Coach Jim Boylen almost didn't know how to answer the question, about the challenge of taking his Utah Utes to play longtime rival Utah State at the Smith Spectrum tonight. On the one hand, he didn't want to disrespect the Aggies, but nor did he want to send a message to his players that winning in Logan would be impossible.

So he settled on a charming anecdote.

"A lot of guys in the profession tell me don't schedule that game," Boylen said with a laugh. "Don't play up there. That's what I've heard most about that, don't ever play up there."

There's a good reason.

The Aggies are all but unbeatable at home, having gone 146-12 there under coach Stew Morrill. They're riding a 21-game home winning streak, have beaten the Utes five straight times at home since 1996 --?before Morrill became coach -- and have won 57 straight regular-season nonconference home games, including 16 in a row against in-state competition.

It's all enough to force Boylen to confront the possibility that none of his heralded high-profile games against marquee opponents will be as challenging as trying to beat the Aggies in the usually roaring cauldron of the Spectrum.

"I've always said the Spectrum is a magical place and a wonderful place," Morrill said. "We've got great fans and the acoustics and the setting and all that are great. But if you don't have good teams, you're going to get beat -- there or anywhere. And we've been fortunate to have some good teams."

Looks like they have another one, too.

The Aggies are 8-1, and coming off a road victory at Idaho State, the team that stunned the 6-4 Utes two weeks ago for its only victory against a Division I team. Both the Aggies and the Utes are playing on just one day's rest -- the Utes snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Weber State at home Saturday --- to squeeze in the game before Christmas.

"From what I hear, it's an amazing place to play," Utah's Tyler Kepkay said.

Might be slightly less amazing tonight, with many students out of school on winter break.

But still, even some of the best teams in Utah history -- the 1999 team that went unbeaten in the Western Athletic Conference the year after reaching the national title game, for example, and the 2005 team that nearly swept the Mountain West and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament -- have failed to solve the Spectrum.

Not that the Utes won't try, with coach Boylen emphasizing that they already have played in other hostile arenas.

"We'll play anybody, anytime, anywhere," he said. "We're going to go up there -- it's a rivalry game -- and make the most of it. It's a great place to play. I haven't been there yet, it will be a new experience for me. But New Mexico is hard to play at, too. BYU is hard to play at, too. Vegas is hard to play at, too. Oklahoma's not an easy place to play, Missouri State's not an easy place to play."

Even more than many of those places, though, the Aggies have long since forged an enduring tradition among students and fans to make the Spectrum as inhospitable as possible to visiting teams. Seats feel as if they're right on top of the court, and the tight configuration of the sunken arena floor seems to hold in the noise -- sort of the opposite of the often moribund Huntsman Center.

"It's a special place," Morrill said. "There aren't very many like it in the country."

mcl@sltrib.com