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Show 6 SPORTS Tuesday, March 2, 2010 conditions & weather from utahskiweather.com Hardpack and moguls / Partly sunny TODAY'S SKI REPORT 22° / 9 a.m. 35° / 3 p.m. Alta www.dailyutahchronicle.com 22° / 9 a.m. 35° / 3 p.m. Brighton Canyons 27° / 9 a.m. 41° / 3 p.m. 27° / 9 a.m. Deer Valley 410 / 3 p.m. Snowbird 22° / 9 a.m. 35° / 3 p.m. Solitude 23" a.m. 36° / 3 p .m. MEN'S BASKETBALL UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS Not taking any chances TODAY: Men's Tennis Utah @ California 1:30 p.m. PT Berkeley, Calif Utes head into MWC tourney with hopes for success, NCAA slot WEDNESDAY: Men's Basketball BYU @Utah 7 p.m. Huntsman Center TV: CBS College Sports Bubba Brown Women's Basketball STAFF WRITER 7 p.m. Provo week's conference tournament gives the Runnin' Utah @BYU After spending a season mired in mediocrity, next TV: BYU-TV Utes a chance to still catch a NCAA Tournament berth. However, that doesn't mean the Utes are using it as a fallback option. "We never play to think that if we don't play well, we have the conference tournament to lean on," said senior guard Carlon Brown. "You always want to play good regardless of whether it's a regular game against Weber State or Pepperdine, in our case, or if we're playing Vegas or BYU in the championship of the conference tournament." Despite the fact that with three wins in the conference tournament the Utes have a chance to—as head coach Jim Boylen likes to say—hang a banner in the Huntsman Center rafters, Brown said the trials of this season won't be forgotten. "I wouldn't say that it's a chance to wipe everything out," Brown said. "You're going to remember the season regardless of the conference tournament. Yeah, it would be nice if we win it, but this year has been up and down." Rather than being forced to win the conference tournament, the Utes would much rather be a certainty for the NCAA Tournament by the time of the first tip-off at the Thomas & Mack Center next week. "Who we are as a team, who we are as a program is we want to make the NCAA Tournament regardless of if we win the conference tournament like last year," Brown said. "If we wouldn't have won the conference tournament, we still would have made the (NCAA) Tournament (last year). That's how we want to look at it every year, although hopefully we can make some noise in the conference tournament and make the NCAA Tournament this year." Although things might be easier on the Utes if they had already secured a NCAA Tournament berth, they will take the same approach to the conference tournament that they do every year. "The .500 season, to me, has nothing to do with (winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament)," Boylen said. "We're going down there Men's Tennis Utah @ Stanford 1:30 p.m. PT Palo Alto, Calif UTES IN BRIEF SWIMMING & DIVING Team excels against tough conference Greg Peters STAFF WRITER The Utah swimming and diving teams both put up solid performances this past weekend at the Mountain West Conference Championships as the women finished in fifth place with 377 points, and the men in the sixth spot with 40'. Both teams faced one of the toughest conference fields in the NCAA, as the MWC continues to grow in national recognition in swimming. The women's MWC title was secured by the undefeated Cougars, who finished the weekend up with 703 points. Following the Cougars were Wyoming, SDSU and UNLV in the top four spots. The men's tournament was dominated by the UNLV Rebels, who finished with 787 points. Air Force finished in second place with 600.5 points. FULL STORY ONLINE n www.dailyutahchronicle.corn SKIING THIEN SOK/The Daily Utah Chronicle Redshirt freshman Chris Hines takes a jumpshot against Wyoming on Saturday at the Huntsman Center. The Utes have their final home game of the season Wednesday night. 