OCR Text |
Show 6 Wednesday February 26, 2014 SPORTS Snow early TODAY'S SKI REPORT 23° / 9 a.m. 33° / 3 p.m. Alta 0 in www.dailyutahchronicle.com Brighton 0 in UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS TODAY: Swimming & Diving 23° / 9 a.m. 33° / 3 p.m. conditions & weather from utahskiweathercom Canyons 0 in 28° / 9 a.m. 39° / 3 p.m. 28 °/ 9 a.. m Deer Valley 39 0 / 3 p.m . Snowbird 0 in 0 in Brandon Barlow STAFF WRITER THURSDAY: Women's Basketball Utah vs. USC 7 p.m. Huntsman Center Swimming & Diving Pac-12 Women's Championships All Day Federal Way, Wash. NCAA TOP 25 MEN'S BASKETBALL RECORD 1 Florida 25-2 2 Wichita St. 29-0 3 Arizona 25-2 4 Syracuse 25-2 5 Kansas 21-6 6 Duke 22-6 7 Louisville 23-4 8 Villanova 24-3 9 Creighton 23-4 10 Saint Louis 25-2 11 Cincinnati 24-4 12 Virginia 23-5 13 San Diego St. 23-3 14 Wisconsin 22-5 15 Iowa St. 21-5 16 Michigan 19-7 17 Kentucky 21-6 18 Michigan St. 22-6 19 North Carolina 20-7 20 Iowa 19-7 21 Memphis 21-6 22 Ohio St. 22-6 23 Southern Methodist 22-6 24 Texas 20-7 25 New Mexico 21-5 SWIMMING & DIVING Utes look to move up in Pac-12 Ryan Miller STAFF WRITER It was clear Monday at Ute Natatorium that it was taper time. The Utah women's swim team had replaced its normally tired faces with smiles and laughter. Resting time has arrived, and championship season is just around the corner. The team will spend this weekend in Washington for the Pac-12 Championships, where it will look to improve upon its seventh place finish a year ago. "We would like to move up from last year," said head coach Joe Dykstra. "I am excited to see everyone on the team go some best times. That's how you measure success in our sport — to individually be better than you have ever been." The squad currently has two swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships. Freshman Stina Colleou and senior Traycie Swartz have punched tickets, but they are hoping a successful weekend in Washington will allow others to join them. "There are some girls that are right there," Swartz said. "Everyone is looking really good, and I am exSee SWIMMING page 8 0 in 24° / 9 a.m. 34° / 3 p.m. Seniors reflect on Utah careers All Day Federal Way, Wash. TEAM Solitude WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Pac-12 Women's Championships RANK 23° / 9 a.m. 33° / 3 p.m. CHRIS AYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Senior Ciera Dunbar goes to pass the ball to a teammate during a game against the Colorado Buffaloes last month. 1 Reflecting on their collegiate careers, it is difficult for the three Utah seniors to describe their time in Salt Lake City without showing some kind of emotion. Utah is approaching its final two home games of the season, with Senior Night against UCLA set for Sunday. Ciera Dunbar, Ariel Reynolds and Michelle Plouffe each said their time with the Utes has been the greatest part of their lives. Despite that common theme, each player has had vastly different careers, from the way they started to the different challenges each has faced. Dunbar's career began as she anticipated. She had missed much of her final two high school seasons because of a knee injury and realized she would be worked in slowly by the Ute coaching staff. After playing in 28 games her opening season, she suffered yet another knee injury and redshirted her sophomore year. Multiple other injuries have plagued the Elko, Nev. native throughout her time at Utah. "I did not expect to have all of the injuries, and I did not expect to blow out my knee again," Dunbar said. "But ... I can genuinely say that it has been one of the best times of my life, despite all of the circumstances." This season, Dunbar has been one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in the Pac-12. She is 15th in the conference with 27 treys made and has a shooting percentage of .361. She claims resiliency learned from her injuries is what helped her the most. "I wouldn't say that I didn't have it before, but I definitely think it has been built on with me being here," Dunbar said. "Individually, I think we all kind of learned different things as well, and I think that resilience would be one of things that I helped my team with." For Reynolds, the Portland, Ore. native began her college career across the country on the junior college level, where she helped Northwest Florida State College to a 23-6 record her sophomore year. She was concerned about making the jump from junior college to Utah, but the sense of family among her teammates helped her settle in sooner than she expected. "For me, coming from a junior college was a big transfer," Reynolds said. "But as far as being family-oriented, Utah was more like a family. At the juco [level], it is really small, and you did not have a lot of people to talk to. You did not even really have time to build relationships. But at [Utah], I was able to do it like that. Within two years I felt like I had been here