Utes at the Jazz Game

12/4/08 2:08 AM

Utah fans will boo BYU anything. Case in point: For the halftime show of the Utah Jazz-Miami Heat NBA basketball game, the BYU Cougarettes were introduced. Less than a second later, every U fan in the house was booing the Cougarettes relentlessly. In fact, those boos were louder than any cheering going on, and not just because more Utah fans were in the arena. These BYU women were coming out to dance, one song. It was probably one of their most exciting moments of their young lives, but Utah fans didn’t pass up a moment to let anything Cougar know how Utah feels about them. It’s one of the great things about having two large universities in such close proximity of one another. BYU and Utah aren’t divided by state boundaries, just a little point in a mountain,...

Utes make 6th for BCS standings

12/1/08 5:27 AM

With the release of the latest Bowl Championship Series standings, Utah fans can breath easy. No more nights of being ripped away from dreamland by a nightmare of Boise State jumping ahead of Utah and stealing away its chance of going to a BCS Bowl. For once, it seems, the strength of the Mountain West Conference has finally served the Utes well. Despite both teams going 12-0 during the regular season and Boise State winning by an average of 24 points during its 12 wins. Utah is currently at No. 6 in the BCS standings with a BCS average of .7844, which is well ahead of the No. 9 Broncos’ average of .7034. Even with Utah’s sizeable lead on Boise State the week before, pollsters still had me worried about a complete flip-flop once the Broncos completely dismantled a...

Basketball MUSS cheers need some work

11/26/08 1:41 PM

The Runnin’ Utes are rebuilding and it’s not always going to be pretty. Their first game of the season, an 80-79 loss at home to Southwest Baptist, is evidence of that. But the U men’s basketball team has now gone on a 3-0 streak in the Glenn Wilkes Classic, including a nice 83-72 win against Mississippi on the road. However, the U student fan base is also rebuilding. There once was a time when there was barely a seat open in the upper bowl of the Huntsman Center. Now U students can sit in the MUSS and have foot rests and coat racks to spare. Being that this has traditionally been a basketball school that has really only suffered through three bad seasons in the last 20, it’s a little surprising—yet understandable. There are a group of students that make... 1 comment

BYU fans no fun

11/25/08 7:07 AM

You know what’s worse than a BYU fan? A BYU fan that makes a poor attempt at taking the high road after getting crushed by Utah. I’ve been waiting for three years to rub Utah’s win into any BYU fan’s face that I knew. This one friend in particular had been insistent since TCU beat BYU back in October that the Cougars would still eat Utah for lunch last Saturday. So following the game I sent out a text message I’ve been waiting a long time to send. Something along the lines of, “I told you BYU sucks.” I got no response. I jump on Facebook, but decide I want as close to face-to-face confrontation as I can get. I wait for this friend to get on Facebook, which I know she pretty much does every day. Later on Sunday, she logs on and I lay all... 1 comment

Monson pretty close on his 40 predictions

11/24/08 4:39 AM

The hype of the annual Holy War has the ability to exhaust every feasible angle to ashes before the game even arrives. It’s like when Christmas starts after Halloween—by the time Dec. 25 rolls around, you just want it to be over. Nobody knows this better than The Salt Lake Tribune sports columnist Gordon Monson. He’s seen the Holy War beaten harder than the pathways of a shopping mall during the holidays. So when it came to this year’s game, he tried something different. He listed 40 things you could expect to see in yesterday’s BYU-Utah game. I’m not trying to point out how many things Monson got wrong, I just thought it would be interesting to see how many he got right. The statements come straight from Monson’s column, which can be found... 1 comment