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Show 6 SPORTS Tuesday November 29, 201 1 TODAY'S SKI REPORT 25° /9 a.m. 38° / 3 p.m. Alta conditions & weather from utahskiweathercom Groomers and hard packed snow 25° / 9 a.m. 38° / 3 p.m. Brighton 30° / 9 a.m . 44° / 3 p.m. Canyons Deer Valley Snowbird CLOSED 25° I 93 a.m. p.m. 38° I Solitude 26° / 9 a.m. 390 / 3 p.m. FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS No use crying over loss THURSDAY: Women's Basketball Utah vs. Weber State 7 p.m. Huntsman Center Utes shake off disappointment, prepare for bowl SATURDAY: Men's Basketball Jake Bullinger ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Utah @ Fresno State 2 p.m. Fresno, Calif Utah's 17-14 loss to Colorado on Friday did more than just prevent the Utes from finishing the season on a five-game winning streak. Had Utah defeated Colorado, it would be traveling to Eugene, Ore., to take on the Ducks for the Pac-I2 Championship game. Since Utah lost to the lastplace Buffaloes, it now has to shoulder the postseason implications. A win over Colorado would have given Utah a shot to reach the Rose Bowl, but now the premier Pac-I2 bowls are out of reach. "It's definitely a disappointment," linebacker Chaz Walker said after losing to Colorado. "We wanted to stir things up and get into that championship game. It's a rough loss, but we'll bounce back and we need to get ready for our bowl game." If Oregon defeats UCLA in the Pac-I2 Championship game, both the Ducks and Stanford will likely earn BCS bowl bids. Outside of BCS bowls, the Valero Alamo Bowl gets the first choice of Pac-I2 teams and most projections have 7-5 Washington being selected. After the Alamo Bowl makes its selection, the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl and the AP TOP 25 MEN'S BASKETBALL RK TEAM RECORD PTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-0 6-0 7-0 6-0 5-1 5-0 5-0 6-1 6-0 4-1 4-0 7-0 6-0 5-1 3-2 5-0 5-1 7-0 4-0 5-1 7-1 2-2 6-0 5-1 4-1 Kentucky (46) Ohio State (17) Duke (2) Syracuse North Carolina Louisville Baylor Connecticut Wisconsin Florida Xavier Alabama Missouri Michigan Kansas Marquette Pittsburgh UNLV Gonzaga Vanderbilt Mississippi State Memphis Saint Louis California Texas A&M www.dailyutahchronicle.com 1,599 1,564 1,465 1,439 1,337 1,259 1,183 1,055 1,045 1,040 982 912 746 681 676 637 537 535 525 482 277 269 149 121 115 See FOOTBALL Page 8 CHAD ZAVALA/The Daily Utah Chronicle John Cullen was one of five Utes named to the All-Pac-12 team Monday. VOLLEYBALL Looking ahead with Pac lessons Parker Lee STAFF WRITER JEFF MCGRATH/The Daily Utah Chronicle Danielle Killpack jumps to spike the ball. The Utes finished ninth in the Pac-12. It wasn't a fairytale season for the volleyball team. No "Hoosiers"-like movie will be made about how a little school from the Mountain West moved up the ranks and took the best volleyball league in the country by storm. Then again, they didn't expect to do that. Head coach Beth Launiere said Utah (11-2o, 6-i6 Pac-12) knew going into the season that it would take time to really compete with many of the teams in the conference. "This season was about learning, and it is all a process," Launiere said. "We finished in ninth place and to some people that might not seem that great. They don't think about the fact that we didn't know our opposing coaches' philosophies and styles ... Everything was new." In some cases, they had to learn those things the hard way. The Utes took their lumps along the way, especially early on. There was a stretch in the first half of the Pac-I2 schedule where they were swept in six straight matches. The Utes also lost a few matches that they had no business losing. "We learned how tough you have to be, how physical you have to be, how smart you have to be and how good you have to be," Launiere said. "We learned that you have to come into practice every day to get better, or you will lose." UCLA has no place in Oregon Considering that, the team made significant strides as the season progressed. In the second half of the schedule they were much more competitive with the top teams in the conference. On the road, Utah knocked off the Oregon Ducks, who have been in the top 15 for most of the season. The next week, they came within two points of upsetting then-No. 7 Cal. With the way the Utes performed in their first year in the Pac-12, especially late in the season, they feel like they earned their spot in the conference. "We totally belong," senior Danielle Killpack said. "The Pac-I2 knows where Salt Lake City is on the map now They know what University of Utah volleyball is all about and they have to prepare for us just like everybody else." In her 22 seasons as head coach, Launiere said she has never coached a team that improved more than this year's team, and she said it was because of the sudden hike in competition. The Utes are very optimistic about the future. Killpack, one of two graduating players, said she is looking forward to watching her former teammates continue in the Pac-I2. "We proved to every Pac-I2 school that we are there to compete," Killpack said. "I am very excited to watch where this program goes." CLA will head into the unfriendly confines of Autzen Stadium on Friday and play Oregon in what will officially be called the Pac-I2 title game. Unofficially, you might call it the Pac-I2 title farce. To be frank, the Bruins have no business being near Eugene on Friday, not even as paying spectators. That's a fact even UCLA's bigwigs seemingly acknowledge, as head coach Rick Neuheisel has been relieved of head coaching duties despite the Bruins' claim to the South "title." At 6-7, and with a win over 7-5 California as its best victory, it's See VOLLEYBALL Page 8 See UCLA Page 8 BUBBA BROWN StaffWriter U Plasm' at Ibicics Week 12 Winner: Gary Bringhurst (12-4) Week #13: Dec.1 - Dec.4 NCAA ad, vs .4i' , L 0...;.--. N. Illinois UCLA ', ,!. Ohio NFL L L,1 A.@ Ms Carolina Name . Tampa tc.- @ ,__! • v-@ -- 6 SOIMMEIM4 MISS Oregon B @ (-+ South. Miss // Cincinnati Pittsburgh Atlanta Contact Houston Texas Baylor Georgia LSU 4t** @ 4 le Houston G.) vs L Denver Minnesota NYJ Oklahoma * 471 A 4=0 yr ors s isfp OK State Virginia Tech Clemson Wisconsin @ Washington Tennessee STATE Mich St. ( @ nj Buffalo Green Bay Tiebreaker: Final for Oklahoma Circle all of your selections and submit sheets to Union Room 321 by 5 p.m.Thursday. Winners are announced every Tuesday and will be awarded a gift card to The Pie. Featured Staff Picks: Jake Hibbard (in bold) or vs s NYG Detroit New Orleans @ Oklahoma State |