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		<description>RUWT? News for Arizona vs. Utah 3/20/2009</description>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:12:25 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[Wise gets 21 in second half as Arizona beats Utah]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[MIAMI (AP) -- Nic Wise held an ice pack to his lip. Chase 
Budinger had one on his left shin. Jordan Hill's was strapped 
atop his left ankle.

Arizona's three stars may have been bruised - but not beaten.

And so much for that notion the Wildcats didn't belong in the 
NCAA tournament.

Wise scored 21 of his 29 points in the second half, Budinger 
added 20 and the 12th-seeded Wildcats - one of the last teams 
into the field of 65 - knocked off fifth-seeded Utah, 84-71, 
Friday night in the first round of the Midwest Regional.

"We deserved to be here," Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell 
said. "Would we have been surprised if we had not been selected?
No, that's a different question. But as far as us belonging 
here, we definitely belong here, and today was not about proving
that. That was not our motivation. Our motivation was to win the
game and move on."

Hill added 17 points and 13 rebounds and Kyle Fogg scored 12 for
Arizona (20-13), which has been in the NCAAs 25 years in a row, 
but hadn't reached the second round since 2006. Arizona sweated 
out Selection Sunday, its tourney streak in serious jeopardy 
after finishing with losses in five of its final six games.

No worries now: Cleveland State awaits Sunday after the 13th 
seed upset No. 4 Wake Forest, 84-69.

"We've had hardships throughout the whole season, but we stuck 
together as a team," Budinger said. "We united and came closer 
with those hardships. That's what made us at this point that 
we're at now."

Tyler Kepkay scored 19 points for Utah (24-10), which was 
8-for-32 from 3-point range and matched a season-high with 20 
turnovers.

The Utes - who were picked to finish fourth in the Mountain 
West, then captured a share of the league title and won the 
conference tournament - trailed 23-10 early, got within two with
about five minutes remaining, but never dug all the way out of 
that early deficit.

"We didn't win, and that's the tough thing about this business. 
Somebody wins, somebody loses," Utah coach Jim Boylen said. "But
we're going to keep building this program. We're going to keep 
getting tougher. We're lifting Monday morning at 6 o'clock. The 
beat goes on."

Luke Nevill, the Utes' 7-foot-2 Australian center, had two fouls
by the time the game was three minutes old. He finished with 12 
points and five rebounds, never really being the dominant factor
he often was during the Mountain West season.

Lawrence Borha finished with 11 points for Utah, which got 10 
points and 10 rebounds from Shaun Green.

"We were getting the shots that we wanted," Nevill said. "We 
were shooting the ball great the day before. It just wasn't our 
night. The balls were good shots, they were bouncing in and out.
If you take them again, they might go in."

The Wildcats' lead was a comfortable 63-53 with 8:15 remaining, 
when Wise hit a 3-pointer from the left wing.

That's when the Utes came rushing back with what became a 9-1 
run over the next three minutes.

Kepkay capped the spurt with a 3-pointer from the right corner 
that made it 64-62, causing Pennell to pace his share of the 
sideline even more quickly.

Alas, he needed not to worry, as his Wildcats would answer with 
a 10-1 burst.

"I think the adrenaline, the travel, everything else I thought 
caught up with us at times," Pennell said. "We kind of got 
through that and re-established ourselves."

The Utes went the next 3:47 without a field goal. With Utah's 
big man burdened by four fouls, Hill went over Nevill for a 
score with 3:12 left, Budinger drove past Nevill for another 
layup a half minute later, and the Wildcats held on.

Utah came into the game averaging 13.6 turnovers; the Utes had 
14 by halftime. In the game's first 15 minutes, Arizona had 12 
points off Utah's turnovers - and that was exactly the margin, 
29-17, when Hill scored inside off Utah's 13th giveaway of the 
half.

Eventually, the Utes settled down, getting within 34-29 at the 
half on Green's 3-pointer from the left wing with just under 
five seconds remaining. But the Wildcats shot 16-for-26 - a 
sizzling 62 percent - after halftime to keep the Utes at bay.

"It feels great to prove the people wrong who said we didn't 
belong," Arizona's Zane Johnson said. "We knew that if we got 
into the tournament, we would make some noise."

Arizona had never been lower than a No. 10 seed in the NCAA 
tournament, has seen a revolving door of coaches - from Lute 
Olson to Kevin O'Neill and now Pennell - in the past three 
years, had awful showings in the 2007 and 2008 tournaments and 
dealt with that end-of-season slide this year.

It only made Friday seem the more sweeter.

