Utah gets blown out by Fredette, BYU

#11 BYU (17-1, 3-0 MWC) defeated Utah (7-10, 0-3 MWC) last night by a score of 104-79. BYU's National Player of the Year candidate Jimmer Fredette had 47 points, including 32 in the first half. Fredette made just about every shot he took, no matter the level of difficulty. I thought Utah guarded him pretty well for the most part. There's just not a whole lot you can do when I guy is in the zone like that.

Late in the first half Utah was down by just five and following a three the lead was 8 with it appearing that the Runnin' Utes would get the last shot of the half. The Utes came up empty and BYU had just a couple of ticks left on the clock. My girlfriend turned to me and said that at least we would only be down by 8 at halftime and I (rather sarcastically) said "Unless Jimmer makes a shot from half-court." And well, he made a shot from just inside half-court (with a hand in his face) to give BYU an 11 point lead at the break. Again, not a lot you can do.

It really was a remarkable performance by Fredette and I can appreciate seeing a guy do that to some extent even though he plays for my school's hated rival. As I told a friend of mine, I just wish he had picked someone else to have that huge of a night against. It was a tough pill to swallow, I really hate to see my team lose to those guys, especially when it's by 25 points.

I thought Utah played pretty well for about 3/4 of the game, believe it or not. The Runnin' Utes had the lead about half way through the first half and looked like they had a lot of energy and focus. I thought they maintained that pretty much through the remainder of the half, but fell behind mainly because Fredette was going off.

Utah did enough to stay relatively in the game at least through about the first ten minutes of the second half, trailing by roughly 10 points for most of the stretch. The Utes were running their offense pretty well and trading punches with Fredette and the Cougars. I thought a really crushing blow came when BYU center Noah Hartsock made back-to-back wide open three-pointers to stretch the lead from 9 to 15. After that the Runnin' Utes still had energy, but their focus wasn't as much. I think they panicked as they began to turn it over on just about every possession -- usually very quickly -- and BYU would capitalize with points on the other end.

Look, BYU still would have won the game even if the Utes hadn't had the wheels come off and started turning it over on almost every possession, but it would have been by more like 10 or 15 points rather than 25 points. It would have been nice to keep it close, but as it was Utah got embarrassed.

I was noting that I thought BYU coach Dave Rose was a classy guy for removing Fredette from the game with 5:44 left and the Cougars up 29 points, but then he put him back in shortly after that with the lead all the way down to 24 points with a little over four minutes to go. Rose said "I thought the momentum had changed, so I got him in and got him out of there." Fredette added a couple of more points before Rose pulled him again with 3:07 to go. I still think Rose is a good guy, but there is no way that Utah was going to overcome that 24 point deficit with 4 minutes and change left. It was completely unnecessary; the Utes had gone on a little run, but it was still far from being a game.

To Rose's credit, he did pull Fredette again rather than leave him in to pursue the magical number of 50 points. A lot of coaches would have left a guy going for that many points out there. So, though the move was totally unnecessary, at least Rose didn't leave him out there for the duration of the game. Utah coach Jim Boylen, like me, didn't appear to like the move to reinsert Fredette much when he said after the game that he didn't want to comment on it. I don't blame him for not saying anything, but I'm positive he wasn't thrilled about it.

I wasn't too impressed by how Fredette handled the situation, who appeared to attempt to have another player run to the bench when Rose subbed him out for the final time. It was clear he wanted 50 points and he admitted as much afterward. I just don't think he had enough respect for the opponent or class in how he handled that situation. Basketball is a team game and when your team has the win wrapped up you should just take that, lay off a little bit and not make the game a total embarrassment. I've thought Fredette was a nice enough guy, but I wasn't impressed with how he handled all that. All that being said, as a Utah fan I have to tip my hat to him for having a great night.

Will Clyburn led the Runnin' Utes with 23 points, Josh Watkins had 18, and freshman J.J. O'Brien pitched in 13. Jackson Emery added 20 for the Cougars who next play at home next Tuesday against TCU (9-8, 0-2 MWC) at 8 p.m. MT. Utah next plays at Wyoming (8-8, 1-1 MWC) on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. MT in a game that will be televised by the Mtn.