The 4-4 Utes will be facing a Cougars team that is undefeated with a 9-0 mark. After a tough win against UVU Wednesday night, Utah will be looking to start a string of consecutive victories against the team down south.
“Anytime you win, you have to be happy that you won,” says Utes’ head coach Anthony Levrets. “Whether you have won or lost, you must learn and continue to grow, and we are in a situation right now with this young team that we’ve just got to get better. We won and we are going to be able to learn, which is way better than losing and having to learn from it.”
The biggest lesson Utah is learning is how to defend. The team is averaging a solid 66.2 points per game, but has struggled stopping its opponents and had a particularly difficult time containing the Wolverines on Wednesday. Much of the learning has to do with adjusting to new rules that give advantages to offensive players.
“We have to get better defensively and we have to play without fouling,” Levrets says. “We are young and we are not adapting to the new way they are calling the game. We must defend with our brains and with our mouths and not just with our bodies.”
Saturday will mark the first time since 2011 that the teams have faced each other, and that showdown was certainly a memorable one. In the Mountain West Conference tournament, then-freshman Michelle Plouffe hit a shot with seconds remaining to give the Utes the victory. Utah went on to win the tournament. That moment is both Levrets’ and Plouffe’s favorite in the rivalry.
“I will never forget that,” says Levrets, who was the Utes’ interim head coach at the time. “I think about that every single day. In fact, every time I see Plouffe I think about that shot.”
Saturday’s game will be an especially interesting one for Ute freshman Malia Nawahine, who grew up going to BYU games and attended Springville High School, which is not far from Provo. Nawahine originally planned to play for the Cougars but ultimately changed her mind and came to Salt Lake City.
“The people [at Utah], I liked them better and the school and the coaching staff,” Nawahine says. “I’m excited and I think everyone is excited, especially since I am kind of from that part.”