| OCR Text |
Show Basketball, wrestling schedules released Photo by Kira Terry/UVU Review Wolverines basketball followed suit with fall sports, setting up games with big programs that include Arkansas. OREM, Utah Defending Great West Conference champion Utah Valley University has released its 2011-12 men's basketball schedule under 10th-year head coach Dick Hunsaker. The schedule includes 16 home games and 15 road contests including UVU's firstever contest against a school from the SEC. The Wolverines travel to Fayetteville to face Arkansas (Nov. 22) of the Southeastern Conference and will also play in the Dr Pepper Classic at Chattanooga (Dec. 29-30), opening against MEAC Tournament champion Hampton. Games at Summit League champion Oakland (Nov. 25) and WAC champion Utah State (Dec. 6) - both NCAA Tournament teams in 2011 and at CBI participant Montana also highlight the schedule. Grambling State, UMKC, Northern Illinois, Portland State, Georgia State, Wyoming and Seattle all make an appearance in the UCCU Center prior to the start of the Great West schedule. "This is probably our most competitive non-conference schedule we've played, particularly at home," said Hunsaker. "Our opponents play multiple styles, which will be a great challenge and experience for our developing team." After opening at home against Simpson University (Nov. 11), Utah Valley will play at Houston of Conference USA before returning home to face Grambling State and UMKC - a game that can be seen nationally on Fox College Sports on Nov. 19 - prior to the trip that will take the team to Arkansas and Rochester, Michigan to take on Oakland. The Wolverines also have home and away games against Wyoming of the Mountain West Conference and Seattle University as well as 10 Great West games. The Jan. 3 game against Wyoming at the UCCU Center will also air on Fox College Sports across the country. The conference schedule begins and ends with tournament champion North Dakota. UVU hosts the Fighting Sioux on Jan. 21 and closes out the regular season in Grand Forks on March 3. "I anticipate this to be the strongest Great West Conference, top to bottom, we have faced. North Dakota and NJIT certainly jump out at you with the depth of their returning rosters," Hunsaker said. The 2012 GWC Tournament will begin March 7 and will be hosted by Chicago State University. Photo by Kia leny/UVU Review Coach Greg Williams and the UVU wrestling team will test themselves against defending national champion Penn State this season. OREM, Utah Utah Valley University wrestling coach Greg Williams released his 2011-12 schedule Tuesday and it showcases several matches with wrestling powers including home duals with Boise State and the defending national champion Penn State Nittany Lions. This season UVU will also wrestle all six of its fellow Western Wrestling Conference opponents for the first time and it will host a total of five home dates as well. "We have several teams which are perennial powers on the schedule and several that were ranked all year last year or finished ranked in Penn State, Ohio State, Illinois, Boise State, Stan- ford, Cal Poly, Wyoming and Northern Iowa," Williams said. "Three to four of these teams most likely will finish in the top ten (three are Big 10 powers). We don't know who we wrestle yet at the Lone Star Duals, but we usually get one more ranked team there as well." After losing five seniors to graduation following the 2010-11 season this year's team will be much younger. "This schedule is a great opportunity for our young team," added Williams. "We have a two-year development plan in place and should be very competitive against most of these teams. We are excited to wrestle this level of competition and expect our guys to rise to the occasion over these next two years." The Wolverines will kickoff the season at the Trapper Open in Powell, Wyo., on Nov. 5. UVU will then travel across the country the following week for its first dual action, as it will take part in the Wrestle for a Cure Duals in Harrisburg, Pa. There UVU will square off against Illinois, Ohio State, Buffalo and Shippensburg. The Wolverines will round out the month of November at the UNC Open in Greeley Colo. on Nov. 19. UVU will compete in two prestigious tournaments in December, when it heads to Las Vegas for the annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on the 2-3 and Evanston, Ill. on the 29-30 for the Midlands Championships. In between the two the Wolverines will send a few of its grapplers to Grand Junction, Colo., for the Mesa State Open on Dec. 10. The Wolverines will host their first home action of the 201112 season in January, when they host the fifth annual UVU Open on Jan. 7. Boise State will then come to Orem for a much-anticipated rematch nearly two years after the Wolverines upset the then eighth-ranked Broncos in the very same arena on Jan. 12. The Wolverines will then begin conference action on Jan. 19, when they travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., to go one on one with the Air Force Academy. Two nights later in Laramie, Wyo., UVU will take on fellow Western Wrestling Conference foe Wyoming. The defending WWC Champion Northern Iowa Panthers will come to Orem for the very first time on Jan. 27. February the Wolverines will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., to take on two Pac-12 schools in Stanford and Cal Poly on Feb. 3. The following weekend UVU will welcome two WWC rivals for another pair of duals on the same night when North Dakota State and South Dakota State come to town on Feb. 10. On Feb. 11, former Wasatch High School star Cael Sanderson and his defending national champion Penn State Nittany Lions will come to town for a showdown in the UCCU Center. That dual will be televised locally on UVUTV. A year after Benjamin Kjar became UVU's firstever wrestling All-American the Wolverines will look to qualify as many grapplers as it can for the NCAA Championships at this year's WWC Championships/NCAA West Regional that will take place on March 3, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships will then be held in St. Louis, Mo., March 15-17. Athletic department OK with non-AQ status for now By JOSH CANN Sports Writer UVU Director of Athletics Michael Jacobsen It's been a year to remember, or to forget, as summer fades and the leaves fall. This summer UVU had a chance to join the WAC, a well-known and automatic qualifying conference for NCAA postseason opportunities. Utah State played a big role in UVU not getting an invite, according to UVU director of athletics Michael Jacobsen. "It's unfortunate Utah State didn't vote us in the WAC. We're unhappy about it, and they're probably happy about it," Jacobsen said. The conference expansion process was a big-brother, little brother program of which big brother has a big say if they want to push to get little brother included. But the decision will not keep UVU athletics moaning and groaning, wallowing in what-ifs and lost hopes. In fact, they are taking the opposite approach. "We've developed, in a very short period of time, a really solid and big Division I athletic program," Jacobsen said. "The caliber of kids we're able to recruit are student athletes that are here to get an education, to grow and develop, and to compete. I think we're in a really good place." The fact that UVU was seriously mentioned in the WAC expansion process is impressive in and of itself, considering the Wolverines achieved Division I status just a few years ago. "Our ultimate goal is to be in a regional conference with -+-1501( you cake emough to wake fillf of a --" t".--- t-- Send a tree ecard today at DUlgreetings.com . k, you will be arrested, and you will go to And remember, it you drive drunNo exceptions jail. . automatic qualifying status into the NCAA tournament." Jacobsen said. UVU officials are working hard to find a more regional conference to play in. "Another option is to gain AQ status for the Great West conference, whatever comes first," Jacobsen said. "Efforts are being made daily in one way or another in that regard." 6tok t - +- |
