OCR Text |
Show www.dailyutahchronicle.com UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS 5 SPORTS Wednesday March 26, 2014 BASEBALL TODAY: Softball •• •* • • • • • • • 7 4" • • • * Alt z • • • • • • • IP . i • **** *•0•000 •. *• •* * 0 0 • • • 0„tar• • • * 46 • Ell‘r 0 • * • * * * • • *• • • • • * • • • * * • • -• Utah vs. Idaho State 5:00 p.m. Utah Softball Stadium 4 THURSDAY Swimming and Diving • • •• • •• 41* • • •• •• • * •• •• •• •• ••••*••••••••• • •io • •0 • • • •• •• • • • • • :op • 401 • • NCAA Men's Championship All Day Austin, Texas . 40- • * • •4110!!***** • • • • • • Art • 4 *• • • • • 41/ • 41. . • • • • • • • 111 • • • * 0 41Ik 41) PAC-12 STANDINGS 40 SOFTBALL Team Pac-12 Overall OREGON 3-0 26-3 UCLA 5-1 28-2 ARIZONA ST. 4-2 30-5 CALIFORNIA 2-1 18-11 ARIZONA 3-3 28-6 WASHINGTON 2-3 21-7 OREGON ST. 2-4 11-17 UTAH 1-4 11-12 STANFORD 1-5 23-11 FOOTBALL Christensen focuses on speeding up Utah offense Brandon Barlow STAFF WRITER After a disappointing performance from the offense in last weekend's scrimmage, the Utes showed a great improvement in Tuesday's scrum. The offense was in motion as running backs were breaking long runs and receivers were going up and making plays. According to Utah's new offensive coordinator, Dave Christensen, that's the way it should be. Christensen is working on implementing the same up-tempo offense he has used in other coaching stints, including as Missouri's offensive coordinator and head coach at Wyoming. There has DAVE CHRISTENSEN been frustration, however, about execution and making plays that have slowed down the process. On Tuesday, Christensen was a little more upbeat and pleased with how the team performed. "We were better than we were Saturday," Christensen said. "We still have a long ways to go, obviously, but I thought we did some things better. The biggest thing from my standpoint was we got correct anything and everything that we did not do well [Saturday]. Hopefully we will come out every day and do some things well, otherwise we will not be a very good football team." Although he runs a fast-paced offense, Christensen spends a lot of time helping players recognize their mistakes. Along with his staff, he goes over with players what went wrong in previous scrimmages before practice. After breaking it down individually, the coaches watch to ensure the players are correcting said mistakes. Once the players know the X's and O's, the players will work on adding the acceleration. Christensen also hopes to add in a competitive environment. During practices, players will exchange heated words with one another, which is considered a good sign from the new coach. He says what he brings to the table will be a way to help the players seek ways to improve play-by-play. "Hopefully it is a competitive mindset," Christensen said. "A high level of expectation and an offense that has some confidence and wants to be on the field a whole bunch and that want to score points." See CHRISTENSEN page 6 - CHRIS AYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Dalton Carroll pitches during Tuesday's game against BYU. Utes fall to Cougs in extra innings, 4-3 Ian Smith STAFF WRITER Revenge can be heartbreaking. Throughout most of their game Tuesday night at Smith's Ballpark against BYU, it appeared as though the Utes would get back at the Cougars for walloping them 20-3 on Mar. 4. BYU had a different plan. Trailing 3-I in the eighth inning, the Cougars scored two runs to tie things up. The contest ultimately went into extra innings before BYU prevailed in the nth inning by a score of 4-3. The Cougars' Brock Whitney hit a single to lead off the frame and was bunted home by Parker Starr. The loss was Utah's fourth in a row and eighth in their past nine games. "It's tough, man,” said senior infielder TJ Bennett. "It's definitely a heartbreaker, what they did coming back in the eighth. We felt like we had that one." Head coach Bill Kinneberg offered some analysis of why his team walked away defeated. "We had opportunities to score more runs, and we didn't get it done," he said. "We had lots of opportunities throughout the whole game and had a lead and didn't hold it." While Tuesday's contest had the same endSee BASEBALL page 6 1- THE GREAT DEBATE -I Are one-and-done players good or bad? Freshmen develop talent in NBA Best teams require continuity I n the coming weeks, fiber-talented freshmen Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, along with many of their fellow freshmen peers, will choose to either return to school or head to the NBA. Ever since the NBA banned players coming to the league straight out of high school, each class of freshmen has had to make this tough decision. With most projected lottery picks choosing to forego their college eligibility, top players typically want to test their skills against the world's best. In the Internet age, rarely does a top prospect escape the eyes of basketball lovers. With each highlight video, the hype around these prospects grows, and when they select a school, they generate immediate excitement within that program's fan base that can have a lasting effect. The one-and-done trend has changed how some coaches have recruited and built their teams. Exhibit A: Kentucky. Wildcat coach John Calipari is now famous for his ability to recruit top-end talent and get them drafted in the NBA the following year. Other teams have followed suit, with powerhouses such as Kansas and Duke starting to recruit more and more players who could potentially be leaving after one year. Other schools, such as defending