Utah welcomes a top-10 team to the Huntsman Center tonight for a battle of ranked opponents, yet most of the conversations among Utah fans on social media have been centered on bowl game speculation.
With the success of the Ute football team, the basketball squad has taken a backseat and has been playing in mostly empty arenas.
Over the course of the month the Utes have gone 5-1 with their only defeat coming against a ranked San Diego State team — pretty much the only recognizable team Utah has faced this season so far.
So really, if Utah fans haven’t been paying attention, they haven’t missed much.
Utah has played snoozers against Alabama State, UT-PA, North Dakota and two other teams that aren’t worth remembering.
Coming off a successful 2013-14 campaign, expectations skyrocketed for this squad. The media picked Utah to finish second in the Pac-12, and the Utes even received a preseason ranking. That hype feels like a long time ago, and the excitement for what should be a very good season has taken a hit.
Even with no one watching, the product on the court has evoked memories of the golden age of Utah basketball. With Delon Wright tearing up defenses and freshman center Jakob Poeltl dominating down low, the Utes have a chance to be even better than their preseason predictions suggested. But that hasn’t been good enough for people to start paying attention, at least not yet.
From my eyes, last year’s early season crowds were far better than the ones that have filled up Utah’s home arena over the first month of this season.
At the beginning of the 2013-14 season, optimism surrounded the Utah basketball team for the first time in years. The optimism brought fans out. That isn’t enough anymore.
Utah has been 20-point favorites in every home game this season. Not really the type of games to get the fan base pumped. It’s not fun to go to the arena when you expect a blowout.
The Utes enter the meat of their non-conference schedule against the Shockers, but it feels like a month too late. It’s like Utah has gone on a month-long pre-season, and it has dulled the excitement for the upcoming stretch of games, which includes contests against UNLV, BYU and Kansas.
I know it sounds nit-picky to complain about the out-of-conference schedule after last season’s disgusting slate of games, but it seemed like there was more excitement about last season’s team than this year’s much better version.
If the Utes want to draw eyes away from their football brothers, they need to begin the season with a high profile game at home. Yeah, it might be hard to get the likes of Kentucky, Duke, UCONN and other elite teams to come to Salt Lake, but the Utes at the very least have to stop playing five or six ridiculously inferior opponents. It kills the excitement for the season.
We are now over a month into basketball season, and it feels like the first game is about to be played. I guess it’s better late than never.
 
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