Pocatello and Provo

Utah now faces a three-game stretch of feline-themed opponents.

Idaho State: Up first are the Bengals of Idaho State tonight at the Special Events Center. They are off to a decent start (3-2), which includes a solid overtime win against San Francisco. We also share a common opponent: Evergreen State. The Bengals defeated the Geoducks by 37 points the night after we beat 'em by 84 points.

Idaho State is led by its big three of Chris Hansen (16.0ppg/4.2rpg), Tomas Sanchez (15.6ppg/4.6apg) and Andre Hatchett (13.4ppg/7.6rpg). They're coached by long-time Southern Utah head man, Bill Evans.

We played these guys last year in a pretty sloppy affair. We shot poorly and couldn't seem to stop Melvin Morgan, who finished with 15p/6r/3a. Sanchez also had a good game with 6p/10r and Hansen added 9p/3s. We trailed by seven at halftime and by as many as nine early in the second half. But Dallin Bachynski saved our butts; he came through big time with 22p/16r and we won handily in the end, 57-46. We haven't forgotten he's capable of dominating like this. Maybe we'll see him do it again tonight!

Rebounding has been a key point of emphasis this season for the Bengals, and they'll be looking to assert themselves in that area against Utah.  They were picked to finish last in the Big Sky this season. Personally, I think they're more of a middle-of-the-pack squad. We'll see.

BYU: The Cougars represent Utah's last chance to earn a quality win before conference play starts. They've got a few quality wins themselves (at Stanford and vs. Texas), but they've lost to each of the three ranked teams they've faced so far. Marty Haws' boy leads the team with 23.8ppg.

It took BYU everything they had to beat the Utes last year in Provo. Granted, BYU appears to be playing much better than they were last year -- but so are we. And this year we get them in Salt Lake.