<h4>Second that emotion </h4>
North Carolina head coach Roy Williams gets emotional after the Tar Heels' win over Michigan State in the NCAA championship game on Monday in Detroit.
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ST. LOUIS – Even though his team has been mowing down every team in its way, Geno Auriemma wants you to believe UConn could lose the national championship.
To a team it’s beaten twice – by 28 and 39 points.
“It’s way too much familiarity for both teams,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “A lot more than you’d like to have this time of year.”
Auriemma insists he has reason to worry about Tuesday’s title game against Louisville. He’s seen a big difference in the Cardinals from the team UConn dismantled in the Big East championship a month ago.
“What we did in the second game, I don’t think it has any effect on today,” he said. “Different environment. Different day. Different attitudes among the players.”
UConn (38-0) stands on the doorstep of the third undefeated season in school history and just the fifth ever in women’s basketball.
Louisville (34-4), which is looking to become the fourth team to knock off three No. 1 seeds on its way to a title, will have to have a new game plan against Connecticut. Second-year coach Jeff Walz was hard-pressed to find a weakness with the Huskies last time out.
“I think I saw their manager drop a bottle of water,” he said laughing. “That’s the scary thing about them. They’ve got three of the top 10 players in the country. Then you’ve got Tiffany Hayes who’s shooting the ball extremely well. We’re going to have to try and control the tempo of the game.”
Walz knows that his team can ill-afford a similar start to the semifinal game when they missed their first 13 shots before rallying to beat Oklahoma.
“If we come out and play the first five minutes the same way tomorrow night, instead of losing 11-0, it’s 25-0.”
Ex-Blue Devil Seaman wins
Robert Seaman, a former Sunnyside High School athlete, won his second consecutive Southern Arizona Roadrunners event Saturday with a time of 40 minutes, 45 seconds in the annual Sabino Canyon Sunset run.
Seaman beat runner-up Jason Colavito by 13 seconds.
Paula Morrison (48:15) was the women’s division winner over Amber Young (51:12). Masters winners were Mark Koch (46:00) for the men and Cotah Rose for the women (53:35).
SAR’s next event is the annual Spring Cross-Country Classic 5K on April 25.
Citizen Staff Report
Pima’s Damon honored
Pima Community College baseball player Marc Damon (Tucson High) has been named the ACCAC batter of the week.
Damon was 7 of 10 with a double and homer last week in three games. He scored four runs and drove in five.
The Aztecs (26-15-1) visit No. 3 Yavapai for a doubleheader Tuesday.
Citizen Staff Report
Trail run set for Saturday
Everyone Runs will host its fourth annual Catalina State Park Trail Run spring edition Saturday.
The event will feature 10.75- and 5.5-mile desert foothill runs, starting at 7:30 and 7:35 a.m. It will include the park’s Canyon Loop and Nature and Bridal trails on the north side of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
Included is the “92 Stair Climb,” an ascent of rock formations and man-made stairs.
Last year’s winners were Ian Johnson and Lindsay Hill in the men’s and women’s 10.75 event, and Lucas Tyler and Sarah Dillman of Santa Barbara, Calif., in the 5.5.
Citizen Staff Report
Locals to compete in Boston
Fourth-time event athlete Scott McDonald, two-time Paralympian Shirley Reilly and Tucson Masters triathlete Curt Zacharias will lead a total of 54 locals in the 113th Boston Marathon on April 20.
McDonald has clocked the lowest of the locals each time he’s raced in the event, Reilly has finished first and second in the Los Angeles Marathon in addition to the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games and Zacharias has scored in the Masters top 10 in 16 of 17 Tucson Triathlon Series events.
Citizen Staff Report
Weekly walk to start
The Southern Arizona Roadrunners have instituted a weekly run/walk gathering, “Meet Me At Maynard’s, starting Monday at 6 p.m.
It’s a social event starting at Maynards Market at the train depot at 400 N. Toole downtown. Groups will run or walk through three miles of downtown historic neighborhoods. Groups travel at their own pace. For more information, call 991-0733 or visit www.azroadrunners.org.
Citizen Staff Report
ASU’s Elway done at QB
TEMPE – Redshirt freshman quarterback Jack Elway is leaving the Arizona State University football program but remaining in school as a student.
“He’s just tired of football and wants to do something else with his life,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said Monday. “He made a decision, and we all understand it. He would have played here eventually.”
Elway, son of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway, was the only scholarship quarterback in the 2008 recruiting class. Out of Cherry Creek (Colo.) High School, he redshirted last season and was among five quarterbacks competing for the starting job vacated by Rudy Carpenter.
Now the quarterback competition is down to four: senior Danny Sullivan, sophomores Samson Szakacsy and Chasen Stangel and true freshman Brock Osweiler.
Scottsdale Saguaro High School quarterback Cole Rarrick plans to walk on at ASU in the fall.
ASU already is well into recruiting for the class of 2010. Quarterback prospects Peter Thomas of Valhalla High School in El Cajon, Calif., and Kevin Spain of Paradise Valley High were on campus last weekend for Junior Day and a scrimmage in which Elway did not participate.
The Arizona Republic
Obama picks winner
North Carolina delivered the big win President Obama predicted at the outset, beating Michigan State 89-72 Monday night for the NCAA title.
Obama’s bracket looked sharp after the victory – he finished in the top 20 percent of the 5 million-plus people who entered ESPN.com‘s pool.
The president had dropped into the bottom half earlier in the tournament when the first three teams he forecast to reach the Final Four – Louisville, Pittsburgh and Memphis – lost in earlier rounds.
The Associated Press
BY THE NUMBERS
Championship game records set Monday in North Carolina’s 89-72 win over Michigan State in Detroit:
8: Steals by Tar Heel point guard Ty Lawson (previous mark was 7, set on two prior occasions)
21: Carolina’s halftime lead at 55-34 (18, set on two prior occasions)
55: UNC’s points in the first half (53, Syracuse in 2003)
72,922: Fans in attendance at Ford Field (64,959 in 1987 in New Orleans)
QUOTABLE
'The best team won. That's an easy statement to make.'
TOM IZZO,
Michigan State hoops coach, on North Carolina's 89-72 win Monday
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SPORTS SOUND-OFF
Miller a terrific hire
Re: UA hires Sean Miller as hoops coach
• Fantastic hire! This is great. Miller is young and has a proven track record of winning. He now needs to make this his program and we need to give him the time to build it. This is a great day for UA b-ball. 186
• No West Coast recruiting or ties – takes some time to build that pipeline! Get ready for a LONG rebuilding process – if it happens at all! JESTERJV71
• A good hire but this was handled poorly by Livengood. DOGS OF WAR
• Tim Floyd was NEVER wanted by the fan base. If Miller can find a way to get us to the NCAA Tournament next year, he will be hailed as a god. ZOMBIE
• This guy can coach! And if we let him develop his own program and not insist that he be Lute, he’ll get the UA program back up and running. SONORISTA
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ON THIS DATE
1963: Jack Nicklaus, at 23, becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters, beating Tony Lema by a stroke.
1993: The Ottawa Senators break the NHL record of 37 straight road losses, set by the 1974-75 Washington Capitals, with a 7-3 defeat in Hartford.
2003: Syracuse wins the NCAA Tournament with an 81-78 victory over Kansas. Freshman Carmelo Anthony, fighting off a bad back, finishes with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Gerry McNamara hits six 3-pointers in the first half and finishes with 18 points.