Ute women are carrying the torch

One team is on track to break the school record for consecutive wins, the other has a real chance at a national championship.

The Big Two sports at University of Utah athletics are having an audacious year. But we're not talking about men's basketball and football.

Those are sooooo yesteryear.

Men's basketball at the U. has fallen to fifth place in the conference. Football is coming off a third-place season and hasn't won a title since 2004. Rival BYU is driving the bus in those sports.

However, women's basketball and gymnastics at Utah are on an Obama-like roll.

The Ute women (23-3, 12-0) are aiming for a 10th NCAA basketball tournament in 14 years. Meanwhile, the undefeated gymnastics team is ranked No. 2 and looking for its first national title since 1995.

Admittedly, not everyone cares. Most Utah fans would gladly trade it all to erase that catch BYU's Austin Collie made in football. Still, there's optimism in the Hunstman Center, at least in a couple of sports.

As the saying (almost) goes, to err is human, to win divine. In which case, the Utes are wearing wings. They are a combined 27-0 in women's hoops and gymnastics since December.

There are, however, a few differences. The basketball team, which goes for a school-record 19th straight win tonight against second-place TCU, wasn't supposed to be good. It was picked just fifth in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll. Two years ago, the Utes made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament behind award-winners Kim Smith and Shona Thorburn.

This season, Utah's most significant returner was guard Morgan Warburton, a first-team all-conference player. But it was supposed to be a building year — maybe even a just-get-through-it year — for coach Elaine Elliott. Instead, she is on the longest win streak of her career.

Her team hasn't lost since Ron Paul still had a chance.

What makes the Utes' success so shocking is that five players quit the team in the past year, including starting forward Joh-Teena Filipe.

Nobody takes hits like that and improves ... do they?

But instead of struggling, they're ranked nationally (No. 16), having defeated such big-program teams as Nebraska and Minnesota.

Five-foot-5 Leilani Mitchell, a transfer from Idaho, is getting notice as one of the best guards in the nation and a possible conference player of the year.

"She," said Elliott, "is WNBA good."