much of a difference. But one more day is exactly how much longer the U baseball team will have to wait before finally hosting its home opener. That was supposed to be the story for Monday. The inclement weather was no longer a problem; it was sunny and bright and temperatures rose to the high 60s. Solid baseball weather. And yet even with the Utes and Gonzaga Bulldogs, ready to go for an afternoon matinee, the; game was delayed and finally cancelled because the grass at Franklin Covey Field: was just too wet. Conditions at the field—the home for local minor-league team the Salt Lake Bees which doubles as the co-home for the Utes during the season—will apparently still not be ready tomorrow. And so the first and, now, only game of the series with Gonzaga will take place Tuesday afternoon at Ute Field, with the first pitch slated for 1 p.m. The Utes enter Tuesday's contest on a modest two-game roll, having taken the final two games of a series with Southern Utah over the weekend. The three games in Cedar City were actually the Utes' first games in the state of Utah this season. Like other clubs in cold-weather areas, the Utes always have to begin their season with a length non-conference road trip because of the unpredictability of local weather. Once the U's home season officially kicks off Tuesday, the team's schedule will settle down a bit. The Utes will go, on two more road trips this month—fac-' 1 See BASEBALL Page 8 - "- .i Last week's Basketball Bids winner: Jonathan Redd (14-2). Bids will return next week. Fill out your bracket all the way to the National Champion. Submit your brackets to Union 236 by 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Great prizes await the winner! 1 point 2 points 4 points 6 points 8 points 6 points 4 points 2 points 1 point North Carolina (1) Florida (1) Jackson St. (16) Eastern Kv.( 16) NCAA Men's Bracket Arizona (8) Marquette (8) Purdue (9) Michigan St. (9) Butler (5) Southern Cal. (5) OJd Dominion (12) Arkansas (12) Maryland (4) Texas(4) Davidson {13) Notre Dame (6) East MlClWeSt New Mexico St. (13) Vanderbilt (6) Winthrop(H) G. Washington (11) Oregon (3) Washington St. (3) Miami (OH) (14) Oral Roberts (14) UNLV{7) Boston Colleqe (7) Georgia Tech (10) Texas Tech (10) Wisconsin (2) Georqetown (2) Texas A&M CC( 15) Belmont(15) National Champion Kansas (1) Ohio St. (1). 10 points C. Conn. St. (16) Florida A&M or Niaqara Kentucky (8) BYU (8) Vlllanova (9) Xavier (9) Virginia Tech (5) Tennessee (5) Longfieach(12> Illinois <12) Southern Illinois (4) Holy Cross (13) Duke (6) Virginia (4> West South Albany (13) Louisville (6); Stanford (H) 1 VCU(11) Pittsburgh (3) Texas A&M (3)' Wright St. (14) Penn.(14) Indiana (7) Nevada (7) Gonzaga (10) Creighton(10> UCLA (2) Memphis (2) Weber St. (15) North Texas (15r Make picks in ink. Write legibly. Do not make corrections (i.e., no crossing out). Points awarded for each correct pick. Total points possible: 146 Name. .Phone. Tiebreaker: Pick the TOTAL score of the championship game. |