Utes Steeled for Mountain West Play
The Utes can't enjoy a record any better than last season, before playing their first Mountain West Conference game. But coach Jim Boylen does believe they have endured enough adversity so far that they will be ready for the league.
"We've been through some adversity already," he said today during his weekly press conference. "And looking at other teams' schedules and their records, I think there are some teams in our league that haven't been through a whole bunch of adversity yet."
Hello, Wyoming?
The team the Utes will meet in their league opener at the Huntsman Center on Saturday -- in the first meeting since Boylen angrily confronted coach Heath Schroyer over a meaningless alley-oop dunk last season -- has a pretty impressive 9-2 record, but the Cowboys have played only the 327th-ranked schedule, according to RealTimeRPI.com.
There are 343 teams in Division I.
But Boylen wasn't picking on the Pokes. He named no names, in fact, though it wouldn't be hard to notice 7-3 Air Force, playing the 339th-ranked schedule, or even the rival Brigham Young Cougars -- getting votes in the AP Top 25 with a 10-1 record against the 174th-ranked schedule. Wake Forest will help the Cougs this weekend, at least.
"Every good team, every quality team, championship team, has to go through some of that [adversity] at some point in the season," Boylen said. "We"ve been without one of our better players for basically four games. That's a big deal. I don't know how may teams have been through that. We've played on the road, a ton. I don't know how many teams have done that. We've played ranked opponents, when maybe we weren't picked to win. I don't know how many times teams have done that. All those things add to your toughness, your psyche.
"Every team goes through moments of doubt, moments of, 'How good are we?'" Boylen added. "We've found that out. We've had to clean things up that we don't do well. We've had to get better at things that got exposed against maybe a quality opponent, where maybe they wouldn't have against somebody else. I don't know how many, if all of the teams in our league have been through that. And I think that's important at this point in the year. ... All the things that we're going to see in the next three months, we've seen."
"We've been through some adversity already," he said today during his weekly press conference. "And looking at other teams' schedules and their records, I think there are some teams in our league that haven't been through a whole bunch of adversity yet."
Hello, Wyoming?
The team the Utes will meet in their league opener at the Huntsman Center on Saturday -- in the first meeting since Boylen angrily confronted coach Heath Schroyer over a meaningless alley-oop dunk last season -- has a pretty impressive 9-2 record, but the Cowboys have played only the 327th-ranked schedule, according to RealTimeRPI.com.
There are 343 teams in Division I.
But Boylen wasn't picking on the Pokes. He named no names, in fact, though it wouldn't be hard to notice 7-3 Air Force, playing the 339th-ranked schedule, or even the rival Brigham Young Cougars -- getting votes in the AP Top 25 with a 10-1 record against the 174th-ranked schedule. Wake Forest will help the Cougs this weekend, at least.
"Every good team, every quality team, championship team, has to go through some of that [adversity] at some point in the season," Boylen said. "We"ve been without one of our better players for basically four games. That's a big deal. I don't know how may teams have been through that. We've played on the road, a ton. I don't know how many teams have done that. We've played ranked opponents, when maybe we weren't picked to win. I don't know how many times teams have done that. All those things add to your toughness, your psyche.
"Every team goes through moments of doubt, moments of, 'How good are we?'" Boylen added. "We've found that out. We've had to clean things up that we don't do well. We've had to get better at things that got exposed against maybe a quality opponent, where maybe they wouldn't have against somebody else. I don't know how many, if all of the teams in our league have been through that. And I think that's important at this point in the year. ... All the things that we're going to see in the next three months, we've seen."
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 3:12 PM |
4 Comments:
Poor Utes. So many challenges. So many SW Baptists and Idaho States. I'm sure they are now totally prepared for the conference schedule.
Wow, can't wait for at least ten to twelve conference games that will come down to the final seconds and the Utes will be left hanging with a coach who can't call a play in the final seconds and will lose every one of them. I am also predicting at least five "two-year old tantrums" from big boy boylen when he doesn't get his way and acts like a circus clown on the sidelines. GO UTES, get rid of Boylen!
Bigutefan must be a closet BYU fan. Anyone who cannot see the impact Boylen has made on this team, needs to watch NASCAR instead of basketball.
Give Boylen some time. None of the players he has brought in have any impact on this team, yet. Some really good players are on the way. Majerus always had a couple of NBA quality players on the roster. This year's team are playing A LOT better than they did under Jacoletti (sp?) with mostly the same players Jack had. He is high energy, and his players are playing hard and will do much better in conference play this year.
I generally ignore bigutefan, anyone that is the 1st or 2nd entry on almost every UofU Basketball article and always with a call for Boylen's head has some problems.
Maybe he is a Zoob (and a diehard one) that thinks he is somehow helping the Zoobie cause by slinging mud.
If he is really a Ute fan then I would love to hear something constructive out of him. I have a hard time thinking that dumping a coach less than 1-1/2 years on the job is helpful.
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