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Show s Page 7 Friday, March 30, 2007 SCOREBOARD COMING UP Gymnastics Baseball Men's Tennis Track Women's Tennis Baseball Utah (10-6) @ Colorado State (5-6) UNLV(11-19)@ Utah (9-15) March 30, 2007 TBA t* For I Collins. Colo. Match 30. 2007 1 p.m. i:t Fianklin Covey Field UNLV(1M9)@ Utah (9-15) Utah (12-3) @ BYU (13-7) Utah (10-6) @ TCU (4-8) Utah<a> Stanford Invitational March 30, 200/2 p.m. y> Fianklin Covey Field Ntorch 30,2007 7 p.m. t? Provo. Utah March 30. 2007 TBA 4> Son Diego, Calif. March 30, 2007 All Day vv Polo Alto, Calif. Boylen up success New Ute coach breaks ice with practice Cody Brunner The Daily Utah Chronicle New Runnin' Utes head coach Jim Boylen had already won over the media in a press conference Tuesday. On Thursday, it was time to try to woo the players at his first practice. It looks as though he did just that. "I already feel like I've learned a lot just from one practice," said Utah forward Shaun Green. "He knows exactly what needs to be done and I'm excited for next year." Exactly what needs to be done to resurrect the Utah basketball program to its former glory is uncertain. But one thing is for sure: Defense will help. Boylen started his first practice as head coach of the Utes by addressing the team's defensive woes, which was the main reason Utah finished with its worst record in more than three decades. "I really like his enthusiasm and how much emphasis he puts on defense," said Utah center Luke Nevill. "We had a situation this year where guys weren't really buying into the defensive philosophy. I have a feeling that won't be the case next year." So, what exactly is the difference between former coach Ray Giacoletti's defense and new coach Jim Boylen's methods? "He really pays attention to detail," said Utah forward Daniel Deane. "He had a particular way he wanted us to defend, and he stopped to critique us until we got it right." Particularly, Boylen places a lot of emphasis on help-side defense, where a player doesn't only guard his man, but one or See C O A C H Page 8 TYLER CQKU/ The Doily UiahChromdc Sarah Shire vaults in Utah's March 23 meet,against Arizona State. The Red Rocks face BYU tonight at 7 p.m. in Provo. It is their last meet before the NCAA Regional tournament. It's the final countdown Red Rocks conclude regular season with one last shot at a confidence boost Tony Pizza Chronicle Asst. Sports Editor KIM PETERSON/ The Daily Utah Chronicle Luke Nevill stretches a shot over UNLV's Joel Anthony in the Utes'MWC Tournament first-round loss in Las Vegas on March 8. Utah had its first practice yesterday in the Huntsman Center.AL Centn Preview I For the U gymnastics team, the wait for tonight's meet against BYU may have seemed longer than the wait for any other meet this year. And not just because the Red Rocks are eager to hand their archrival its 2rst consecutive loss to a U gymnastics team. The Utes have bigger fish to fry, starting with their performance on floor. True to his word, head coach Greg Marsden made sure he gave his team the best possible chance to be prepared on floor during practice this week. "As hard as (practice) has been and as tired as peoplef are...I think it's helped," said senior Nicolle Ford. "As much as I hate to admit, I think that's what we needed." Now the Red Rocks are just anxious to stop analyzing what they can do on floor and start proving what the team is capable of. "We're just going to compete," Ford said. "There's nothing left to say, there's nothing left to do." To help give the Utes the best opportunity to score, Annie DiLuzio will be temporarily trading in the double Arabian from her first pass for a triple front until she gets her stamina back. "I came in yesterday with Greg (Marsden) and worked out (on floor) and it went really well," DiLuzio said. "It really boosted my confidence a lot, which was good. I needed that." Although floor has been the most pressing issue for the Red Rocks as of late, performing well on that event is just a quarter of their focus. The bigger goal for the U gymnastics team will be to establish some momentum in the last meet of the regular season, which the Utes hope to carry into the NCAA Regional Putting together a full-meet effort—especially on the last event—should do just that. The Utes have proven to be as good as anyone in the country through three events, but whether their final event is floor Marriott Cmter No. 6 Utah Utes (12-3) . Provo, Utah Q1 7 p j ? §o No. 24 BYU Cougars (13-7) Ute notes: Cougars notes: The Utes will be on the road for their last meet of ihe season Ihis year. The Utes won their 23rd home attendance aov/n with an average of 11,297, which is 13 more fans than Alabama averaged. The Utes have averaged a lotal score of 196.715 against BYU in Provo. BYU will be the Utes seventh consecutive top-25 opponent. The Courja5 have had an up and down season to this point. The Cougars put together an impressive effort against Boise State, which came just one day after the Cougars came in third at a quad-meet in Utah. The only top-25 opponent that BYU has defeated this year came last week in a tri-meet against No. 14 Arizona and 5outhem Utah. Food for thought: The Utes are 3-2 on the road this year,while the Cougars arc 5-1 at the Marriott Center or beam, the Utes have struggled to bring their initial effort full circle. The last time the Red Rocks topped the 49-point mark on the final event of a meet was on Feb. 2 at Utah State. Since then, the Utes have gone seven straight meets with a sub-49-point total in their final rotation. To give his team a chance at coming into a meet as fresh as possible, Marsden decided to give them a break from training the day before a meet. ,Ford said that Marsden got this idea when the team traveled to Corvallis, Ore. on March 16. The Utes used the Thursday before the meet as a travel day and Marsden found that his team was sharper than normal when meet time rolled around. Another reason Marsden may have given his team a day off is because of how hard he worked See RED. Page S In the playoff hunt until Red October don't know about anyone else, but I am psyched out of my mind for the baseball season to start. Every single division is surprisingly competitive this year, whether it's because everyone in the National League West stinks like Chartwells' Chinese cuisine or the Boston Red Sox finally seem poised to give the Yankees a run for their money in the America League East. But of all the leagues that are destined to come down to the wire come October, the AX. Central takes the cake. This league will be so competitive, in fact, that the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers will go beyond the regular season to decide who wins the division. I'm choosing Detroit to win the one-game playoff and make backto-back appearances in the playoffs for the first time since 1935. No. 1 Detroit Tigers (90-72) Surprised about the predicted win total? Don't be. This ultra-competitive division is bound to eat itself alive more than the SEC does each year in TONY PIZZA college football. The Tigers come out on top of this division for three reasons: starting pitching, middle relievers and clutch hitting. When your No. 3 starter goes 178 the year before, you have a pretty good chance of having a successful pitching staff. The Tigers have just that in Kenny Rogers. Rogers.will team up with Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman to form one of the best front-three pitching staffs in all of baseball. TTirow in Nate Robertson and his sweet shades, and you've got yourself a nicelooking pitching rotation. What better way to back up that rotation than with Joel Zumaya, Todd Jones and Fernando Rodney and his 100-plus-mile-per-hour fastballs in the bullpen? These guys eat up innings faster then Bartolo Colon can polish off a Big Mac Extra Value Meal, and that is going to let the Tigers come out on top in the majority of close ballgames. The Tigers also boast one of the most clutch-hitting teams in baseball. As a team, the Tigers left fewer men on base than every team in baseball with the exception of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With the addition of Gary Sheffield and the fact that Detroit still has Pudge Rodriguez—who is still one of the best slugging catchers in the game—Detroit is going to be a very dangerous team when it ekes out of the A.L. Central on the day after SeeTlZZA Page 8 ~~ |
