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Show 6 SPORTS Tuesday, March 4,2008 www.dailyutahchronicle.com Men's Hoops Women's Hoops Ski Baseball Softball Gymnastics CSU (6-22)@ Utah (15-12) Utah (25-3) @ CSU (2-25) Utah @ NCAA Championships Utah (0-7) @ SUU Utah (10-5) § Arizona State (21-3) Oregon State (9-2) @ Utah (9-0) 7p.m., Huntsman (enter 7p.m., fort Collins, Colo. All Day, Bohart Ranch, Mont. 1p.m., CedarCity Utah 330 p.m., Jempe, Ariz. 7p,m. Huntsman Center Runnin' Utes to face downtrodden Rams Tony Pizza SPORTS EDITOR Utah's Jonnie Bryant, Chris Grant and Sayre Brennan will play their last game in the Huntsman Center tonight as the Utes face Colorado State on Senior Night. Boylen over after rhinS allev-oop : Tony Pizza '"'" ''%kffi v SPORTS EDITOR ; S %^ '%*-'. They say two wrongs don't make a right. For ,fans of the Wyoming ^Cowboys, an alley-oop dunk at the end of Saturday's 72-64 win over .* thei* bitter rival Utah ;, might have provided • some form of retribu. tion. With Wyoming hold- ing onto a six-point lead with six seconds •j remaining in the game, J> Utah pursued Poke seijs. nior guard Brandon Ew• ing toward the sideline. With a little more than a second remaining, \':% Ewing flipped a pass Utah coach Jim Boylen and Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer got | c toward his team's bas- in a yelling match after Wyoming dunked on the Utes in the ! v* ket, which Wyoming - forward Joseph Taylor "I was disappointed 'instinctive' play. Well, picked out of the air and in that (dunk)," Boylen we don't have those I-.... flushed for an exclama- said. "We were not kind of instincts around r ! ^tion point on a 'state- pressing the ball. We here." ly ment win. The act was were not going to foul Boylen has devel^reminiscent of Utah again. The clock was oped a track record for football head coach Kyle going to run out, and giving thanks for each Whittingham's deci- they threw a lob to Tay- of his opponents dursion to go for an onside lor, and I thought it was ing his postgame press kick with the U football uncalled for." conference, particularly team leading Wyoming after playing against inAlthough it's not un^43-0 in the third quarter ferior teams during the common for a player of last year's conference Utes' pre-conference to get caught up in the football meeting. moment—especially schedule. In the past, he "I just felt my team considering the stir in has always chosen his deserved an apology which Wyoming has words carefully to avoid from (Wyoming head been since last year's disrespecting his oppocoach Heath Schroyer) football game—Boylen nent, especially when on that," Utah head suggested it had noth- he was displeased with *coach Jim Boylen said. ing to do with the play- his team's performance despite a double-digit "There was no remorse ers. there, and there was no "When those things win. i respect for the game." happen, sometimes t.pizza@ The Wyoming Asso- your players make a chromcle.utah.edu ciate Athletic Director mistake," Boylen said. for Media Relations, "When I. asked Heath Boylen Point: Tim Harkins, did not about it, he said, 'I was immediately return The telling them to pull the "We'll see (Wyoming) again, Daily Utah Chronicle's ball out.' Well, he wasn't and thafs what great about league phone call seeking com- telling them to pull the play," Utah head coach Jim Boylen ment from Schroyer. ball out. We've got it on said. "We're going to run our proBoylen and Schroy- film that he wasn't tell- gram with class and we're going to er engaged in a vocaj ing them to pull the ball do it right.* confrontation after the out. Then he said in the paper that it was just an game. L The U men's basketball team has dropped four straight games. The Colorado State Rams haven't won a game since Jan. 5. The two teams meet at the Huntsman Center tonight. Something has got to give, right? Not exactly. The Rams have a 19-game losing streak on the road. Colorado State has also lost all but one of its conference road games by at least 15 points, and its average margin of defeat on the road in conference play is 19 points. However, that trend doesn't mean tonight will be a Cakewalk for a sliding Runnin' Ute team in need of a win. Ram guard Marcus Walker leads the MWC in scoring at 19.6 points per game and is another guard who stands to pose defensive problems for the Runnin' Utes. 7-foot center Stuart Creason has also returned after aggravating a foot injury in practice nearly two months ago. The center is one of two players who returned from last year, and his return gives the Rams an inside-outside duo. Combine that with the fact that the eventual 0-14 San Diego Aztecs of 1999-2000 were the only team more desperate for a conference win in its last two games, and tonight's game is shaping up to be more interesting than paper would suggest. "Creason is a good, good player," Utah head coach Jim Boylen said. "Now (Colorado State has) kind of an inside-outside punch with