Last week after upsetting then-No.8 Wichita State in the Huntsman Center, Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak made a remark that may come back to bite him come Wednesday night when the No. 13 Runnin’ Utes travel down south to take on BYU.
“I said going into this stretch of five tough games, playing five elite teams, I think, well, four and a half if you count BYU, I guess,” Krystkowiak said. “Strike that. No, that’s going to be locker room fodder for them, too, because we play them in a week. Dang it.”
Whether or not the Cougars have taken Krystkowiak’s comments personally or not is yet to be seen, but the Utes head coach made it clear there were no ill intentions behind the “locker room fodder.”
“Everyone is different. Me cracking a joke shouldn’t do anything,” Krystkowiak said. “If it lit a fire, so be it. Coaches and players look for motivation any way they can. Once the ball gets tipped I don’t know how much it matters. You want to have some gamesmanship. It’s good for the rivalry. We can see if it fired them up after the game.”
The Cougars have a very talented squad this season, taking the same San Diego State team that Utah lost to earlier in the season to double-overtime before joining the Utes on the list of Aztec victims. Led by star guard Tyler Haws, BYU has had no trouble scoring or dishing the ball, as it leads the nation in both points and assists per game.
Haws, like Utah’s Delon Wright, has received a ton of preseason praise and deservedly so. In the first nine games of the season, Haws is averaging 24.4 points per game, but the most impressive thing is that as of right now, he is part of the elite 50-90-40 club – shooting 50 percent from the field, 90 percent from the free throw line and 40 percent from behind the arc.
Despite the impressive numbers, however, Utah’s Brandon Taylor is up for the challenge.
“I have a lot of respect for Tyler Haws, but it’s not like I am scared,” Taylor said. “It’s something I look forward to and something as a team we look forward to.”
While Haws may be the star of the team, there’s no question that the Cougars have an abundance of talent on the court. Kyle Collinsworth is coming off of his best game in his time at BYU, recording a triple-double against Hawaii and is currently filling up the stat sheet with averages of 13.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.
“He’s a terrific player. He’s really solid all around and plays point guard for them,” Krystkowiak said. “A key component to our defense will be trying to shut him down.”
The last time Utah made a trip down to the Marriott Center was two seasons ago, where the Utes saw their second-half lead slowly dwindle down to the point of an eventual BYU victory by the conclusion of the game. Current players such as Taylor remember that game, and the crowd, all too well and understands that this is a big game for him and his team.
“This state and these two programs take a lot of pride in the competition between these two schools,” Taylor said. “I think there fans are tough. I was down there my [freshman] year and it was nasty, it was crazy down there. It’s going to a big one.”
The Utes and Cougars are scheduled to tip off in Provo at 7:00 p.m. MT.
 
[email protected]
@GriffDoug