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Show StatesmanSports Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Blue&Ylhite Today's Sports Debate , Matt Sonnenberg is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments 1 can be sent to him .at,mattsonn@aggi. emaiiusu.edu Connor Jones is a junior majoring in public relations. Comments can be sent to him at c.h.j@ aggiemaiiusu. edu. .' . I' 1. Thoughts on the men's basketball team If the Aggies needed one last kick in the pants, Saturdays game at Nevada was just that. I didn't get to see the entire game due to numerous factors, but it didn't look good. Nevada looked to be more amped up for their big game and had plenty of shots fall their way as well. That didn't exactly play into Utah States favor. Kudos to the Aggies, though, for fighting tough despite trailing by as many as 23 points to come back and at least make it interesting. I feel like it's WAC Tournament Champions or bust at this point for USU s chances at the big dance, but lucky for them they'll have the power of the "Spectrum on Wheels" along with them next week in Reno. We have a great team and I don't want to take anything away from what we've done this year, but I'm getting nervous for the WAC tournament. Nevada is a good team and the home court advantage is definitely going to help them throughout the tourney. I have complete faith that we can beat every team there but I fear that just one slipup can cost us a NCAA bid. All year we have been a good team but by no means a dominating team. 1 think to win this tournament we are going to have to dominate, from game one to the finals, dominating with our big men, dominating the boards and dominating with the desire to win. 2. Last team USU wants to see in Reno I'm gonna have to go with the team that seemed to give USU more fits than anyone during the WAC regular season, none other than the Fresno State Bulldogs. How that team is currently last in the WAC standings thoroughly blows my mind. Sylverster Seay has gotten progressively better throughout the year, to the point of being a likely All-WAC player. He also seems to enjoy having huge games against USU, including the occasional 70-foot buzzer-beater to send games into overtime. They seem to just be a match-up nightmare for the Aggies and have proved that twice now, despite the Aggies winning both meetings. Luckily, Fresno State will have to win the tournament's play-in game for the chance to knock off USU. We are the team to beat in next week's tournament, we have the best record, the top seed and the regular season championship. But if there is one team that I wouldn't want to see us face it's got to be Nevada. They've proved to have a great team with a lot of players who can hurt us. It's for this reason that I don't think last week's loss to them is necessarily a bad thing - we know they can hurt us and I think losing to them once will give the Aggies the edge we need to win the game. But like I said, we are the team to beat, we are the top seed and we have the most to prove. impress!^ is the Jazz's streak? Equally as impressive as the fact that the Jazz are on an eight-game winning streak is the teams they have knocked off. Its one thing to take care of business in every game against the teams at the bottom of the conference like Sacramento, Minnesota and Memphis. It's another thing to have the likes of the Lakers and Celtics roll out of Salt Lake with a loss. The Jazz may very well be re-establishing themselves as a legitimate contender in the Western Conference. That all is not counting Carlos Boozer who hasn't yet totally returned to form. Any re-emergence by Boozer will be just in time for a late run in the regular season to boost up Utah's playoff seeding and give them plenty of momentum to carry with them into the playoffs. The Jazz are almost back to 100 percent. They have Boozer and Kirilenko back from injuries and Paul Millsap now with the confidence to play against anyone. The Jazz suffered a big loss when owner Larry H. Miller died last month. Stretching back to Feb. 11 the Jazz haven't lost. They've beaten great teams like the Lakers, Celtics and Hornets and have become the team that no team will want to face in the first round of the playoffs. Deron Williams has created little doubt that he is one of, if not the best, point guard in the league averaging 10.5 assists and 18.6 points per game. This is not to mention that Jerry Sloan is a great coach, and was named coach of the month for February by the NBA. Page 9 Odd trade leads to tragedy (AP)-"Bat Man" or "Bat Guy" or "Bat Boy" - that's what they called him. Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you'll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander. He was the minor league player traded for 10 maple bats. It became a big joke last May, when word of the unusual swap jumped off the sports pages, and Odom went from pitcher to punch line. He seemed to handle it well, too. A former prospect in the San Francisco Giants' chain - future Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum bunked on his couch in Class A ball- Odom gladly agreed to interviews. He kidded about the kooky deal that made him famous, saying it would make a better story if he reached the majors someday. "People are like,'I'd kill myself and stuff," Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion. Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team. Six months after the trade, he was dead. The medical examiner said Odom's death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol. Odom's death had drawn little notice by the start of spring training this year. Now, former teammates, managers and club officials keep asking a question for which there is no satisfying answer. "I guarantee this trade thing really bothered him. That really worried me," said Dan Shwam, who managed Odom last year on [1 See TRAGEDY, page 10 WOULD VOUUKi TO BE A COLLEGE OF £Dt/efiT!OM A HUM AM S£RWC£S AMBASSADOR? Departments needing representation: Communicative Disorders & Deaf Education; Family, Consumer, Human Development; Health, Physical Education, & Recreation; School of Teacher Education & Leadership - Secondary Education APPL/CAT/OA/S AR^MQWAJ/A/LABMM_EPJ/G PIMM fO3 AMP ARCDUJ 3, 200J? ® Minimum 3.0 GPA ® Excellent communication and interpersonal skills ® Recommendation of your major department within the College of Education & Human Services ® Recommendation of selection committee AMBASSADOR <•) Actively participate in all College and University recruiting events (e.g., High School Open Houses, Aggie Preview Day, Scholars' Day, Transfer Student Fairs, etc.) (•> Attend all ambassador training sessions ® Adhere to the College of Education & Human Services Ambassador Code of Ethics ® Serve as a college spokesperson (e.g., conduct tours of the college and university campus; assist with College of Education & Human Services activities; inform the public of career opportunities in the various majors offered by the College of Education & Human Services, etc. MERRILL-CAZIER LIBRARY 4. Is it really time for baseball? The excitement of this year's Aggie basketball season has thrown me off of my normal spring routine of counting down until every crucial day leading up to baseball season. This year I feel like spring training snuck up on me, but I've got to say that the joy of having a game to follow every day excites me. Baseball leaves so little room for losses to linger. If your team doesn't get it done one day, you never have to wait a week for them to redeem themselves. It's a wonderful thing. For all the off-season talk of steroids, scandals or whatever stuff ESPN reports on instead, it's really nice to finally be able to read about and watch people throwing balls and swinging bats. Oh, that whole summer thing... It means that's around the corner too. Lately baseball has been getting a bad rap, which is unfortunate because it truly is a great sport. Spring training just began and not only are they preparing for the upcoming MLB season but they're also preparing for the World Baseball Classic which starts its first rounds on Thursday. Now that baseball and Softball are out of the Olympics (which I think is unfortunate), the World Baseball Classic is primed to become the ultimate baseball tournament. I'm not only excited to see if the U.S. team can take the title away from Japan or if the Dominican Republic can put together a winning squad, but I'm excited for this upcoming MLB season. I think it will be a telling year to see if baseball can make its way back to being • America's favorite pastime. 5. Rant Somehow the atmosphere and amount of rowdiness at men's basketball home games has been in steady decline for the last couple years. I can't figure out whether it's a case of people becoming too cool to get rowdy like they used to, or a lack of marketing to the student body. One thing out of those two could surely be solved, and that is the marketing to the student body about the games from the school. Take a look around. You might see some fine print about the games on a TSC wire banner, but that's pretty much all. If pop culture is any indication, people will buy what they are sold. I can only hope that in coming years the school will flex the muscles of one of the best things they've got going for them a lot more than they have been. / With all the talk of budget cuts, firing and changes around campus, I've heard many opinions on what students think should happen. One suggestion that I've heard multiple times is about dropping USU football. Are you kidding me? I hope when people say this they're just joking. The benefits of having a NCAA football team heavily outweigh the costs. First off, football brings in money for the school - believe it or not, USU football brings in more than USU basketball by far. Second, it makes your degree worth more - when you're in an interview and the potential employer ask what college you went to, they are going to think higher of your education if they've heard of the school, and as Athletic Director Scott Barnes said, "We're not the most important room in the house, but we're the most visible." Spring Break Hours Mar 7-8 (Sat-Sun) -- Closed Mar9-l3(Mon-Fri)--9am-4 p.m. March 14 (Sal p.m.- 5p.m. March 15 (Sun) --6 p.m.- 12 Midnight |