Watch the No. 11 seed Utah Utes (16-15, 8-12 Big 12) head into the Big 12 Tournament against the No. 14 seed UCF Knights (16-15, 7-13 Big 12) on Tuesday at T-Mobile Center, beginning at 9:30 p.m.
Alex Jensen introduced himself to the Runnin' Utes over Zoom. Utah’s new basketball coach spoke to Craig Smith’s former staff, now led by interim head coach Josh Eilert. He also spoke to Utah’s players.
At the 1:37 mark of the first half in Saturday night’s BYU-Utah matchup at the Marriott Center, the Runnin’ Utes found themselves leading the No. 23 Cougars 29-27 thanks to Gabe Madsen’s first 3-pointer of the contest.
But the Cougars’ prowess doesn’t end there. Kevin Young threw at Utah what he’s thrown at so many other league foes — a 10-man rotation, coming and going, that doesn’t tire as it hits the boards, pushes the ball and lets it fly. It got better as the game wore on.
After a heartbreaking overtime defeat to its rival in January, BYU got its revenge on Utah, picking up an 85-74 victory in Provo on Saturday night.
As is often the case, the BYU-Utah men’s basketball rivalry game was sloppy, messy and kind of a rock fight. After a closely contested first half, the No. 23 Cougars led by as many a 18 points in the second but could never truly bury the Utes,