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Western Plasma 1061 No. Main • 753-7802 HOURS: Mon-Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat noon-4 pm, Closed Sun 16 STATESMAN FRIDAY, MARCH 25,2005 SPORTS Bonds back in San Francisco for rehab BY JANIE MCCAULEY The Associated Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - A mental break away from everybody might be just what Barry Bonds needs right now. Exhausted and testy, the San Francisco slugger returned to the Bay Area on Thursday to continue rehabilitating his surgically repaired right knee because the Giants believe SBC Park is better suited for him than the team's spring complex. There is no timetable for Bonds' return. The seventime NL MVP said Tuesday he could miss half or all this season while recovering from the surgery, though the Giants are hoping he'll be coming back sooner. "Anybody who thinks Barry Bonds is going to quit doesn't know Barry Bonds. There's no way," trainer Stan Conte said. "When somebody has a second surgery, it's a little discouraging. And that's called being a human being." Bonds, who has had two operations on his right knee in the last two months and also had surgery on his left knee in October, flew back to San Francisco with assistant trainer Dave Groeschner. Anybody who thinks Barry Bonds is going to quit doesn't know Barry Bonds. Stan Conte, Trainer Bonds, at the center of the steroids scandal, said earlier this spring it was frustrating not to be with his teammates and on their schedule. On 1\iesday, he blamed media scrutiny for his problems. Bonds is third on the career home run list with 703, trailing only Babe Ruth (714.) and Hank Aaron (755). "Barry really didn't want to leave his teammates," Conte said. "He was very much more upbeat yesterday being around the guys." Bonds will work in a therapeutic pool at SBC Park that will allow him to do cardiovascular training without putting pressure on the knee. He wasn't scheduled to do any rehab Thursday. "You have to appreciate the fact he's had three knee surgeries since the end of last season and two in the last seven weeks. That takes a lot out of you," Conte said. "Usually it's a little slower process to begin with. That's also the reason we really have no timetable on this thing." Conte said he's not yet sure whether Bonds will travel with the team once the season begins April 5. The Giants took into con- sideration that with 40 players packed into the tight quarters at Scottsdale Stadium and many needing treatment, Bonds could get more personal attention elsewhere. "Barry's kind of an important person on this team " Conte said. "We think that he deserves that concentration level of being up there and the utilization of state-of-theart equipment at SBC Park." Bonds was defiant the day he arrived at spring training Feb. 22, calling reporters liars and saying "I don't know what cheating is" when responding to a flurry of questions related to the \ steroids controversy. On Tuesday, his emotions came out again. "I'm tired of my kids crying," he said. "You wanted me to jump off a bridge, I finally did. You finally brought me and my family down.... So now go pick a different per- ; son." GYMNASTICS From Page 13 fied for regionals since the start of the conference finals in 2002. Corn said the biggest goal for the team this year was to get back into the regional meet and this weekend will tell that tale. T h e consistency of our program has gotten us to the ranking that we've garnered for two years," he said. "I look forward to their character and consistency." He said that key points for the team to remember while they compete are keeping their heads down so they can concentrate and focus on their routines, landings on the vault and handstands on the bars. "That is what separates the great from the good," Corn said. "If we hit our vaults I don't think there is going to be anything stopping us." The team had a rough , start at the beginning of the season, starting it off at No. 31 in the pre-season poll. They then dropped as low as No, 37 before finally starting to slowly climb their way up to the position they are in now. "We knew we were going to be good (but) we didn't know how good " Corn said. "Its been an exciting year." As for nerves, the team is ready and prepared. "I don't think they've ever gotten nervous. Proper training and proper rest will usually lead to that," Corn said. The meet will be Friday at Ryan Talbof'rtalbol@cc.usu.edu AGGIE LIESEL KOHLER smiles as she nears the end of her balance beam performance against Southern Utah University March 14. Kohler won the event with a score of 9.9. This time Bogut is the difference BY JAIME ARON The Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas - Ray Giacoletti had been Utah's coach for a few months when he finally got to see his star player in action for the first time. And it wasn't exactly under the best of circumstances. Andrew Bogut was the 19-year-old lining up at midcourt for Australia in the Athens Olympics, jumping center against someone a decade older who was wearing the blue and white of the host country in a gym overflowing with loud, proud Greeks. If that scenario didn't leave Bogut breathless, a forearm slammed into his chest immediately after tipoff could've done the trick. Nah. Bogut just swung back, bringing a smile to Giacoletti's face then and again Thursday as he retold the story. "That," he said, "is when I thought we had something special." Since returning to college and picking on kids his own age, Bogut has become a bully of sorts. The 7-foot sophomore was so dominant this season that he was the top vote-getter on the AP's All-America team announced this week and he's the main reason Utah (29-5) will play Kentucky (27-5) in a semifinal of the Austin Regional on Friday night. Forget the usual squawking about teamwork. Giacoletti and the rest of the Utes fully acknowledge that Bogut is the prime reason they are two wins from the Final Four - and why their fans can forget that five of their last 10 appearances in the NCAA tournament have ended with losses to the Wildcats. After all, Bogut was Down Under for all of them. "They have to prepare for us a lot more than two years ago " said Utah guard Marc Jackson, part of the squad that lost to Kentucky by 20 points in a second-round game in 2003. The Wildcats know they must slow • Bogut to get past the Utes and set up a possible regional final matchup with Duke. They're not even talking about stopping Bogut because that rarely happens to someone who averages 20.4- points (12th best in the nation) and 12.2 rebounds (second best), and is coming off a career-high seven assists in a second-round game against Oklahoma. "You can't give him a strict diet of doing things," Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said. "You have to change it up;' The variety of schemes will feature plenty of double teams. However, as Wildcats forward Chuck Hayes noted, "he's seen double teams all year and still put up the numbers he has." Those numbers include double figures in points and rebounds 25 times. Kentucky's rotation of Bogut busters will start with freshman center Randolph Morris, who is coming off his first double-double and drew his coach's praise for how well he's been rebounding and avoiding fouls lately. Morris said he hopes to be aggressive enough on offense to wear out Bogut. He also appears to be falling into the trap of thinking the Croatianborn, Australian-bred Bogut is a soft international player. 1 think he may try not to bang with us and play so physical, so we have to draw him into that type of play," Morris said. , Apparently, he hasn't seen the clip of the tipoff from the Australia-Greece game. Or heard Bogut describe it. "I was just playing, my man," Bogut said. "I wasn't trying to prove a point. I was just playing." For Giacoletti, seeing Bogut thrive on the international stage - he averaged 14.8 points and 8.8 rebounds in ' five games, with 21 and nine against [ fourth-place finisher Lithuania - was especially rewarding because it verified everything he'd heard about his star player. Giacoletti was hired from Eastern Washington about this time last year. He knew Bogut was considering turning pro, likely in Europe, so talking him out of it became the coach's top priorjty. He asked Bogut to drop by his office daily to start developing a relationship. Giacoletti also occasionally called Bogut's parents in Melbourne, Australia. His big move was flying 21 hours to their home for a face-to-face chat about their son's future. After dinner over a barbie, Giacoletti heard what he was hoping to hear. Even when Bogut's breakout performance in the Olympics sent his stock soaring, the center never |