for four." Reynolds said being a Ute has taught her to work hard and to earn what she gets. She feels that concentrating on both school and basketball has helped prepare her for life. See BASKETBALL page 8 THE GREAT DEBATE -1 - Does Wilson's return bode well for Utes? Bad health makes him unreliable Experience an important asset ext year's football season brings serious questions, suspicion and complete anxiety. Of the many concerns, quarterback Travis Wilson remains the biggest of them all. Can he return to play his best football for the Utes in 2014? Can he even go back to being the player he once was? Though I want Wilson to come back and take Utah to the top of the Pac-12, I just don't see that happening. While I know how good Wilson can be — he is big, strong and can throw the ball well — he is coming off of a career-threatening injury. Recent reports have indicated Wilson is able to participate in spring ball this year, but the injury he suffered three months ago is still alarming. What scares me most about Wilson is the fact that he has only started 16 games in the past two seasons combined. Both seasons have had similar stories — he starts strong, and everything looks great for the Utes, but then the quarterback falls to the turf for some reason, ultimately resulting in an injury and a downward spiral for the rest of the campaign. Before the more serious injury he suffered last year, Wilson sustained a minor injury to his hand. This caused him to miss time in games against Pac-12 opponents, and even when he did play, it was apparent the injury was affecting N T IAN SMITH Staff-Writer Wilson's ability to be a reliable signal-caller. The simple fact is that this guy just cannot stay healthy enough for an entire season. The news of Wilson's return gives hope to all Utah fans, myself included, and I am hoping he proves me wrong. Unfortunately, the pieces just don't add up, and the odds are against him. First off, Wilson will have to pick up a new offense yet again. His first year on campus consisted of now recently departed Brian Johnson calling the plays on offense. During Wilson's sophomore year, Dennis Erickson was calling the shots. Fast forward to present day, where Utah has hired a new offensive coordinator in former Wyoming coach Dave Christensen, and Wilson will have to work harder than ever before. Learning a new system is difficult enough, but add the fact that the likely starting quarterback is recovering from what some were calling a potential career-ending injury, and it's highly improbable. It will take something special for Wilson to succeed, but he VS See SMITH page 8 he news broke Monday that Travis Wilson has been cleared to participate in spring ball, though only in non-contact drills. With his performance last year, though, some skeptics wonder whether he can be a top quarterback for the Utes next fall. In my opinion, he has the potential to be the next great quarterback for Utah. • To start, the more ingame experience that Wilson gets, the better he will become. It took Alex Smith six years to lead the 49ers to the NFC Championship and be viewed as one of the better quarterbacks in the league. And Smith isn't the only one to prove experience does matter. Yes, Wilson was sporadic with his play last fall, but look at the circumstances. Wilson was thrust into the fire in 2012 at the tender age of 18 to play starting quarterback for the Utes and was only 19 years old when he was named the starter for the 2013 campaign. He played exceptionally well for someone that age and was a key component in Utah's victories in 2012 and 2013. Because of Wilson's age, I believe he lacked the experience and knowledge most seasoned quarterbacks need to possess in order to dominate a football game. Wilson will enter the 2014 season a year older and with two years of DOMINIC GARCIA Staff-Writer experience under his belt. He is still young and learning, but the in-game experience he has from the previous two seasons will make him a great player. From a physical standpoint, Wilson has all the tools required to be the next great Ute. He stands at 6 feet 7 inches and weighs 240 pounds. To put those dimensions in perspective, Wilson is two inches taller than NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, whose nickname is "Big Ben". Size isn't a requirement in a quarterback, but in Wilson's case, it certainly works to his advantage. One potential flaw in Wilson's history is that he has yet to play a full season at the starting position. In 2012, he did play in all 12 games, but he only started the last seven of them. In 2013, he was only able to start the first nine games before sitting out the rest of the year because of injury. For the past four seasons, Utah has not been able to keep the same starting quarterback for a whole season. If Wilson can stay healthy, he will be See GARCIA page 8 Vote on who won this week » www.dailyutahchronicle.com |