The Runnin’ Utes take the court Wednesday night to host their in-state rival, the BYU Cougars, in the Huntsman Center.
This season, Utah has a 5-1 record, compared to BYU, who is 4-1. Both teams are coming off wins, and the Utah players are aware they will need to be on their best game if they hope to win in front of their home fans.
Last year when the Utes took a trip down to Provo, they won 65-61 in a tightly-contested battle. Head coach Larry Krystkowiak hopes his team can come out on top again, but he knows his guys will have to make a conscious effort to improve in practice and that the confidence gained there will translate over to the game.
The bench players were struggling at the beginning of the season finding a way to really contribute to the game. However, that changed Friday night in Utah’s win over Idaho State when Gabe Bealer and Dakarai Tucker finally started to find the bottom of the net.
Krystkowiak was relieved to see them succeed on the court. After what little practice time they had in Puerto Rico, they were unable to make as many adjustments as they would have liked. Now home, the team feels more rested than ever before, and Krystkowiak feels it is crucial for his all his players to have faith in their play.
“Those guys haven’t been playing with a lot of confidence,” Krystkowiak said. “What I’ve been really impressed [with] is that they’ve stuck with it. Nice to see Gabe and Dakarai, those guys have been grinding a little bit, hasn’t been easy for them coming into the game, so seeing the ball go in [helps].”
So far this season, sophomore Jakob Poeltl has been dominating the paint and hopes that on both ends of the court he will be up for whatever challenge the Cougars throw at him.
“It’s a very exciting game, playing BYU at home,” Poeltl said. “They have a lot of shooters. They’re a very good basketball team, and so we got to get dialed in on defense and execute on offense.”
As a senior, Jordan Loveridge is playing his final BYU-Utah rivalry game. Since Loveridge is from Utah, he has experienced the rivalry on a level that some of the other players have not. He knows his team will have to be hitting on all cylinders if they want to get off to a good start.
“It’s really intense, and the crowd’s into the whole game,” Loveridge said. “It’s important in any game to get off to a good start and try to almost put away a team like that early — don’t give them confidence throughout the game.”
While his team is working on a game plan for the highly-anticipated matchup, Krystkowiak feels as though these games are what make college basketball what it is today. It’s what he always looked forward to as a player, and he loves his players are also able to experience it.
“Rivalry game, I’m just going to enjoy this one,” Krystkowiak said. “It’s kind of what college basketball is all about. These rivalries that have existed for a long time, so we’re going to have to have our ‘A’ game.”
Krystkowiak is not expecting to get his guys up for this game — just the nature of the game should be enough to get the entire squad going. Although he knows every game is important, this one definitely packs the most emotion, and he is sure his team will be firing right from tip-off.
“There’s quite a few places around the country where rivalries have come to a screeching halt with conference change-ups,” Krystkowiak said. “Won’t find too many programs playing in-state games as hard as this. Something that gets your adrenaline going at a different level.”
Game time is set to tip-off at 8 p.m. MST in the Huntsman.
@kbrenneisen