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While Utah basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak took a pot shot at BYU's program last week by suggesting, in a good-natured manner, that the Cougars aren't an elite team, BYU coach Dave Rose took the opposite tack on Tuesday night when he met with reporters to discuss Wednesday's showdown at the Marriott Center (7 p.m., ESPNU).
Rose had nothing but praise for the No. 13 Utes, who haven't won in the MC since 2005 but probably have their best chance since then this time around.
"Well, I think that the biggest thing is that their numbers are really good. Their shooting percentages from two, from three, I think that their rebounding numbers, they have a deep rotation where they have a lot of guys that come in and play in their system, and then they got Delon Wright and Brandon Taylor and the big kid in the middle, [Jakob] Poeltl. All three of those guys are good offensive players, and then they have some shooters to go with them.
It is a complete team. They've got good size, good depth, and they have a real purpose in how they play, so other than that, that's about it. That's what stands out."
BYU football fans are accustomed to football coach Bronco Mendenhall sort of downplaying big games and rivalry games as being no more, or no less, important than any other games.
To his credit, Rose takes a different route. He acknowledged Tuesday that this game is of extreme importance to the Cougars.
"Every guys responds differently," Rose said. "You try to put as much out there as possible that maybe someone can grab a hold of. I think the urgency of the game preparation is a little bit different. Your guys understand the importance of the game on a lot of different levels.
And then there is also the balance that some guys want everything to be the same. They don't want a whole different approach. They get a lot of confidence from the consistency of your preparation. So it is kind of a fine line that you walk, and hopefully by this time of year we know a little bit about our team, and we can present it to them in a way in which everybody can get a piece of something that will help them and then in turn they can get outside of themselves and it will really help the team."
There's also the matter of last year's game, an 81-64 Utah win at the Huntsman Center in which BYU's offense never got on track and Utah's Jordan Loveridge had a career first half. Loveridge is injured and won't play Wednesday, but the Utes have so much depth that his absence might not be noticed.
Revenge game?
"Well, I am sure when kids are preparing for games, they try to find data points that they can relate to, and that's a data point," Rose said. "We will see how both teams respond to that."
Tyler Haws and Kyle Collinsworth also met with reporters collectively Tuesday; I'll run some of their comments regarding last year's loss and what they think of the Utes in a blog on game day.
The Cougars had defeated the Utes seven straight times before last year's Utah breakthrough, but Rose says during that stretch of futility for the Utes he knew the program would rise again. He said it was only a matter of time, because of Utah's tradition, facilities, support from boosters and new coaching staff.
"Well, I always felt, especially on the recruiting trail, and outside of the actual game itself, I always felt like the Utah basketball program was something that was really seriously hard to deal with," Rose said. "It was a real situation where when you got into those battles, they have so much tradition, and they have had so much success, that it is always going to be a struggle to try and compete with them, and we had a nice little run there on the floor, and that helped us a lot, helped us a lot in some of those off-the-court wars."
Some folks might be wondering why this game is being played in the middle of the week. Didn't that original four-game contract worked out by Rose and then-Utah coach Jim Boylen say the games would be played on the second Saturday of December?
I asked Rose about that. His answer might surprise you:
"Actually, this contract was put together by coach Boylen and I. It was a four-game series, the second Saturday in December was the way it was written. [Utah] called this year and asked if we would move it to a Wednesday because they had a game with Kansas lined up. So we obliged."
The Utes play the Jayhawks on Saturday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
More from Rose on Wednesday's big clash:
On what it means to the program to have a sellout:
"I think it is exciting for our guys. It is one of those situations where we have a good opportunity to have a nationally ranked team coming into our building, and those are always great nights, great days when you are preparing for that. And then you add in the fact that it is one of your instate rival teams, so there should be a lot of energy here in the building tomorrow."
On whether practices have been more intense:
"Um, actually I think that our practices the last two days have been good. They haven't been nearly as physical and as competitive as some of the other practices we've had. I think that trying to, their style is really different than our style.
So we've tried to re-create that a little bit. And that might be a little bit of an issue. But our guys will be ready tomorrow."
On what they have to do to win:
"Rebounding is a huge key. They are very, very good. Their fours and fives are very good offensive rebounders, so we will have to do a good job of trying to keep them away from the glass. I think the pace of the game will be an issue, and hopefully we can get up and down a little bit, and have transition be a big part of this thing. And then being able to control their point guard [Brandon Taylor]. He can just take over games, and is a guy who can do it in so many different ways. So hopefully we can find a way to keep him under control."