UVSC sports teams to join new conferences

OREM — The Utah Valley State men's and women's basketball teams will join the newly-formed United Basketball League next year.

Other member schools will be North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne, Texas-Pan American, and New Jersey Institute of Technology.

The schools will all play each other twice during the 2006-07 season in a home-and-home format.

But, because the United Basketball League is not officially recognized by the NCAA, next year will most likely differ from this year in name only as most of the schools in the UBL are already on UVSC's schedule this year.

The Wolverine women's soccer team is already part of a similar arrangement, having played last season as part of the United Soccer Conference with many of the same schools that will comprise the United Basketball League.

But, unlike the UBL, the United Soccer Conference was granted provisional status by the NCAA, meaning that after a two-year provisional period — which ends following the 2006 season — the NCAA will decide whether to consider the conference as an official member.

The UVSC wrestling team is also hammering out the details of a conference that it will join. Perhaps because of the dearth of wrestling programs in the era of Title IX cutbacks, the Wolverine wrestlers have a shorter line to wait in for the NCAA to grant official recognition — the as-yet-unnamed wrestling conference will have NCAA recognition from the get-go.

All of this, however, is mere semantics in comparison to Utah Valley State's ultimate goal — to shed its skin as an independent and join an already-established conference that will be applicable to all the UVSC athletic programs.

The week that was

WRESTLING: Defeated Division II Adams State 24-15 Friday. The Wolverines (5-8) were led by victories from 125-pounder Talon Vickers and Justin Rawle at 149 pounds. UVSC senior Erkin Tadzhimetov saw his nine-match winning streak at 133 pounds come to an unceremonious end in a 6-5 loss to Raymond Dunning, who is ranked second nationally in Division II.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Remained winless on the road, dropping two games in California. Utah Valley (7-13) lost 84-63 to Cal State Fullerton on Thursday before falling Saturday to UC Riverside 69-62. Freshman center Robyn Fairbanks, who is making a strong push to lead all Division I independent players in both scoring and rebounding, totaled 38 points and 22 boards in the two losses.