Episode 21 – A great week for the Jazz and Utah, BYU maintains

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I am a fickle sports fan. Not that this is confession time or anything, but I should at least admit the truth. I was very discouraged by the play of the Utah Jazz when I wrote this blog last week, and while I would never jump off the bandwagon, I was not particularly enjoying the ride.

However, this week was a very different story and I am once again euphoric about watching my beloved local NBA team. After four straight losses the Jazz have bounced back to record four straight wins, and the first three of those came on the road against some of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. The one home game among them was last night against the Pesky Minnesota Timberwolves, which looked a lot like a potential loss if any of the Jazz Killers got fired up. Fortunately, only one of them did. Dazzling 2-guard Ricky Davis went off for 32 points on 10 of 16 shooting, including 4-8 from behind the three point line. I say fortunately, because nobody else on the Timberwolves played very well, and the Jazz pulled out a tougher-than-it-looked victory, 106 to 91.

The Utah Jazz have some more potential losses coming up this week. I use the expression “potential losses” because even though their next game is at home against the team with the worst record in the league (Memphis Grizzlies), anything can happen. Besides, if years of watching the Jazz have taught me anything, it’s that the Jazz are perfectly capable of losing games they should win. In fact, my brother (who pointed this out to me at a young age) created a maxim for this phenomenon: “Play with crap, play like crap.” So, there are no gimmes for this team.

The University of Utah Men’s Basketball team had a spectacular week, pulling off a miraculous victory against league elite Air Force and then squeezing one out against Wyoming four days later. Luke Nevill was awarded the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for his contributions, and Utah seemed to right their listing ship a bit. Of course, they need to win at least one or two road games this year before I would declare any confidence in the team, but at least they are taking baby steps.

The BYU Men’s Basketball team managed a 1-1 record for the week. They started off by beating Wyoming in the Marriot Center (thanks for warming them up for Utah, by the way), and finished the week by getting thumped by the Rams in Fort Collins, Colorado. Zach mentions on the podcast that nobody from the team had a week worth mentioning (or something like that), so I will follow his lead. The Cougars have a tough week coming up, traveling to the Pit to take on New Mexico (always a tough place to play) and then hosting Air Force. They should be able to manage another 1-1 record for the third week in a row, but with their own road woes to worry about, it may be a rough week for BYU fans.

Our three stars of the week:

3) Luke Nevill

2) Deron Williams

1) Mehmet Okur

We also passed out some honorable mentions to Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko, who is suddenly resurgent after a few weeks of feeling underappreciated. As Zach pointed out, we may have to go to a five-athlete format if this sort of excellence continues. For more on the top three, please listen to the podcast!

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posted by Nate and Zach @ 10:09 AM