THE STATE of Utah's oldest and nastiest feud continued right on schedule Saturday night at the Huntsman Center, with nothing less than the WAC championship still in doubt. Which was the way it should have been.
It was only fitting that this year BYU and Utah would end up meeting on the last day of the regular season with the title on the line. For all intents and purposes, the two teams play like it's for the championship whenever they meet.This just happened to be the real thing.
And so it was that the Utes wrapped up the championship of the league outright, pulling away in the mid-second half on a 12-2 run, to take an 87-79 win over the Cougars.
But not without a final flurry of 3's which brought BYU within five before the matter was finally decided.
True to form, the game began with all the requisite emotion. The Ute seniors were introduced by coach Rick Majerus, who even managed to work in a tribute in Chinese to Utah senior Ma Jian. As the Cougars took the court, they were met with a lusty chorus of boos, which only grew louder when the Cougar players were introduced. Of course, the loudest catcalls came for the Reids - Randy, Robbie and Roger.
If there was any doubt that the Utes had matured enough to play in a big game, those were erased moments after the start. The Utes scored on four of their first five attempts, and with 13:13 to go, Michael Doleac's slam and ensuing free throw put the Utes ahead 19-8.
As the game continued, the predictable amount of complaints, gripes, shoves and taunts began to settle in. With 9:27 to go in the first half, Utah's Keith Van Horn and BYU's Russell Larsen were called for a double foul after shoving one another. That was only the warm-up. Thirty-two seconds later, they graduated to a double-technical when BYU's Craig Wilcox and Utah's Jimmy Carroll began shoving one another around.
Despite the early Ute lead, soon the game settled into a close, heated contest. After slipping behind early, the Cougars charged back to tie the score at 24.
The Utes took a 38-34 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Although the Cougars went ahead by three early in the second half, the matter was decided soon after. Brandon Jessie's breakaway layup with 9:43 to go put the Utes up by 12. They never trailed again.
If the game carried with it the intensity of a playoff contest, it stood to reason. The Utes had already wrapped up at least a tie for the conference championship, but a Cougar win meant BYU would earn a tie for the title and would enter the WAC tournament as the top seed.
Tying one another for the championship is, of course, only slightly better than a root canal in the eyes of these two schools. They don't like to share anything except animosity. For them, sharing the title is like sharing your soda - it leaves a bad taste.
So by the time Saturday night's 10 p.m. nationally televised game got rolling, it was clear again that this wasn't going to be a friendly late-night slumber party.
The buildup for this game was five months in the making. BYU and Utah were picked to be the top two contenders for the league title in the preseason polls, and by the time the last game of the regular season had arrived, nothing had changed. There they were, the Siskel and Ebert of the college basketball world, at one another's throat once again.
Whatever the circumstances, the rivalry between Utah and BYU has never been completely about championships and rankings. It's always been personal. The game has all the goodwill of a border war. You want friendly? Call an Amway salesman.
Of course, the two teams have spent a lot of years working on their feud. They've played one another more than anyone else. Not long after Dr. Naismith nailed a peach basket to a wall of a gym, the Utes and Cougars were trying to nail one another to a wall.
The series, which began in 1908 with a 32-9 BYU win, has been going strong ever since - 216 counting Saturday's.
If you want to know how a serious rivalry gets crazy, play someone every year for 86 years. BYU leads the alltime series 113-103, which is a relatively small margin.
Consequently, you get the idea this isn't the kind of rivalry you want to get into if you have a weak heart. Or a bad stomach. Or sensitive ears. Over the course of the rivalry, the Cougars have scored 11,920 points, or an average of 55.4 points. The Utes have scored 11,657 points, for an average of 54.2.
Which means, after 86 years of playing games, the Cougars average just over one point per game more than the Utes.
Nothing like statistics to back what everyone already knew: This rivalry is close.
That didn't, of course, stop the respective coaches from talking like they were getting together for a friendly game of checkers all week. Majerus reminded reporters that the Cougars "were the odds-on favorite to win the league this year" - even though his own team had wrapped up at least a tie for the title already.
He then proceeded to call BYU's Larson "fully capable of being player of the year" and added "I love Ken Roberts and the two Reids are excellent athletes and tremendous competitors."
BYU, didn't miss out on the glad-handing, either. Coach Roger Reid raved about the young Utes all week and downplayed their lack of experience by pointing out that they've now played 28 games, which is time enough to grow up.
Compliment-trading aside, all the friendly vibes were gone as soon as the warmups began. The crowd, the players, coaches, trainers, ushers, ticket-takers and anyone else within the reach of ESPN knew this wasn't going to be a casual game.
And though there were no outright fights, it wasn't a day at the beach, either. By the time the evening was over, it was obvious once again, this is a rivalry that isn't going to die off anytime soon. When something's been simmering for 86 years, it isn't going to get friendly in one night.