SALT LAKE CITY — That last game in the three-year Beehive Classic in Vivint Arena looks like it will be a classic, featuring defending Mountain West Conference and NCAA Tournament team Utah State and a streaking BYU team under first-year head coach Mark Pope.
The Aggies want to climb back into the national rankings. The Cougars have just three Tier A opponents left on their schedule — USU, Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga — to gussy up their NCAA resume.
The Cougars are building one of their most accurate 3-point shooting attacks against the toughest two-month schedule in history with what Sports Reference.com’s Simple Rating System says is the best BYU team since the last two fueled by Jimmer Fredette.
The Aggies are riding a system engineered by second-year coach Craig Smith that has shrouded the Aggies in national recognition. It is a system that features tough rebounding, offensive board-work and sharpshooting. The Cougars will have their hands full keeping Justin Bean (12 rebounds a game) from killing their defense inside, and guard Sam Merrill from inflicting damage from his guard position.
The Cougars hope to extend their 14-game win streak in Vivint Arena, three straight over the Aggies. BYU is ranked No. 43 in KenPom’s rankings; USU is 48th. The Cougars have played KenPom’s 30th toughest schedule with USU having faced the 322nd toughest.
The only Aggies’ loss was to Saint Mary’s (81-73), a BYU league foe. The Cougars have shown significant improvement on defense, post play and 3-point shooting under Pope. The most notable is the play of center Kolby Lee and forward Dalton Nixon (46 percent shooting from 3-point land).
BYU is fresh off beating MWC teams Nevada and UNLV by a combined 158-92. USU leads the nation in total rebounds (488) and is second in rebound margin (plus-12).
In short, this could be a tremendous finale for this event. The Larry H. Miller Sports and Entertainment Group announced this week it will not renew its three-year experiment with the Beehive Classic.
There are myriad reasons why this event was not extended, the primary being economics. It costs a lot to turn on the lights and set ticket prices at a rate that will attract fans from throughout the Logan-Ogden-Salt Lake City-Provo areas and pay the bills.
Utah will play Weber State at 2 p.m. The Cougars and Aggies tip off at 6 p.m.
“About $80,000 has been contributed in total the past two years to the university scholarship funds from event proceeds,” notes event spokesman Frank Zang. “Attendance was 7,729 in 2017 and 10,678 in 2018 for total of 18,407 (average 9,203).”
If the numbers were between 14,000 to 15,000, it might be a different discussion for LHMSE to consider extending. On the other hand, there is no proof of that and maybe it had run its course when the contract ends Saturday.
The fact is, the idea was great but economically a tough fit. There has been the $80,000 in scholarship money raised by the event for all schools the past three years, but the ticket price structure never really caught on with an NBA arena that relies heavily on corporate buyers and sponsorships over the course of an entire season.
Many basketball fans in the state would have liked to see a true tournament setting where, in the course of two days, winners would play winners and losers play losers on the second night.
But it takes a great deal of planning to organize schedules with four schools and the arena for that type of event. Then, there is the price of tickets, which was deemed high by some ($25 to $60). The host must cover expenses and the schools must glean revenue that is supposed to replace money that could be earned at their own venues with season ticket holders and concessions.
Folks at Vivint deserve credit for trying to create an event that would shine a light on the local collegiate teams as well as establish contributions toward scholarships at each school. The move was made to combat some of the paranoia of playing on the other’s home court, I suspect.
The truth is, more neutral-court events like this are a necessity now.
The big issue with college basketball these days is more neutral-site games are required because many Power Five coaches simply refuse to sign home-and-home agreements with schools like BYU, Utah, Utah State and Weber State.
They are chicken.
Plain and simple, they refuse to risk losing a road game in front of a fired-up crowd.
There is too much money at stake for NCAA Tournament seeding.
These coaches are looking after their own interests. It is fans who suffer. Preseason schedules are sprinkled with blood-money games against inferior opponents who get run over for a check. This has watered down November and December games to the point many fans ask themselves, “why bother?”
Personally, I believe Utah, BYU, Weber State and Utah State should play home-and-home games every year before league play begins. It is cheaper for travel, more likely to create passion and interest and would generate some pretty good revenue.
This move would mean something and the arenas would certainly be more filled than offering this:
Utah: Mississippi Valley State, UC Davis, Central Arkansas.
BYU: Cal State Fullerton, Montana Tech, Oral Roberts.
Weber State: Northeastern, Westcliff, Bethesda.
Utah State: Montana State, Denver, USTA.
It would also help the scheduling headache for getting games in November and December.
Going home-and-home for all would simply be fair and it would give NCAA resumes a huge boost at the end of the year when it counts. It would forge far more important player experiences that would prove to be valuable later in the season.
It is an act of fairness and would take courage and bravery. Tickets sales would go up with concessions and more seats would have butts occupying them.
Do it.
See who’s chicken.