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Show DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 8 MARCH 17-18 Second Round MARCH 19 -20 Third Round MARCH 24 -25 MARCH 26-27 Regional Semifinals Regional Finals APRIL 2 APRIL 2 National Semifinals National Semifinals Wednesday, March 16, 2011 MARCH 26 - 27 Regional Finals MARCH 24- 25 Regional Semifinals MARCH 19-20 Third Round 1 Ohio St. MARCH 17 - 18 Second Round Kansas 1 CHRONICLE BRACKET 16 Round 1 #1 8 George Mason Boston U. 16 UNLV 8 CHALLENGE 9 Villanova 5 West Virginia 12 Round 1 #2 Illinois Vanderbilt 5 Richmond 12 Win 2 ski passes to The Canyons and a $35 gift card to The Pie. 4 Kentucky 13 Princeton 9 Louisville 4 Morehead St. 13 6 Xavier Georgetown 6 Round 1 #3 11 11 Marquette Purdue 3 3 Syracuse 14 Indiana St. St. Peter's 14 NATIONAL 7 Washington St. Texas A&M 7 CHAMPIONSHIP 10 Georgia Florida St. 10 APRIL 4 2 North Carolina Notre Dame 2 Akron 15 15 Long Island Pittsburgh 1 1 Duke Round 1 #4 16 16 Hampton 8 Michigan Butler 8 Sponsored by: 9 Tennessee Old Dominion 9 CAMPUS STORE 5 Arizona 12 Memphis Kansas St. 5 Utah St. 12 THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 4 Texas Wisconsin 4 Belmont 13 13 Oakland 6 Cincinnati St. Johns (N.Y.) 6 11 Missouri Gonzaga 11 3 Connecticut BYU 3 Write in your selections for March Madness and submit them to Union Room 318 by Thursday. 14 Bucknell 7 Temple 10 Penn St. Wofford 14 UCLA 7 Michigan St. 10 2 San Diego St. Florida 2 15 No. Colorado UC Santa Barb. 15 :1 I CAMPUS STORE THE UNIVERSITY 01: UTAE I i_www_campusstore.utah.edu San; apckahn; pply_Coriaci stxp far &Mak IAna onion iss pima coda laskithaff_ Of axpr . 29rl ' 2011 Blechen 'is where he belongs' as linebacker Jake Hibbard ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Brian Blechen earned headlines at safety as a true freshman in 2010 after his overtime interception of Pittsburgh's Tino Sunseri gave the Utes a win on opening day against the visiting Panthers. Head coach Kyle Whittingham said he has been more than pleased with the switch and said the move can be considered a permanent one. "Great transition," Whittingham said. "He's doing a phenomenal job at linebacker. He is where he belongs now He's a natural." Whittingham said Blechen also had found no trouble fitting in with the linebacking crew. "He's one of the guys," he said. "I mean, that group is one of the more tightly-knit groups on the team, and they've accepted him with open arms." Christopher out Sophomore DeVonte Christopher, the Utes' leading return- FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK ing receiver from 2010, has been sidelined with a hamstring injury. Whittingham said the pull was significant enough that it might end up holding him out for the remainder of spring ball. Tuesday practice report Initially, the coaching staff had plans of hitting its offense hard and fast with the new multi-back system it planned to incorporate in place of the spread. However, after three days of practice, both offensive coordinator Norm Chow and Whittingham agreed that slowing down the process would be best. "After three practices, we reevaluated where we were and decided to slow down just a little bit," Whittingham said. "It'll still be all presented to them soon, just not quite as quickly as we originally thought." Chow said that the new plan is to present almost the entire new system by the first week of Spring FOOTBALL continued from Page 6 freshman Harvey Langi, junior-college transfer John White IV and junior walk-on Thretton Palamo. For Matthews, the decision to switch from wideout—career stats: 27 receptions, 397 yards and three touchdowns—to running back was an easy one that all came down to the chance to see action on the field. "They just brought me in, and each coach talked to me and just pointed out to me that I have a good opportunity to go and play running back, and just told me the different things that I could be doing back there," Matthews said. "In high school, I played a little bit. I played receiver and running back." The switch has been eased along, he said, thanks to his experience playing in the backfield. Being away from the position for a while, however, has him playing catch-up in some areas. "I think so far it's going pretty steady," he said. "I still have a lot to learn, so all I'm just trying to focus on is getting better every day and just take it from there. (The biggest difference is) probably just being inside and just having all the lineman moving around. It's a whole different game on the inside than when you're spread out wide." Also making the switch to the backfield is Boo Andersen, who collected 19 tackles and saw action A 25% OFF AKIT% Break. "Well, we just finished four days, and it feels like four days," Chow said. "But I think our guys are working hard just trying to do the right things. We've just got to keep working." Whittingham said Tuesday's standout performers came on the offensive side of the ball, noting that the defensive performance wasn't on par with what he saw Saturday. "The two quarterbacks are making progress, particularly Tyler Schreve," he said. "He's doing some good things, throwing the ball much better. He was a little bit nervous the first couple days, but he's settled in and is doing a nice job. The two running backs that did a nice job today (were) Harvey Langi and John White. Luke Matthews was solid as well. Defensively, not quite as good a day defensively as we had Saturday, but the guys are working hard on defense." j.hibbard@ chronicle.utah.edu in all 13 games in 2010 as a linebacker, who will be competing with redshirt freshman Jake Murphy and junior Mo Lee. "It's good," Anderson said about the switch to offense. "I mean, it's a completely different mindset, but overall I think it's a good switch, and I'll be able to fill the spot pretty good." He said the biggest change is that on offense, you already know the play and are expected to do your assignment, whereas defense is more reactionary. "It's kind of the same mentality," he added. "I've got to hit just like linebacker, so I'm kind of used to it." Chow wanted to make clear that neither of the position switches are set in stone, but he said he was optimistic about what he's seen from the players in the opening days of spring ball. "They have some depth on defense," Chow said. "We haven't made anything final. We're still just kind of looking at it (as a possibility). So far, so good. They're both willing guys and hardworking guys." Speaking specifically to the position of running back, Chow admitted that he cannot continue to give four players equal reps in practice, but said they aren't in a hurry to figure out who their guys will be quite yet. "Once fall time comes, you try to get two guys ready and a third one just in case," Chow said. "So we'll see. We're not in a big hurry." j.hibbard@ chronicle.utah.edu I CIS RED ROCKS continued from Page 6 Utes claim NCAA women's sport attendance title After Utah hosted No. i Florida on March 4, the team was able to claim an easy victory for the 2011 gymnastics attendance record after several hundred fans were turned away because the 15,000-seat Huntsman Center was over capacity. There were 15,558 fans who came out to watch the Red Rocks take on the Gators. This week, the Red Rocks were able to claim an additional title, earning the NCAA attendance title for any college women's sport. The Utes, who averaged 13,503 at their home meets this year, beat out Tennessee women's basketball (13,078) for the second time in a row to claim now back-to-back attendance titles. k.price@ chronicle.utah.edu SPENCER SANDSTROM/The Daily Utah Chronicle Gael Mackie performs on beam during the competition against Michigan at the Huntsman Center. CONNECT to The Chronicle • dailyutahchronicle.com |
