University of Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak talks about his decision to stop the Utah-BYU basketball games for the time being, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Salt Lake City.
Freshmen-laden Ute team will try to compete with an experienced, senior-dominated Cougar squad
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s been four years since the infamous “Nick Emery punch” game at the Huntsman Center, which led to some bad feelings between Utah and BYU, along with a one-year hiatus from the longtime rivalry.
Now, for the first time since 2015, they’re back at the Huntsman Center, as Utah and BYU will play Wednesday night in a game scheduled for 6 p.m.
Last year, the two teams met at Vivint Arena in the Beehive Classic, with the Cougars taking a 74-59 victory, and the year before that, BYU won in Provo 77-65. No game was played in 2016 for the first time since 1944.
At one point Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said he didn’t care if the two rivals ever played again, but earlier this week, Krystkowiak didn’t want to go anywhere near those comments or inflame the rivalry in any way.
“I’ll keep my opinions to myself,” he said. “I know they’re on the schedule Wednesday and we’ll see what we can do to be competitive.”
The Ute coach certainly knows his freshman-laden team that has been pegged as the second-youngest team in the nation is in for a challenge against an experienced Cougar squad that could be one of the oldest teams in college basketball. The Cougars could feature four seniors in the starting lineup, assuming Yoeli Childs, who is coming back from an NCAA-imposed nine-game suspension, starts on the frontline.
“They’re a good team; they play real well together,” Krystkowiak said. “They had a heckuva tournament at Maui and whipped up on UCLA and Virginia Tech and were in a pretty tight ball game with Kansas at halftime. They’ve got a bunch of shooters, and Yoeli (Childs) is back in the mix with his first game of the season, so you don’t know the impact he’s going to have.”
The Utes come into the game at 5-2 after a 77-73 home victory over UC Davis last week. Before that, they had an uneven performance at the Myrtle Beach Invitational, where they won just one of three games against mid-major schools.
In evaluating his team’s season so far, Krystkowiak said his team “left one on the table” in South Carolina, when the Utes gave up 10 straight points to end the game and lost to Tulane. Otherwise, he’s happy with the team’s results, which include a road win over Nevada and a home win over Minnesota of the Big Ten.
“We’ve seen glimpses when we play the game the right way,” he said. “We have some guys figuring that out. We can be pretty productive on both ends of the floor. We’re making progress and things are getting simpler for some of the kids to know what it is we’re expecting, and we can move on to the next step in the progression.”
The Utes are led by three sophomores and two freshmen and have just one upperclassman who has played this year: JC transfer Alfonso Plummer, who has not left the bench in two games.
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Colter Peterson, Deseret News
Krystkowiak wouldn’t discuss his team’s injuries except to say most teams are suffering nagging injuries this time of year. Freshman center Branden Carlson sat out the Friday game against UC Davis with a knee injury, while freshman guard Rylan Jones played on a sprained ankle that has bothered him for a couple of weeks. Despite that, Jones had one of his better games, scoring 18 points with five assists in 34 minutes.
He’ll be joined in the starting lineup by Timmy Allen (19.4 ppg), Both Gach (12.9 ppg), Riley Battin (10.1 ppg) and Carlson (8.3 ppg) if he’s healthy. If not, the Utes will go with freshman Lahat Thioune (2.0 ppg) in the middle. Two other freshmen, forward Mikael Jantunen (4.7 ppg) and Jaxon Brenchley (5.6 ppg), are usually the first two players off the bench.
Krystkowiak said his team will “have to play as good as we have all year” to compete with the 6-3 Cougars Wednesday.
“They’ve got a versatile, real connected team, they’re playing hard and they have a good plan,” he said. “We’ve got to be sharp defensively from start to finish, and we’ve got to make sure we’re doing a better job offensively than we have the past couple of weeks.”
Following Wednesday’s game, the Utes will play Central Arkansas at home Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.), and then have a week before they play Weber State in the Beehive Classic on Dec. 14.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2YeNrEF
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