Walker and Creason. I think together they average over 34 points per game. I think they're a much different team from the first time we played them." Although this game originally looked like a trap game for the Utes—with UNLV and the end of the regular season on the immediate horizon—Utah will do anything but overlook the Rams as the Utes attempt to seize hold of the fifth seed in the next week's MWC tournament. Adding to the Utes' intensity should be the desire to send seniors Sayre Brennan, Chris Grant and Johnnie Bryant off on a good note in their final game at the Huntsman Center. "We'll have a little ceremony' before," Boylen said. "I'm thankful for my seniors and glad I've got to coach them for one year. Hopefully, we'll come out and play hard because we need a win. If it's senior day that gets us rolling, we'll take it." Bryant and the rest of Utah's perimeter players will need to step their game up a notch to win as Colorado State is one of the rare teams that can afford to guard U center Luke Nevill one-on-one as a result of Creason's size. Like Saturday's game against Wyoming, Boylen has decided to sit Nevill and transfer guard Tyler Kepkay to begin the game and once again start Luka Drca and Kim Tillie instead. "The intention of the (change in the) starting lineup is to try to save a few fouls from Luke Nevill in the first four minutes of each half," Boylen said. "It's also See UTES Page JO Colorado St. Rams Utah Utes March 4,2008 -7 p.m. Huntsrnan Center (6-22. 0-14 MWC) (15-12. 6-8 MWC) f i ^ www.utahutes.com KALL 7 0 0 S p o r t s Mtn. The Edge Second in MWC in FG% (.452) Offense Second worst scoring avg. (61.6 ppg) Holds opponents to 40.5 % shooting Defense Dead last in score defense (75.2 ppg) Holds 2.9 rebounding advantage Boards Allows opponents to average 37.4 rpg Johnnie Bryant averages 16.1 ppg Guards Marcus Walker leads MWC in scoring Green/Tillie both tough defenders Forwards Top rebounder averages only 5 rpg U offense and defense center on Nevill Centers Stuart Creason adds post presence Fop two scorers now come off the bench Bench Walker has more points than bench Food for thought: Utah has been averaging-11 less free throws per game than its opponent during its four game losing streak.That has allowed Utah's opponents to hold an eight-point scoring margin from the charity stripe. All four of Utah's losses in that streak were decided by eight points or less. COPY BRUNNER/JfeifrfrUtahCteankk Elliott and Co amped, move up polls Natalie Dicou AP Women's Top 25 STAFF WRITER Moving on up Little by little, the U women's basketball team is climbing the national rankings. In their fifth week in the Top 25, the Utes checked in at No. 15. Utah made its Top-25 debut at No. 20 on Feb. 4. Since then, the upward movement has been slower. Over the past four weeks, the Utes have moved from No. 19 to No. 18 to No. 16 to where they now stand. Dancing with the champs Utah head coach Elaine Elliott showed her more playful side after the 14-point win over Wyoming on Sunday, which guaranteed the Utes an outright conference championship. After the game, Elliott spoke into a microphone about how difficult it is to win a conference championship, congratulated Wyoming on a solid season and then the 25-year veteran invited Ute forward Kalee Whipple to dance with her. "Thankfully, because of the good effort tonight (the players get their chance to celebrate)," Elliott told a boisterous Huntsman Center crowd. "We're going to take down the net, play some music and dance a little bit. Right, Whippy?" Elliott then asked that music be played to celebrate the championship, and the famous victors' tune "We are the Champions" was played through the loudspeakers as Ute players and coaches took turns cutting down the net. The streak continues With a team-record 20-game winning streak under their belt, the Utes are beginning to sound like seasoned pros as they continue to hone and perfect the famed "We're just taking it one game at a time" speech. The former record of 18 consecutive wins set in 1977 was shattered last week against TCU when the Utes hit that magical i9th-straight-win mark. The Utes have had to pull out a few last-minute finishes to keep the streak alive. "We've been down. We've been dead in the water and managed to just keep playing and get wins," Elliott said. "There's not a lot of nervousness or tightness, just pretty consistent passion." The dead-in-the-water incident was the recent New Mexico game in which the Utes came back from 12 down with See RANKINGS Page JO ^Cgopecticut 2. North Carolina 3.X Tennessee 4. Rutgers _ 28- 1 27- 2 27-2 24-4 iiSMarylancI " 29-2 6. 25-3 LSU 8. Baylor 9§%lotreDame 10. California 24 3 23 6 24 5 12. Duke 21 -8 13.'George Wash[ngton 24 5" 14. V^st Virginia 23 16. Old Dominion 17. Texas A&M . 19. Kansas State 20. Oklahoma State 25-5 25 -4 22-7 20-8 22 6 " 22 _^JZZ1I.... -7 22. 23. 24. 25. Ohio State!" Georgia ; ^: Marist Virginia 22-7 . 21-8 28-2 22-8 \ |