8A SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2009
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Huskies move to No.1 spot
Connecticut's Kemba Walker, top, getup past Villanova's Corey Fisher, right, for a shot in the second half of Wednesday's game. Connecticut defeated Villanova 89-83, moving the No.1 huskies to 20-1 on the season.
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It's Monday, there must be a new No. 1.
This time it's Connecticut at the top of The Associated Press' college basketball poll, the fourth straight week with a new No.1.
The Huskies (20-1) moved up from second to replace Duke (19-2), which fell to fourth after losing on a last-second shot to Wake Forest in its one week on top.
Wake Forest (17-2) was No. 1 two weeks ago, but the Demon Deacons lost to Virginia Tech and fell out. They had replaced Pittsburgh (19-2), which was No. 1 for two weeks before losing to Louisville. North Carolina (19-2) was a unanimous No. 1 in the preseason poll and for the first seven weeks of the season before losing to Boston College.
The five teams which have been No.1 this season are from two conferences: North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Pittsburgh and Connecticut of the Big East.
The record for consecutive weeks with a different No. 1 is seven in the 1993-94 season.
This is Connecticut's first appearance at No.1 since March 2006, and it is the Huskies' 25th week on top, all since 1995.
"I look at it like winning a good in-season tournament like Maui. It's an accomplishment for a minute, a day an hour, a week or whatever, but you, want to be there in April," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said Monday.
The Huskies' time there will be challenged immediately as they played at No. 5 Louisville on Monday night.
Connecticut received 64 first-place votes from the 72-member national media panel to easily outdistance Oklahoma (21-1), which moved up from fourth. The Sooners were last ranked No. 2 in the 2002-03 season. The Sooners were No. 1 on five ballots.
Connecticut is also ranked No.1 in the women's poll, the fourth season in which both programs from that school have been on ton.
Just as the top of the poll keeps
changing, so does the bottom. Three teams moved in this week. Minnesota returned after a one-week absence. Defending national champion Kansas had been out seven weeks. Utah joined for the first time this season.
The last five ranked teams were Kansas, Washington, Illinois, Arizona State and Utah State.
Georgetown (12-8) dropped out from 25th after losing its fifth straight game. The Hoyas were ranked all season, getting as high as No.9, which was when the Losing streak began.
With Georgetown out the, Big East is down to six teams in the
Top 25. The 16 team league set the record earlier this season with nine teams in the poll in one week. The ACC and Big Ten both have four teams in the rankings.
Kentucky's absence means the Southeastern Conference does not have a team in the poll for the first time since March 7, 1989, when it was still a Top 20. Tennessee, Florida and Kentucky of the SEC were all ranked at some point this season.
Kansas (17-4), which had to replace all five starters and a top reserve from the team that won it all last season, moved in at 20th having won six straight games.
State department sends badminton team abroad
SPORTS DIPLOMACY
Trip meant to improve relations between U.S. and Iran
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is sending a women's badminton team to Iran this week as part of a broad bid to engage the Iranian people through educational and cultural exchanges, the State Department said Monday.
Amid a wide-ranging review of U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic, the trip is the new administration's first foray into such exchanges that began while President George W. Bush was in the White House. Past exchanges have involved athletes from other sports, artists, academics and professionals.
The 12-member team — eight female players and four coaches and managers representing USA Badminton — will be in Tehran from Tuesday until
Feb. 9 to participate in the Iran Fajr International Badminton Tournament, which begins on Friday, the State Department said in a statement.
It said the U.S. squad was invited by the Iranian Badminton Federation and that they hoped to extend an invitation to Iran's national team to come to the United States in July. This week's trip is being sponsored by the State Department, which since 2006 has promoted people-to-people exchanges with Iran.
More than 250 Iranians, including artists, athletes, and medical professionals, have participated in exchange programs in the United States, the department said.
Previous sports exchanges, which started in Jan. 2007, have included wrestlers and weightlifters as well as basketball, table tennis and water polo players. Since
then, the department has sent 32 American athletes to Iran and brought 75 Iranian athletes and coaches to the United States.
The badminton trip is the first to take place under the Obama administration, which is considering new approaches to Iran. Those include direct official dialogue and the appointment of a special envoy to deal with Iran, which has not had diplomatic relations with the U.S. since 1979.
With tensions high over Iran's nuclear program and alleged support for extremists, the Bush administration in late December expressed grave concern about the detention and interrogation in Iran of an American academic who was participating in an exchange. The incident led the National Academies of Science to suspend educational exchanges with Iranian institutions.
OLYMPICS
Dramatic setting for 2010 Games Vancouver boasts rich natural beauty and a West-Coast lifestyle
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER — Hugging a spectacular bay by the Pacific Ocean and ringed by stunning, snowcapped peaks. Vancouver easily ranks as one of the world's most beautiful cities.
back West Coast lifestyle, a place where visitors can literally ski in the morning, and sail in the afternoon. And, now, Vancouver is preparing to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
With its sandy beaches, Pacific waters, lush rain forests and a glittering downtown full of skyscrapers, Vancouver considers itself a world-class destination on par with cities like Sydney, Australia, or San Francisco.
The region embodies the laid
It's the most populous destination ever to host the Winter Olympics, with 2.1 million people in the greater Vancouver regional area, according to Canada's 2006 census. It's also Canada's third time to welcome the Olympics, having hosted the Montreal 1976 Summer Games and the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. No
Canadian has ever won a gold medal on home turf.
The Vancouver region has been home to First Nations peoples, and it's a heritage that's celebrated throughout British Columbia.
Europeans arrived in British Columbia in the 18th and 19th centuries with the advent of the fur trade and several gold rushes which brought prospectors from around the world.
Now, the region boasts a multiethnic makeup and vast cultural diversity. Several influxes of Asian immigrants have made it home to one of the largest Chinese populations outside China.
Any exploration of the city would be incomplete without a stroll on the cobbled streets of Gastown with its old-world charm, much-photographed steam clock, quaint pubs, restaurants and galleries.
This is the heart of old Vancouver, which grew up quickly around a makeshift tavern established in 1867 by gold prospector "Gassy" Jack Deighton.
Visitor should be careful not to stray too far south of Gastown lest they wind up in the city's notoriously squalid and poverty-striken notorious Downtown Eastside where drugs and prostitution are rampant.
For the less well-heeled, the surrounding area is home to a number of hostels and cheap eateries.
The area was an early "skid row," a term said to have originated in Seattle, where, as in Vancouver, logs were "skipped" along roads to sawmills.
Galleries in other areas are worth a visit. The Vancouver Art Gallery hosts international shows as well as a permanent exhibit of the work of Emily Carr who documented West Coast native life.
The gallery steps are a focus of the city's leisure crowd, lounging to take in the scene and watch street performers.
But that's just one small part of Vancouver.
From there, it's a short hop to casual Kitsilano, where Fourth Avenue was Vancouver's 1960s hippie haven. It's now home to an eclectic assortment of restaurants and one-of-a-kind shops.
Past Kitsilano is the University of British Columbia, home to the Museum of Anthropology, a temple of light perched atop cliffs over the scenic waters of Howe Sound
And, at the bottom of the cliffs is Wreck Beach, in warm weather one of North America's favorite nude hangouts.
The night buzz in Vancouver is on glittering Robson Street, the city's Rodeo Drive North, lined with top-name boutiques, oyster bars and java joints. For the more adventurous, the award-winning restaurant atop Grouse Mountain accessible by a gondola offers unparalleled views of Vancouver and its harbor.
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