Everyone's talking about the 44-game home winning streak BYU has been working on for three seasons and how the last time the Cougars had a 44-game home winning streak, Utah was the team to break it.
That happened in 2003, when Ute assistant coach Kerry Rupp took over for an absent Rick Majerus, who went to the funeral of Andre Miller's stepfather.
However, if you ask the coaches and players, the streak has little bearing on what will happen tonight when the Cougars and Utes meet at the Marriott Center in an 8 p.m. game televised on The mtn.
"You don't think about the winning streak," said Utah coach Jim Boylen. "You think about taking care of business one possession at a time. You think about making sure you do the effort things, the physical things and the tough things. You don't want to get caught up in the crowd or the win streak."
BYU coach Dave Rose says he doesn't talk about the streak and is more concerned about the opponent and how his team plays.
"We're playing a team that is playing very well right now," said Rose. "They're playing with a whole lot of confidence. They have good inside scoring with Luke Nevill and have good perimeter scoring.
"Johnnie Bryant is one of the hottest shooters in the league, maybe even in the country. We've got a challenge ahead of us."
While the Cougars will be concerned with Bryant and Nevill primarily, the Utes have to contend with Lee Cummard and Trent Plaisted.
In BYU's 55-52 win over Utah in Salt Lake last month, Plaisted struggled against Nevill as he has in most of the six games the two have played against each other (2 of 11, six points), but Cummard was nearly unstoppable.
Cummard led all scorers with 19 points and led his team with nine rebounds, including several key offensive rebounds.
The Utes will start Lawrence Borha on Cummard, but Luka Drca will also take a turn on him, and the Utes may try a couple of others as well.
"We'll keep a fresh guy on him," said Boylen. "He has great energy and reminds me of Michigan State's Drew Neitzel in that his conditioning may be the best in the country. He just doesn't stop. He has a great motor."
Boylen calls Cummard "the best player in the league" and "obviously a big key to their team."
"You've got to stay in front of him and keep him off the boards," Borha said. "He's goes to the offensive glass, and that's what gets him going. He's also a great shooter, so we have to get a high early hand up on him."
For his part, Cummard is wary of the Utes and Bryant, who had one of his worst games of the year against the Cougars (3-for-10 from the field, no 3-pointers), but has since been on fire (27 of 52 from 3-point range).
"They're playing pretty well right now," said Cummard. "They're a really hot team, just getting after it. They wore San Diego State down and hit big shots down the stretch."
After tonight, Utah plays a home game against New Mexico Saturday afternoon, while BYU goes to San Diego State for a Saturday night contest.
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