Keep on waiting for a thread and finally decided to create one.
I remember back when WebMonkey put the hippos on the screens when there was an upcoming game between the schools.
Hope a few posters here show up in the Hunty. There seems to be such a complete lack of interest on all the various Utah boards, I fear the visiting fans are due to take over the arena again and have a fun time at our expense.
Hopefully Brandon is ready to go but if not, the team has to do what they can with who is available.
Will be interesting - how does BYU matchup to size? They’ve been scoring a lot of points and seems to have the depth to keep the pace up. But they also haven’t had a true road game. To your point, they won’t have a true road game feel if Utah fans don’t show up.
I always go back to a Hawaiian roommate I had in Van Cott that was a grey shirt on the team back in the Majerus days and he commented that BYU’s floor is different (a little more bouncy) and the rims were softer. It made it hard for Utah to adjust. I wonder if it also makes them seem flat on other courts. Of course, this was nearly 25 years ago, so who knows if it’s still the same.
BYU comes in confident and #1 in NET rankings. Smith has put together a solid team - this should be a good test.
I’ll be at the game this Saturday and I’m looking forward to it even though I don’t see us winning. The last two times I’ve gone have been tough because of all of the zoobs. Without Carlson I think we’re screwed.
From the perspective of a BYU fan, the key to a competitive game will be if Carlson for Utah can play. If he can’t play, then this won’t be a competitive game and BYU will win by 15+. But, if he can play well, then it will be competitive, a game decided by 5 points or less. One other thing to watch for is BYU has very good depth, so Utah needs to be winning by 10+ at half if they want a shot at winning.
It’s a rivalry game, so crazy things can happen. I remember in 1997, a historically horrid BYU team that ended up going 1-25 kept the game fairly close against a No. 2-ranked Ute team that would eventually reach the Elite 8.
There was an article from the Salt Lake Tribune stating that it will be a game time decision. The exact quote was “I don’t know,” Smith said. “We are off [Wednesday] and will have two days of practice going into Saturday. I don’t know. It is just too early to tell.”
As far as the Rivalry game…sounds like we must be similar ages. I remember going to the game in Provo in Feb 1999 when you guys had Andre Miller, Alex Jensen and Hanno Mottola and we ended up losing 71-46. It wasn’t a very fun game for BYU fans, so you never know I guess.
Rivalries have the ebbs and flows. Utah owned BYU in the late 90s when Rick was coaching the team to deep runs in the Big Dance and BYU was pretty much at rock bottom and Utah fans had a great time visiting Provo. Now BYU has had the upper hand for quite a while. Hopefully Brandon will be there Saturday, but the other Utah players have to step up if he can’t go.
Hopefully when the teams are in the same conference next year (so the hoops contest isn’t during football season) there will be more interest from Utah fans.
I remember that game well. Utah eventually went on a 23-game win streak and had a No. 2 seed in the tournament. Looked like another Final 4 run was quite possible, but Utah surprisingly lost to Wally Sczerbiak and Miami, OH in the second round.
Andre hurt his hand late in 1999 which slowed him down a bit. Stings to be on the losing end of a big upset. But hats off to Wally and company who played well that day and deserved the win.
I don’t see BYU running away with this thing with or w/o Carlson. It’ll be a low-scoring affair and I’ll be surprised if either team wins by more than 10.
I really want us to win this game. And for all of the grousing by our own fan base and the sh-t-talking from down south about our mbb attendance, winning this game would be a step in the right direction. Fans just want to see that our home games will be fun again. That we’ll win the games we should win and often win the games we hope they’ll win.
I know many of our fans want mbb attendance to be like it was in the '80s and '90s. I think SOME of that is possible and SOME of that is gone forever.
What I think can be recovered is for some coach to come in here and build Utah basketball back into a program with a clear identity and a record of success. I hope that’s Smith, but I’ve hoped that from LK back to Giac. Been hoping for nearly 20 years.
But when Utah basketball is rolling, beating BYU at home is mostly a given — even when the Y is good. We’ve not been in that state of things for a while. And yet, it doesn’t feel like that’s out of reach for our program. That’s a low bar, IMO, and one we need to get back to.
I’ve not watched any BYU this year, and seen chunks of a few games with Utes. I just know kinda who these two programs are historically. And I’m having a hard time believing BYU is TOP 15 good. Why? Because they never are. That’s not to say that they’re not good enough to come up to the Hill and whip Utah’s butt. I think they are. But that’s more of a statement about Utah.
As good as Carlson is, we’re still missing that kind of player we’ve had in the past who can go get their own shot and grab you some points when no one else can. D. Wright, Bogut, Miller. That’s hard to do, but we’ve always done it over the decades. Why would that well dry up now? Why, when this program has more to offer than it ever has?
Let’s hope this Ute team can rally and light up Van Cott tomorrow night. A win over the Y and an appearance in the NCAA’s would do wonders for Smith’s momentum and filling up the Huntsman again. We WILL get there again. Hopefully sooner than later.
One thing I did see on a BYU interview was Trevin Knell saying that he and Carlson were AAU teammates back in the day and that they would be texting back and forth this week on the game. So, I assume Carlson will be pretty invested in playing. If he doesn’t that would be a really bad sign for him missing more games.
With our depth hurt by the transfer of Deivon Smith being 86ed by the NCAA, and Exacte not yet returning, really need Brandon and others to be healthy.