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Utes running past competition
Posted: Wednesday February 02, 2000 02:37 PM
By Phil Miller, Special to CNNSI.com The inaugural Mountain West Conference basketball season reaches its halfway point on Saturday. By Sunday, there may be no point in playing the second half. Utah visits its only plausible championship rival, UNLV, on Saturday, and a victory by the 19th-ranked Utes would essentially wrap up their sixth consecutive conference title. Utah is 6-0 in the eight-team league, the Runnin' Rebels are 4-2, and everyone else has three or more losses already. "We're not ready to think beyond that next game," said Utah Coach Rick Majerus. "If we just worry about our next game, things like championships and tournament seedings take care of themselves." Their coach may not want to think about it, but the Utes are on a run of success that now dates back years. Utah has not lost a game in the Huntsman Center since New Year's Eve 1996, a streak of 48 games that is the nation's longest. The Utes have won 24 consecutive conference games, and 33 straight home conference games. "They are the gold standard of this conference," said New Mexico Coach Fran Fraschilla, whose Lobos absorbed their 11th straight loss in Salt Lake City last week. "They are one of those programs whose success makes us all work harder." Nobody in the Mountain West has worked harder against the Utes in a long time than Air Force did on Jan. 29. The Falcons took a four-point lead into the final minute, but Utah forward Alex Jensen rescued his teammates. Jensen hit a long three-point shot to cut the deficit to one, then followed an AFA free-throw with a layup and drew a foul. His free throw with 16 seconds left salvaged a 64-63 victory. The Utes are sustaining their success despite an injury-induced scoring slump by Utah forward Hanno Mottola, who has averaged only 9.4 points in MWC games. Jensen has replaced Mottola, at least temporarily, as Utah's go-to player, and scored a season-high 26 points in the victory over New mexico. Now the Utes face UNLV. The Rebels that had hopes of moving into first by beating Utah, until suffering an embarrassing 109-98 loss at Wyoming. Junior center Kaspars Kambala, the conference's leading scorer and rebounder, will face the league's best front line and, as usual, plenty of double-teaming. "Kas is the focal point of our offense," said UNLV point guard Mark Dickel. "We need him if we're going to win -- especially this week." Otherwise, they and the rest of the conference might as well wait until next year.
Winning Is AcademicHolding on to their last-minute lead against Utah would have been a monumental achievement in Air Force history, but the Falcons still could brag about their best four-game stretch of basketball in more than a decade. First, Air Force rallied several times for a triple-overtime, 81-77 victory at San Diego State, breaking a 38-game losing streak in conference road games that dated back to 1994. The Falcons followed that up with an 89-72 loss at New Mexico that was close until the final six minutes, then went home and shocked 14-3 Brigham Young with a 60-55 victory. That evened the Falcons' conference record at 2-2 for the first time since 1986. For a school that never won more than three league games in the 1990s, and a team that dropped pre-conference games to Wofford, Central Connecticut and Denver, this was scramble-the-jets sort of news. "It doesn't surprise me that Air Force is tough. They're always tough, they're always smart, and they always give a supreme effort," said Utah's Majerus. "I told my guys, 'These guys will step in front of a bullet. A loose ball is nothing to them.' " The Falcons don't go much deeper than their starting five, but those undersized starters have far more talent than the usual AFA collection. Even with no player taller than 6-foot-6, the Falcons lead the Mountain West in offensive rebounds. Freshman center Tom Bellairs is a capable pivotman with a nice touch, and Tyron Wright (15.4 points per game) and Jarvis Croff (18.7) give Air Force a versatile scoring duo. And senior Miguel Garcia is willing to take the most difficult defensive assignments, like trying to man the middle against Utah's giant lineup. "In the first half, I don't know if I've ever seen better post defense than what Garcia played," Minton said after the Utah loss. "These kids are tough."
Sharp Elbows, Quick WhistlesMekeli Wesley's scoring touch makes him dangerous, but opponents have begun to complain that the Brigham Young forward has an even more dangerous weapon: his elbows. Wesley was whistled for a flagrant foul against Air Force, when he decked a Falcon in the face with an elbow. Two days later, the junior from Provo was given a technical foul for tagging New Mexico guard Marlon Parmer in the face after a play had been whistled dead, and he later had to be separated from a confrontation with Lobo guard Kevin Henry over another collision. This followed a physical performance against Utah that caused several Utes players and coaches to complain about Wesley's "dirty" play. "I play hard and play aggressive, but I've never tried to hurt anyone out there," Wesley said. He said the Air Force foul came as he pivoted after picking up a loose ball which the Falcon player was also reaching for. The elbow to Parmer, he said, happened as he spun around after the ball went out of bounds; he didn't realize anyone was standing there. He believes officials may be watching him more closely because he has an aggressive style. "Those things aren't intentional, but they call them like they are," Wesley said. "I don't worry about getting a reputation, because I'm not trying to hurt anyone." Still, BYU Coach Steve Cleveland discussed the fouls with Wesley, because he believes his star forward has a tendency to get frustrated by the physical play. "He has to take a high road out there. He can't react to things like that," said Cleveland. "Unfortunately, I can't control the pushing and shoving that he takes out there, but we need him to stay cool. He can't react to any situation, not the fans, not opposing players. ... You're not going to see that from him again."
Worth NotingUNLV guard Mark Dickel scored a career-high 29 points and added 10 assists in the Rebels' 109-98 loss at Wyoming. That game, by the way, was much worse than the final score; Wyoming led by 33 four minutes into the second half. ... San Diego State forward Myron Epps also hit a career high in Laramie last week, hitting 14 of 23 shots for 32 points. ... Something to keep in mind as their Feb. 28 matchup in Laramie approaches: The Cowboys are 9-1 at home, have won by an average of 13.1 points in the Arena-Auditorium, and are the last conference team to have beaten Utah, in 1998. That victory was a 10 p.m. "Big Monday" tipoff, as this year's game will be. ... BYU forward Nathan Cooper, who had scored 13 points in the previous six games, scored 11 in less than three minutes at New Mexico. The outburst rallied the Cougars from a 14-point deficit and BYU eventually drew within 70-68, but the Lobos pulled away for a 78-69 win behind Lamont Long's 27 points. Phil Miller covers the Mountain West for the Salt Lake City Tribune. Check back every Wednesday for his latest CNNSI.com Insider.
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