After defeating the SEC west champs at New Orleans, the Utes continue their campaign of death as they march north on Baton Rouge. Actually, it's in Utah. and it's just a basketball game, so no need to panic (maybe). Any of you utes still in town wanna give us a word or two about your bball team? As always, the scratchy wire will be in operation. this is on tv, but only those around here with the most insane sports cable packages have The Mtn. (no, that's not an abbreviation)
i can tell you a bit about them based on their stats. they have played a much better schedule with mixed results. being at utah it will be a tall order for LSU. they are very experienced (start 4 Sr.) and big. their main guy is 7'2". they rebound well. they dont force turnovers or defend the 3 well. i dont know how CTJ can stop their post-play so i'd guess CTJ will emphasize forcing turnovers.
We once were a basketball school..... Coach Jim Boylen is in his 2nd year as HC and is looking to bring winning back to the hardwood in Salt Lake City. Boylen came from Michigan St., replacing Ray Giacoletti who was fired after steering the program into the waters of irrelevancy in the post-Majerus era. To his credit (and I use the term credit* lightly), he did coach the team to a sweet-16 finish in his first year as HC in 2005. That team was lead by first round draft pick Andrew Bogut. We picked up a good win over Gonzaga on New Years Eve, but have also had some terrible losses (Southwest Baptist/Idaho State). We're 9-5 on the year. Our biggest margin of loss this year was at Oklahoma (70-52). Otherwise, in our other four losses combined the margin of loss was about 2.5. We've played a pretty good schedule to date with wins over Mississippi, Oregon, Gonzaga and losses to Cal, Oklahoma and Utah State. Luke Neville is a huge force in the middle at 7'2" averaging 17.6 ppg and 8.6 boards. He's not as tough as Bogut was, but he's improved over the years and this team runs much better with him in the game. 2 years into the Boylen era, we're still a pretty scrappy bunch. Toughness is a Boylen trademark and sometimes that translates into foul trouble for our starters. The Huntsman Center used to be one of the toughest places in the nation for opposing teams to play in. Not so much anymore, but Boylen is building the program back up and a large part of his strategy has to do with scheduling some bigger name D1 schools for games in Salt Lake City.
No doubt this is a barometer game. You're right, it's our "athletic" guard play, our ability to shoot well from three, and our ability to get pressure on the guards and get steals, versus their ability to run their sets get the ball down low. I'm also interested in what CTJ has in his bag of defensive tricks. Does he play a little zone, which he's not really touched this year as far as I can tell? Or, does he end up doubling down and forcing active rotation on the perimeter. In any case, it blows that this game is not on TV. These are two decent teams. The fact that Utah beat Miss (SEC team), Oregon (traditionally strong Pac10 team) and Gonzaga (a highly ranked but sort of overrated team) tells you to expect a step up from WSU. I don't know how they lost to Southwest Baptist and Id St, though.
I say again :wave: it is on The Mtn. I take it this is a sort of MWC channel/fox sports affiliate? (please fill us in salUTE) if you have one of those inclusive cable packages that gets you every sports channel on earth, you might have it.
Ah...the MTN. Yes, this has been a sticking point with MWC fans for a couple of years now. the MTN. is the official television network of the Mountain West Conference. Nationally, you can only get it on DirecTV, but outside of Utah, I really don't know what type of programming package you would need in order to have it. You'd have to check with DirecTV. Inside of Utah, the MTN. was just made available on DirecTV programming this year...barely in time for football season to begin. In fact, when the MTN. first came out a few years ago it was only available through Comcast Cable which didn't even serve about 90% of the Mountain West market, including many areas of the Salt Lake/Provo metro area. If Comcast happens to be a cable carrier down in your neck of the woods, you might be able to try them also, but I think outside of the MWC market, you're pretty much stuck with DirecTV. I believe the station affiliation is with CBS as the only other stations that the MTN. will share games with are the Versus network and CBSCollege.....but that hardly ever happens. Sorry for the lengthy explanation.