national champion Louisville, opt to recruit kids who are more likely to stay for multiple years. Both methods have proven to work and actually have given a different dynamic to college basketball. It's always an interesting matchup when senior-led teams match up against star-studded freshmen, as was the case last Sunday for Kentucky vs. Wichita State. That game resulted in the best game of the year by a landslide ... yeah, that was terrible for college basketball. People who are really, really good at something should have the option to be paid. We have seen one-anddones and, before them, high school seniors, jump into the NBA and im- N RYAN MILLER Staff-Writer h. mediately make a big impact for their teams. Of course, the NCAA would V benefit from having multiple years of Parker and Wiggins, but what about them? If you look at the last few projected lottery picks who have decided to stay and "develop" their games, you see a list of names that have been hurt by their decision. In 2011, freshmen Harrison Barnes, Perry Jones III and Jared Sullinger were all projected as lottery picks, and they chose to remain in school for another season. The following year, only Barnes, who was projected to go in the top three picks in 2011, ended up being selected in the lottery. Last season, Marcus Smart was projected as a possible top two pick, but he remained in school and is now looking at a spot outside of the top five. These players have cost themselves millions of dollars to do what is supposedly "the right thing." It's not that these kids are getting beat out by a better crop of freshmen — it's that they aren't getting significantly better. With all the talk that staying in school helps kids become better players, there is just not that much recent evidence of that. Take Smart, for example. He decided to remain in school for all the right reasons, as he wanted to mature, develop a jump shot and lead his team to a deep tournament run. None of those things ended up happening. Top-end talent develops when they play against people who are better than they are. They will only get that in the NBA. So freshmen, feel free to leave. We will all enjoy watching you in the NBA. r.miller@chronicle.utah.edu Vote on who won this week ew NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he believes players should have at least two years of college experience before they can enter into the NBA Draft. He claims this change would be the best thing for the NBA and its players. Not only do I agree, but I also believe it would be best for college basketball players and their development. Talented athletes nowadays are choosing more and more to go to college, not to get an education, but because it serves as a springboard for the pros. After establishing themselves as a freshman phenom, they hightail it to the Association. For these college athletes, the focus is about playing professional ball, not getting a degree or getting better with their respective college team. For a head coach like Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, it has got to be frustrating to be able to recruit the best players out of high school, but only have them for one year. If you think about it, the last time Duke won the national title was when they did not have a young superstar but a team full of veteran players. Now what Duke does is based around a talented player in freshman Jabari Parker, the team's leading scorer and one of the best in the nation. A team simply cannot build off of a temporary foundation. Parker and other star freshmen, such as Kansas' Andrew Wiggins, find themselves, along with their teammates, taking early exits from the NCAA Tournament. A year is enough time to get to know somebody, but there are notable differences when a team takes 3-4 years to build continuity, exactly like Duke's squad did back in 2010. Looking at the NBA's current prospects, Parker and Wiggins are both projected to be the first two picks in nearly every mock draft. Without a doubt, both of S. StaffWriter these kids have great talent and are arguably the best players in the country on the college level. It definitely would not hurt their draft stock, however, to come back to school and work on their game some more. In fact, if the players are as good as they seem now, imagine if they had a chance to athletically mature and sharpen their skills for another year. They wouldn't be project, but a finely-tuned instrument. Some people would disagree and use names like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Garnett as examples of successful athletes who all declared for the draft early. I am not saying it can't be done, but who else besides these guys have had successful careers corning straight from high school or after one year of college ball? Bryant and Garnett were drafted 17 and 18 years ago respectively, and James was the latest back in 2003. Obviously they are exceptions, but there hasn't been anyone since then. For example, Kentucky had nearly an entire starting lineup stymied with freshmen that went into last year's draft, but where are they now? The NBA game has become increasingly more difficult to just compete for a spot on a team, let alone gain a starting position. For college basketball, the namebrand schools are no longer teams to fear, because you don't have to worry about their stars for too long. They'll be gone within a year, and we, as loyal college basketball fans, will continue to have more busted brackets, just like we have this past season. b.barlow@chronicle.utah.edu www.dailyutahchronicle.com |