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If BYU basketball players are upset or angry in any way over Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak's playful jab on Wednesday night, they are doing a good job hiding it.

For those unaware, after beating Wichita State in overtime, Krystkowiak fired the first salvo in the direction of the Cougars leading up to next week's rivalry game at the Marriott Center. Talking about how the Utes will play five elite teams before conference play, Krystkowiak threw in:

"Well, four and a half if you count BYU, I guess."

Utah has played San Diego State and Wichita State and will play Kansas and UNLV later this month, after the 7 p.m. showdown in Provo on Dec. 10. Radio and television stations had a good time with the comment on Thursday, playing it over and over again.

BYU held a media availability session Friday morning at the BYU Broadcast building before the Cougars departed Provo on a bus for Salt Lake City. The Cougars play host to Hawaii on Saturday (4 p.m., BYUtv) at EnergySolutions Arena.

I asked Tyler Haws what his reaction was when he first heard Krystkowiak's line.

"I heard about it," Haws said, smiling. "I don't have too much of a reaction to it. There's always something floated around with those games. The BYU-Utah game, it is not a hard game to get motivated for. Both teams want to win really badly. We are excited, and we will be ready to go."

I also asked senior guard Anson Winder about the Krystkowiak comment.

"Yeah, we have heard about the comments and seen the video and stuff," Winder said. "We try not to pay too much attention to stuff that goes on in Salt Lake. We try to focus on what's going on here in Provo and our team and our situation. We will handle that when it is time to deal with Utah."

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The Cougars talked a lot Friday about guarding against a letdown after their stirring 91-81 win over Utah State in which they made their final 24 free throws. Yes, 24 in a row.

Hawaii is 7-2, but hasn't really played anyone, or played in a hostile environment yet this season. Still, this has the potential to be a trap game for BYU, with the Utah game looming next week. The Utes can begin preparing for BYU, since they don't play again until then.

"The feeling of satisfaction of accomplishing something that has been tough for a lot of teams [winning in Logan] kind of stays with you for a little while," Rose said. "But you realize the challenge.

For me, with this group of guys, I just feel good for them, because we competed so hard over there in Maui, and the results weren't what we wanted. And sometimes it is hard to figure out what to say to these guys.

The fact that they were able to go up there and get a big win should kind of make them ready for the next one."

Rose said he was happy with the way his team responded after going 1-2 in Maui and dropping two overtime games.

"I mean, we played well over there," he said. "But we were disappointed. That's a tough emotion to deal with, as a team, and how are you going to respond? Because the losses kind of splinter you, get you in different spots. But I thought the Eastern Kentucky game was really big for us, because we were really fatigued in that game.

We had to hit shots. That's just the way they play. They pressure you, and then they protect the rim. And we had to make baskets. It was one of our better shooting games of the year, coming off real tough travel. So pretty impressed with that."

Haws said the Cougars have resisted the temptation to look ahead to next week's games. The Cougars will play at Weber State four days after hosting Utah.

"We just take it one game at a time," Haws said. "Every game is important, but as soon as we take care of this game, we will look forward to Utah. But everything we are doing right now is all Hawaii stuff."

Winder said Hawaii is too good of a team to look past. The Warriors have really good balance, with five players close to double figures in scoring.

"We make sure to focus on the game we have at hand," Winder said. "We all watched the Utah game, so we have seen it, and it just makes it more exciting. It just makes it more important to win now, because of how important that game will be.

Right now, we will focus on Hawaii, and when it is time for Utah, we will focus on Utah."