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Show Statesman Sports Page 10 Friday, April 2, 2010 Jazz score 76 first half points in win By DAN FAWSON staff writer STAR POWER FORWARD CARLOS BOOZER has had a great year for the Jazz, averaging 19.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game this season. Boozer, an unrestricted-free-agent at the end of the season, helped the Jazz to a 128-104 victory over the Golden State Warriors. TODD JONES photo Oh what a difference a year makes. After an offseason fraught with trade talk and fan resentment, most notably Carlos Boozer trade-talk and Boozerdirected resentment, the Utah Jazz have been on fire since shortly before the allstar break and now find themselves in prime position to contend for a Western Conference championship. And fans have even begun to warm up to Carlos. Yeah, I know! With the Jazz well on their way to securing their 50th win of the season, Boozer stood waiting at the free-throw line near the end of the second quarter of Wednesday's home game against the Golden State Warriors, having just been fouled while scoring on an offensive rebound put-back. As he prepared to shoot his free throw, a chant came soaring in from a boisterous group of fans seated near the top of a lower-bowl section: "Bring him back! Bring him back! Bring him back!" Huh? Such an adoring chorus directed at the unrestricted-free-agent-to-be would have seemed improbable to say the least when the season began. Almost as improbable as a seemingly unchanged Jazz roster going from inconsistent underachievers to leading candidates for a two-seed in the playoffs. Yet here we are. The Jazz enter the final two weeks of the season, having long been playing their best basketball in three years, further evidenced by their Wednesday night thrashing of the hapless Warriors. The Jazz poured in a season-high 76 first half points en route to 128-104 victory, clearing the way for the ultimate test of their playoff-readiness — traveling to Los Angeles for a Friday night showdown with the Lakers. While Kobe Bryant and defending champion Lakers have been faltering of late, recently finishing a disappointing 2-3 on a late-season road trip, they still represent the greatest obstacle standing in the way of a Jazz title run. The Lakers have knocked the Jazz out of the playoffs the last two seasons, and it was, in fact, these very same Lakers who were last seen ending the Jazz's nine-game January-February winning streak with a resounding 96-81 victory in Energy Solutions Arena. "Let's be honest, they're pretty good," Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan said when asked if there was a mental block for his team when they play the Lakers. "Everybody picked them to win it all, anyway — most people. They're still good, and I hope we go out and play them and not be intimidated." "Friday's going to be a good game, and we look forward to it," Boozer said, noting the team is just focused on playing hard and leaving everything out on the court. While such tried-and-true responses often seem generic and lacking in genuine feeling, Wednesday's performance would seem to indicate the Jazz are indeed taking the final two weeks of the regular season one game at a time. With the Jazz being part of a number of Western Conference teams still jockeying for playoff position, they recognize their current position is an enviable one and worth holding on to. "Right now we're in third (place), and we have home court advantage," guard Kyle Korver said. "We lose a game or two in a row, we're fifth, or sixth or whatever it is. So they're all really important." Despite an unexpected loss last Friday to the Indiana Pacers, the Jazz have won eight of their last 10 games and have done so in large measure because of their willingness to share the basketball. They have totaled 27 or more assists in seven of those 10 games, including 37 against the Warriors. "We did a great job of moving the ball, hitting the open man, and we tried to take advantage of the shots we got," Boozer said. "We do a good job of seeing each other and making the extra pass," guard/forward C.J. Miles said, "and that's why guys had so many open looks." The team's unselfishness led to five players scoring 18 or more points on the night, led by Boozer's 25 points on 12 of 14 shooting from the field. As he so often does, All-Star point guard Deron Williams embraced the role of unselfish playmaker Wednesday night. Williams left the game for good with the Jazz leading 105-78 with 4.7 seconds left in the third quarter, having already amassed a season-high 19 assists, outdoing Golden State's final team-total of 13. "He should have got more actually," Mehmet Okur said of Williams' assist count. "We missed some open shots." Not many. The Jazz shot 52.9 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from 3-point range, the fifth time in as many games they've shot 40 percent or better from behind the arc. They held Golden State under 40 percent shooting from the field and outrebounded the Warriors 57-35, marking the sixth-straight game they've owned the glass. However, as well as the Jazz are currently playing, it must be reiterated that all roads ultimately lead through LA, a team many fans are still expecting the Jazz to bow out to at some point in this year's playoffs. Are the Jazz prepared to overtake the Lakers? Probably not. However, improbability seems kind of trendy right now — "Bring him back! Bring him back! Bring him back!" — danfawson@aggiemail.usu.edu Spring Ball: football team off and hitting in their first week of spring practice continued from page 8 Getting Inventive With the loss of 2nd Team All-WAC running back Robert Turbin to injury even before the spring season started, Aggie offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin faced a dilemma. While he has three