Quiz time: How many current University of Utah basketball players have ever tasted victory against in-state rival BYU?
Would you believe the answer is just one?That player happens to be junior guard Mark Rydalch, who played in a pair of Ute victories over BYU two years ago. Otherwise every Ute player is either new this year or played last year when the Cougars defeated Utah three times.
With so much inexperience on the team, Rydalch is being counted on heavily in Saturday's big game, which could give the Utes an outright Western Athletic Conference title. But that has been the case all season.
"Without Rydalch we're a rudderless ship," said Ute coach Rick Majerus. "Without him, we don't have a good team this year."
OK, that last statement might be going a bit far, but the Utes certainly wouldn't be a 23-5 team right now without Rydalch.
All season, Rydalch has been the stabilizing force on a young Ute squad that includes six teen-agers among its top nine players. He's been the guy who calms the Utes down when they get rattled, the one who's not afraid to take the clutch shot when the team needs a basket. And he usally makes those clutch baskets.
Majerus, who could gush all day about his playmaker, calls Rydalch "a coach on the floor" and "one of the best captains I've ever had."
"He's a quiet leader, who leads by example," he said. "He's not fiery or emotional. He's a cerebral player who understands what the coaching staff wants."
That Rydalch is even playing this year is almost a miracle. In a pickup game last May, he suffered the worst knee injury possible, a tear to the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee. It was his second ACL tear, coming five years after he tore his left knee while playing at South Summit High School. But at least he had a reshirt year and an LDS mission to recover from that one.
"He's a cripple," said Majerus. "He has two bad knees and one is especially bad. People have no idea what that kid has gone through and how he has responded."
Before the injury, Mark had told his wife Amy that he would never go through the tortuous year-long rehabilitation he had endured in high school. But he had a change of heart when he was told that the recovery time would be more like 7-8 months. "I knew what kind of team we might have this year and wanted to play," he said.
He went straight to work with a return of mid-January as his goal. Majerus kept saying that "any minutes Rydalch gives us this year will be a bonus."
Working twice a day every day for an hour to an hour-and-a-half per session, Rydalch was determined to play this season.
"To his credit, he was extra consistent and he optimized his time," said Ute trainer Gerald Fischer. "He really put in a lot of work."
Although he wasn't expected to play before January, Rydalch made his first appearance of the season Dec. 17 against Adams State. He received a standing ovation from the Huntsman Center crowd and promptly sank a 3-pointer in his first minute of action.
His playing time gradually increased and during the WAC season, he has played more minutes than starting point guard Terry Preston in nearly every game. In WAC games, Rydalch leads the league in 3-point shooting at 49.1 percent and is first in free throw percentage at 89.5 percent. He's also 8th in assists with 3.5 per game. He's third on the team in scoring at 8.8 per game.
Those are remarkable numbers considering that Rydalch didn't play from May to December and has rarely practiced all season. Until recently, Rydalch would always miss the Monday and Friday practices and could never practice more than three days in a row.
This past week he didn't practice until Thursday, but not because of his knee. Rather he's been fighting a nasty case of bronchitis that has kept him in bed. The good news is that his knee received a nice break this week. "It's the best my knee has felt all year," he said.
You can bet Rydalch will find a way to play Saturday, even if he has to drag himself from a sickbed.
"It's always a big deal," said Rydalch of Utah-BYU. "It's for braggin' rights. You're reminded about it for the whole rest of the year."
Last year's losses to BYU have left a sour feeling with Rydalch. In the first, he had a potential winning basket waved off in the final seconds on an offensive foul call. In the last, the Utes played their worst game as BYU crushed them by 31 points.
Coincidentally, tomorrow night Rydalch will be playing against the coach who recruited him to Utah - Lynn Archibald, now an assistant at BYU. Rydalch still has a fondness for Archibald, whom he has run into during the season.
He has also grown to appreciate Majerus, despite getting ragged on during his first couple of seasons. He respects Majerus and the feeling is mutual from the coach, who listens when Rydalch presents concerns from the players' perspective.
"I respect him a lot," says Majerus. "I'm really a better person for having him and coaching him. That kid's really special."