2010 RMISA Championship Results GIANT SLALOM SLALOM CLASSICAL FREESTYLE Rk Team M/W M/W M/W M/W TOTAL 1 COLORADO 91/109 104/116 133/102 117/100 101/101 70/95 135/112 101/79 902 764 109 /95 83/91 85/94 74/66 119/100 95/63 90/78 92/90 0/84 118/113 94/70 77/93 62/82 99/82 88/118.5 76/90 725 705 700.5 640 73/96 83/83 90/68.5 635.5 1:58.18 1:57.98 1:20.32 1:15.96 30:15.8 16:56.9 54:55.4 47:27.7 7th 11th 1st 5th 6th 4th 8th 8th 2 ALASKAANCHORAGE 3 NEW MEXICO 4 UTAH 5 DENVER 6 MONTANA STATE 7 NEVADA 66/76 RUGBY Eva Huckova Nick Cohee Anna Kocken Kyle Kung Miles Havlick Zoe Roy Didrik Smith Zoe Roy Jr So Fr Sr Fr Jr So Jr Wonnen'sGiantSlalom Men's Giant Slalom Women's Slalom Men's Slalom Men's 10K Classical Women's 5K Classical Men's 20K Freestyle Women's 15K Freestyle Rockets Name . 11 Best of Week 7: Larry L. Smith 12-4 g V A MI 00 %fir 4. See FIELDSTED Page 7 fjo The Utah rugby team is continuing to prove its dominance in the college rugby world, as it used a strong group of backs to quickly overwhelm a young Wyoming team early in the first half Saturday. The No. 5 Scrummin' Utes came away from last weekend's home opener with an easy 67-7 win against the Cowboys. "It was a good game for us—not a full 8o minutes, but overall pretty good," said head coach Blake Burdette. "Wyoming played hard, but they are young, and we're just grateful to get the win." BASKETBALL BIDS Week #8: March 4-7 NBA See RUBGY Page 7 y FINAL SCO STAFF WRITER • Utah's only podium finish of the weekend came from freshman Anna Kocken. The win was Kocken's first of her collegiate career. -The fourth-place finish marks the fifth time in 2010 that the Utes have finished fourth out of six events. The only event Utah didn't finish fourth was the Utah Invitational, in which the Utes finished third. Utah The Utes, who typically find themselves struggling in the opening minutes of a game, came out strong against the Cowboys in the first 20 minutes. Halfback Matt Wunderli scored first in the game. Playing the ball wide, the Ute offense quickly wore down Wyoming, scoring again and again, eventually outscoring Wyoming 38-o in the first half. The Utes completely shut down Wyoming's offense in the first half, '7 esterday as I sat in misery at my PAIGE desk, staring at my FIELDSTED computer through a haze of allergies and wishing that Senior, Mass Communication I could go home and take a nap, a and Psychology great realization hit me. Yesterday was the first day of March, which could only mean one thing: the arrival of the greatest sporting event in the history of forever. I'm referring, of course, to March Madness, a compilation of the 64 best basketball teams in the NCAA battling for their chance to claim the national title and bring glory to their schools. In my mind, there are few things greater than March Kelsey Price MEET NOTES: NCAA March Madness combines true athleticism, heart Team dominates in home opener Top Ute Individual Finishes See BASKETBALL Page 7 Colorado St. W. Virginia 4.41, ilk LOSANULES @ UPPERS 'AI Pistons Clippers @ Nova A&M 4akl ,s, lag •.P' Jazz 4k,LANI . , PiN)4/ X)S 11 Hawks Contact Circle all of your selections and submit sheets to Union Room 318 by 5 p.m.Thursday. Featured Staff Pick: Bryan Chouinard (12 -4) 0AVIPIR Oklahoma Texas e Los V FRIG 41 MIAMI HEAT' Heat ' 171111.: Kings ' \‘‘Igiligt ..--\/--. --- 1MB MICHIGAN 14IN 4A * @ 1111 @ S STATE Duke Michigan Michigan St. Rutgers Baylor UNC — '%- (score:82-70) it Mays Lakers It** dr "goI( 1) — , Magic Warriors NEM ----,,,, lit, 1 Pitt Florida .1 * f @ Saw BUCKS Bobcats Bucks Tiebreaker: Pick the final score of Utah f.vP WIZARDS Wizards Celtics Kentucky iIPA ikv 76ers @ Colorado State Winners announced every Tuesday, but just because you win Basketball Bids doesn't mean you could make a half-court shot. Staff Records: Bryan Chouinard 73-39, Jake Hibbard and Paige Fieldsted 71-41, Corbin Godfrey and Ty Cobb 65-47. |