talented backs in Michael Smith, Derrvin Speight, and Kerwin Williams ready to step in for Turbin, Baldwin also has a bevy of explosive wide receivers who can't all possibly be on the field at the same time. The situation has led Baldwin and Andersen to experiment with various formations during the first two weeks of spring ball, motioning a number of different USU receivers into the backfield and then using them in zone-read running plays with QB Diondre Borel. Junior college transfer Xavier Martin has so far assumed the role of the hybrid running back/ wide receiver position, although Andersen said that he and Baldwin will continue to experiment using different players in the dynamic spread attack. "We have some special kids who can do some things," Andersen said in reference to his wide receiving corps. "Xavier Martin can come back there in the backfield and Stanley [Morrison] can too. That is very difficult to defend, and for the defense to get the matchups to defend it. That's a credit to Dave and our offensive staff to continually find ways to run our offense and get the ball to our playmakers." Big Shoes to Fill One of the biggest concerns for the Aggie offense entering the spring would be how the team would go about replacing departing senior center Brennan McFadden, who will likely be invited to an NFL minicamp next month. Redshirt freshman Tyler Larsen was listed atop the depth chart coming into the spring, and through the first two weeks of practice has caught the eye of his head coach. After practice on Tuesday, Andersen singled out Larsen and two other freshmen offensive linemen as players who've been amongst the early surprises for the team. "We've got some young offensive linemen who have really impressed me," Andersen said. "Tyler Larsen, the center, is coming in with Brennan [McFadden] graduating. Tyler's done a nice job in locking down that offensive line spot. Eric Shultz, a freshman also, is starting at the left guard position right now and has done a nice job for us. Jamie Markosian is another freshman offensive linemen ... I think those three kids have stood out as far as they're freshmen, and they're walking into a very difficult spot to come in to play." Extra Points Dinodre Borel, Andersen isn't taking any chances. With Kane Wilson no longer at the university and depth a concern at the position, Andersen said that Borel will be completely "hands off" to defenders during spring, as will USU's backup quarterbacks. Andersen was adamant before the start of the spring in bolstering the strength of his defensive line, which ranked amongst the worst teams in the country last season against the run. While he said that the unit still has improvement to make, Andersen has been pleased with ends Quinn Garner and Levi Koskan. Koskan in particular had a productive week of practice, and looked as though he had been shot out of a cannon during scrimmage situations against the first team offense on Tuesday. Senior safety Rajric Coleman, who was expected to start this spring, is recovering from a shoulder injury and will not participate in spring drills Junior Kellen Bartlett broke his foot during practice this week, and will also be unavailable until the start of fall practice in August USU will hold its only open practice of the spring season today at Romney Stadium at 3:30 PM. The Aggies will hold open scrimmages on April 10 and 17 at 11 a.m. at Romney stadium, before concluding the spring season with the Blue and White Game on April 24. Adam Nettina is a junior majoring in history from Ellicott City Maryland. Adam is a guru of all things college football and member of the Football Writers Association of America. He can be reached at adam.nettina@aggiemaiLusu. edu. When it comes to health of quarterback Tiger: Is he still worth the cash? continuedfrom page 9 MUSIC TONS OF GIPYIPYS AND GREAT 'RISERS 611411 = 1 4 PM WEST OF THE BUSINESS ROGERS LIBRARY LAW - WANNA RIDE? SIGN UP AT: GALVANICDESIGN.COM/APPLY DIRECTIVE BOARDSHOP eave _ADP moufitalln 0 MitIN,TEK ENERGY JON M. HUNTSMAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS UthihStateUn ive rsity HUNTSMAN.USU.EDU/ENTREPRENEURCLUB 50 autographed cleats for nearly $1,400 each. And if Woods does win, Upper Deck will sell three more items, including 500 autographed pin flags for nearly $1,300. Nike declined to comment on reports by celebrity gossip site TMZ.com that the company has already filmed a new commercial featuring Woods, the face of its golfing line. So did Wieden & Kennedy, an advertising firm that frequently works with Nike. Woods has always brought viewers in droves. But his return, broadcast on CBS and ESPN, is likely to be off the charts. In 1997, Woods' first Masters win, Nielsen estimates 14.1 percent of all households tuned in, still the most-watched golf telecast since at least 1977. But if Woods makes it past Thursday and Friday's rounds into the weekend, it's likely those ratings will shatter that record, said Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports and now a consultant with Pilson Communications. He said the ratings could go as high as 18 to 20 percent of all households watching TV. Last year's Masters had an 8.3 percent share in the final round, getting about 14.3 million viewers. That's a fraction of, say, the Super Bowl's 106 million viewers, but it's golf's most-watched event, according to Nielsen. It's not clear if the heightened interest will help reverse golf's recession-fueled downturn. Probably not, said John Sweeney, director of sports communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "He'll bring more eyes back to the sport," he said. "He will not bring the sort of wonderful image that he brought that created a lot of people going, 'I want to play golf back. He's bringing back the sort of tainted prodigy that he is. But it'll be fun to watch." |