By Stephenson Beck
One season after sending two teams to the NCAA tournament and another to the NIT, college basketball in the state of Utah has gotten off to a bumpy – albeit interesting – start to the season.
The University of Utah, the premier basketball team in the state, is struggling, while teams like Southern Utah and Utah State have shown signs of promise. And even though Cougars have the best record in the state, they have yet to look very impressive. So here”s a look at the five major college basketball teams in the state of Utah.
BYU is sitting pretty with an 11-4 record heading into conference play. High expectations were placed on a team that reached the NIT last year.
But the rebirth of Cougar basketball is still on hold. BYU has proven itself the best team in the state, having defeated the three in-state teams it has faced this year (the only team that can claim it), but has yet to post a victory over a noteworthy team.
An embarrassing blowout to Arizona State made even coach Steve Cleveland question the quality of his team. BYU almost pulled off an upset of then-No. 13 University of Southern California, but to put it nicely, the Cougars choked. A 20-point second half lead turned into a three-point road loss.
But the hard knocks that the Cougars have taken might be for the best. Forward Mikeli Wesley earned Mountain West Conference Player of the Week and is playing well, but guard Terrill Lyday has been in a shooting slump for most of the season, making only 37 percent of his shots. Fortunately, Lyday is showing signs of breaking out, and some of the scoring pressure is now being shared with highly touted transfer Travis Whiting. Whiting became eligible for the Cougars in December and is second on the team in scoring with 15 points a game.
The Cougar defense has been holding opponents to 64 points a game, but the offense has yet to run on all cylinders. Now would be a good time for that to happen, with the conference season starting Saturday.
Utah hardly resembles the team that dominated the Rockies through much of the 90”s. Coach Rick Majerus, who is recovering from anthroscopic knee surgery and has not accompanied his team to any games this season, received another set back when he reported to the hospital complaining of chest pains on Jan. 2.
His team could use him. Utah has a very unUtelike record of 8-6 so far this year. Perhaps the scariest part has been Utah”s inability to defeat an instate team. The Utes have lost to Utah State, Weber State and Southern Utah by a total of 10 points. They started the season ranked No. 12, but quickly fell out of the AP top 25.
The Utes are still a threat in conference and showed signs of promise with a victory over Memphis, but look for Mountain West Conference foes to get their revenge on Utah for years of domination.
Utah State has stormed to a 10-2 record, including in-state victories over both Utah and Weber State before falling by two points to BYU. They are actually the highest votegetter in the AP top 25 of any team in Utah.
The problem with evaluating the Aggies is their weak schedule. Yes, Utah was ranked when they beat them and 10 wins this early is impressive for any team, but how much credit does a team deserve with blowouts over mighty Montana Tech and Albany, NY (I”m hoping that”s a university). Most teams play some weaker teams at the beginning of the season to get some early success, but Utah State seems to have made weak teams its entire diet.
That two-point loss to BYU must have really hurt.
True, a victory over Utah does not mean the same thing it used to. True, Southern Utah”s weak schedule is filled with Southern Virginia”s and Idaho State”s. But give them some credit. In posting a 11-3 record, the Thunderbirds have set themselves up perfectly for the Mid-Continent Conference season.
The key to winning for Southern Utah is the same as last season-shooting guard Fred House. They live or die by his shooting. He takes the majority of the team”s shots (40 more than the next closest player) and is averaging 16 points a game. If he is on, the Thunderbirds have a shot of upsetting anybody in the state of Utah. If he”s off, then they are lucky to defeat some of the larger high school teams in the state of Utah.
Everyone got really excited about Weber State following its win over Utah, but the Wildcats have lost to everyone else in the state and their record is 6-5. The teams they have defeated beside the Utes include Morris Brown, Anderson, Ind (I”m not really a big fan of any team that must include it”s state abbreviation in the name), Boise State and Cal State Riverside. The Wildcats are led by Big Sky Conference scoring leader Jermaine Boyette, who scored 27 and 36 points respectively against Utah and BYU. But their defense is weak, and teams have been exploiting it.
