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In my eight seasons of covering BYU basketball, I've never seen coach Dave Rose talk as bluntly, or with as much anger in his voice, as he did Wednesday evening after practice when he discussed the University of Utah's decision to cancel next December's contracted game between the rivals at the Marriott Center.

Earlier Wednesday, BYU broke the news, so to speak, with an announcement that Utah wanted to cancel the game and a rather mild comment from Rose about disagreeing with the decision.

"I know our students, our players, our fans, and college basketball fans in the intermountain area want to see this long-standing rivalry continue," Rose said.

Rose declined to tell local reporters how much the Utes will have to play BYU for reneging on the contract (as you will see below) but he told ESPN's Jeff Goodman later that the buyout is $80,000.

After practice, Rose spoke for a few minutes about Thursday night's WCC game against Santa Clara.

Then he started fielding questions on the day's big news, beginning with the question: "What do you want to know?"

Well, everything, was the general reply from the dozen or so media members in the room.

Here's the transcript:

Rose on whether Larry Krystkowiak gave him a reason when he called to cancel:

"I was very surprised. Shocked, actually. I have been doing this for 32 years in high school, and junior college, and now the Division I level, and we've had hundreds of agreements on games — verbal agreements, handshake agreements, contractual, written contracts. And this is the first time that I've had one not fully executed. So, I was surprised."

On how much Utah will have to pay to cancel the game:

'You can probably find that out. it is a hefty sum. It is not for me to say. But he told me he's fully prepared to pay that and it is written in the contract. It is initiated from the University of Utah, so it is public record. To me, it seems like a really significant amount of money. Maybe to them it doesn't seem that big of a deal. But the money can't replace the game. There's no amount of money that can replace the game. Well, maybe some."

On whether Larry K. gave him reasons:

"Yeah, he had a couple of things that really were really kind of on his mind. But I think you probably ought to talk to Larry about that."

On him saying it was due to players' safety and wanting a cooling off period:

"Well, the rivalry is pretty heated. We've had some interesting moments over the years. I have been involved in it for 18 years, and that's a lot of the excitement of the game, is, you don't want things to get out of hand, but in rivalry games things tend to get pretty heated at times. I don't think, from my point of view, that the safety of the players is an issue."

On whether this is an overreaction from Utah and Krystkowiak:

"No, he knows what's best for his program. I totally respect that that is his program. I don't respect the decision. I think that you are raised, at least I have been raised that your word is your bond. And we made an agreement, and basically I try to teach my players every day to do what you say you are going to do.

I think that [I gotta be careful, under breath] that if the game was scheduled to be played in the Huntsman Center next year, the series would still be alive."

On the future of the rivalry and whether this is a one-time thing:

"It is scary, because how do you put another contract together? Another agreement together? So, that's how I feel."

On Rose playing in other rivalry games and whether BYU-Utah is more dangerous than any of them:

"Oh, this doesn't make any sense to me at all, no."

On whether BYU will want the next game, if there is one, at the Marriott Center:

"I think so, and a much larger buyout. Because it seems like they have plenty of resources."