Utah-BYU tonight

Utah (7-9, 0-2 MWC) hosts rival #11 BYU (16-1, 2-0 MWC) at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City at 6:30 p.m. MT. The game will be televised on the Mtn. Tonight is the Red Out, so please everyone if you are going to the game, wear a lot of red -- I know I will be. For the Red Out, Utah will be wearing their red jerseys as well. Hopefully there will be a lot of red, a lot of support, a lot of fans and a lot of noise.

The Runnin' Utes have lost 6 straight games while the Cougars have won 6 straight and only lost once all season. Utah is coming off a 71-62 loss to #6 San Diego State (17-0, 2-0 MWC) that is kind of encouraging because the Utes were able to play with a great team for most of the game. I, however, am tired of any kind of moral victories and feel this team needs to start winning games in order to turn things around.

Unfortunately, I don't think tonight will be that night. Utah matches up better with San Diego State than they do with BYU plus the Cougars have star guard Jimmer Fredette who is having a monster season. I think BYU wins this game by about 15 points. I'm hopeful that I'm wrong, but that's just how I see it. I think BYU is just too good, too focused, too consistent to lose tonight. And I really am amazed by how good of a season Fredette is having. I was particularly impressed with his play in last Wednesday night's win at UNLV (13-3, 1-1 MWC). I didn't think BYU would be able to win down there but this team really showed me something in that game.

Hopefully the Runnin' Utes are hungry and motivated to get a big upset win tonight. I would love for that to happen as I hate losing to BYU. To get the win it'll take a full 40 minutes of effort and focus on both ends of the court plus some extra concerted effort to slow down Fredette. I'll be at the game and tweeting, plus I'll have recap and analysis following the game back here on my blog. Go Utes!