"We overcame adversity again," Wise said, "and proved that we 
really should be in the tournament."]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92169-Wise-gets-21-in-second-half-as-Arizona-beats-Utah</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92169-Wise-gets-21-in-second-half-as-Arizona-beats-Utah</guid>
				<pubDate>Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:20:43 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[Arizona looks to prove worth vs. Utah]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[By Tim Reynolds
AP Sports Writer*

(12) Arizona (19-13) vs. (5) Utah (24-9), Midwest Region, 7:10 p.m. EDT

MIAMI (AP) -- Arizona forward Jordan Hill described the 
Wildcats' NCAA tournament opener in the simplest of terms.

"It's all the B's," Hill said. "All the biggests."

Biggest game.

Biggest stakes.

Biggest opponent, too.

A big man himself at 6-foot-10 and 235 pounds, Hill will be 
dwarfed by 7-2, 265-pounder Luke Nevill on Friday when Arizona 
meets Utah in a first-round South regional matchup. Hill has 
never played anyone bigger, and said he can't wait to take on 
the tall order.

"We've all seen a good amount of clips on him," Hill said. "He's
a pretty good player. He's real long, real big -- way bigger 
than me."

Hill averages 18.5 points and 11 rebounds, yet his biggest chore
Friday might come on the defensive end. If he can find a way to 
elevate to the level of Nevill - who averages 16.9 points and 
9.1 rebounds on 61 percent shooting - the Wildcats might be in 
good shape; they were 8-1 when Hill blocked three or more shots 
in a game this season, 10-12 when he didn't.

It's the matchup getting plenty of attention, but Nevill shook 
off any notion that this is a glorified game of 1-on-1 for a 
trip to the second round.

"I don't need to have, you know, a stellar game offensively for 
us to be successful," Nevill said. "You know, defensively, I 
have to have a great game, but offensively we have a great bunch
of shooters. We can score from a lot of different areas on the 
floor. You know, offensively, I'm just going to go out there and
do what I have to do to win."

It's the 49th meeting between the schools, the first since 2005,
and probably one of the very few where both teams might be able 
to make a case for being slighted.

Arizona was one of the last teams into the tournament, getting 
into the field for the 25th straight year amid some outcry that 
other schools were more deserving of an at-large berth. Utah 
drew a No. 5 seed after winning the Mountain West title, yet 
there's no shortage of experts -- not to mention oddsmakers -- 
saying the Utes will lose Friday.

Go figure, says interim Arizona coach Russ Pennell.

"It's amazing people are critical of us being in and then they 
fill out their bracket and they move us forward," Pennell said. 
"Again, those things have very little, if anything, to do with 
us playing, and it comes down to us putting the ball in the 
basket and stopping them from doing it."

If there's someone who can attest to how little seeding means in
the postseason, it's Utah coach Jim Boylen.

He was an assistant with the Houston Rockets in 1995, when they 
were the sixth seed in the Western Conference playoffs and wound
up winning nine times on the road on the way to their second 
straight NBA title.

"When you play a team like Arizona that has tradition and a 
national kind of following, they assume that it's a game maybe 
that we should not be picked in," Boylen said. "You know, we've 
been facing that stuff all year. But I think that's what's 
happened. All I can tell you is we'll be ready to play."

Boylen's players almost seem to wear the disrespected label with
pride.

"We were picked fourth in our conference, and we ended up being 
tied for first. I don't think anybody picked us to win the 
conference tournament, and we ended up winning that," said Shaun
Green, the Utes' top reserve. "Now we're underdogs it seems like
again for the NCAA tournament, and that's fine. I mean, we've 
been that all year."

One thing's probably certain: Few people in Australia, Nevill's 
homeland, are aware of who's the underdog or the favorite in 
this one.

The NCAAs aren't exactly a big deal to Aussies, and Nevill 
himself said he didn't know much about the tournament before 
coming to the United States five years ago.

As a redshirt, he accompanied Utah into the Sweet 16 his first 
season in Salt Lake City. He's now two wins away from getting 
there again, and his mom - who visited twice from Australia this
year - will be in Miami to see if her son can make it happen.

"It has become a huge deal to me, and definitely to Utah and the
program," Nevill said. "I take great pride in making the 
tournament, and it's a huge accomplishment for us as seniors to 
be able to do that. It wasn't a big deal before, but it's 
definitely a big deal now."]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92065-Arizona-looks-to-prove-worth-vs-Utah</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92065-Arizona-looks-to-prove-worth-vs-Utah</guid>
				<pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:02:36 GMT</pubDate>
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