Breaking down the keys Utah-BYU II
The key to a Utah win in Provo is shooting a high percentage by the Utes. Generally speaking, visitors to the Marriott Center this year have struggled getting any kind of shooting momentum throughout an entire game. Visitors have had streaks, but they’ve usually chugged to a stop for stretches at a time.
Luke Nevill is going to get his points. He has usually had solid scoring games against the Cougars. But the key for Utah is sixth-man Johnnie Bryant, who comes off the bench with starter minutes and can light it up like he did in a win over UNLV, a decent defensive team. In that game Bryant scored a season-high 26 points.
Bryant is 6-foot-3 and will likely be guarded by either Sam Burgess, Ben Murdock or the freshman Jimmer Fredette. In Utah’s current four-game win streak, Bryant has played 32, 30, 32 and 30 minutes after averaging 26 minutes during the season. He’s averaging 14.3 points a game while shooting an impressive .516 as a guard. He is .459 accurate from beyond the arc.
The Utes will slow down the game and try and try and stop BYU’s transition game, best in the league. They’ll try and shorten the game and make BYU play a half court game and force BYU to defend Nevill on the post, hoping for foul trouble. Utah, like BYU, will try to get the inside-outside attack going and hope for some open shots to be made from beyond the arc.
BYU wins because they are very good at speeding up the game at home and making a myriad of shots. They’ll also get the “home” calls, although this season there have been plenty of screwy officiating calls home and away for all the league’s teams.
The model?
You have to look no further than how the Cougars played at home against the league’s two best teams, UNLV (26 point win) and New Mexico (17 point win) to see how successful the Cougars have been.
Because Utah will fight to get a plodding, scratching slowdown game, it might be tough for the Cougars to get big runs. BYU should win by 9 to 12 points.
DESERET FIRST STANDINGS
Remember that promotion, sponsored by a financial institution, highlighting the competition in sports between BYU and Utah?
BYU currently leads the standings 23-19 with five points up for grabs tonight by the men’s basketball game. Utah grabbed five points Tuesday night by winning the women’s hoop game in Salt Lake City. The first event of the Deseret First Duel took place on Oct. 12 at Utah when the Cougar women’s volleyball team struck first with a five-game win, earning three points. The volleyball team swept the season series with a win on Nov. 9 in Provo to earn another three points, while the BYU women’s soccer team lost to the Utes on Oct. 13, garnering Utah’s first and only points of the series thus far. A 17-7 BYU victory on the gridiron on Nov. 24 brought the standings to 16-6 in favor of the Cougars. The men’s baaketball team and men’s and women’s swim teams then added seven points to the BYU total while Utah scored victories in women’s basketball and gymnastics to bring to 23-14 for BYU after last weekend.