67-59 is all I have to say

Well, another Utah game has come and gone, and once again the mighty Cougars leave with a victory! That makes 2 straight season sweeps of those guys up north in men's basketball and football, or 6 games in all! Those are obviously the two most important sports, so the Utes can go on and on about how they still beat BYU in women's basketball or gymnastics...blah, blah, blah. I to break it to you, but the 10 people who actually went to those events are the only ones who care.

That game, however, was probably the only game I've ever been to in the Marriott where I was actually a little worried. (That would have been more true for the San Diego State game when BYU escaped with a 3-point victory, but sadly that's the only conference game I wasn't able to attend.) They didn't even play the routine victory bell commercial, I'm guessing in fear that there would be no victory bell. It was very intense though, because we just couldn't put those Utes away, with our lead going back and forth from 1 to 8 the whole entire game! But the win did come, and it set a new school record of 45 home victories in a row. How fitting was is that the leading scorer with 20 and star of the show was Jonathan Tavernari #45? It's even more fitting that 44th victory over UNLV, #44 Trent Plaisted was the big story.

It was somewhat ironic how the UNLV game had about 3,000 more fans than the rival Utah game, but it was on a Saturday versus a Wednesday. The UNLV game was admittedly tons louder and more energizing. There were times at the Utah game when I wanted to stand up and start a cheer, but I was sitting by all the old people so I'm not sure how that would have worked. All in all it was a great game though, and I even caught the victory bell player of the game Chris Miles' sweatband! I also caught Lee Cummard's at the TCU game. I must just always be at the right place at the right time.

Oh, and one more thing: seriously, what is Jim Boylen's deal? This Utah coach has taken the vacant spot of most obnoxious coach in the Mountain West ever since Steve McClain was fired in Wyoming last year. Before the second half started he actually took Coach Rose with him over to the score table to instruct the refs on everything they were doing wrong and the right way to do things. Who does that? I know refs can make crappy calls sometimes, but you don't formally go tell them what to do with the other team's coach! He was also jumping up and down all over the court the whole game; I wanted him to get a tech so bad! I think he will sometime soon.

Some of my favorite signs from the game:
'Jimmer add me on Facebook!'(During pre-game warmups the team kept looking at it and laughing at him! I should have brought one that said,'Jimmer marry me!'Who needs Facebook?)
'This is the 'Plais'ted!' So clever.....
'Because of you we the U!' Classic!

Final thoughts:
In the post-game interview of the UNLV game Tavernari wore a Gatsby white hat, a sweater vest, and dress pants. After the Utah game he wore an all black suit! He said it was because his guardians from when he lived in Vegas picked them out for him. I'm not sure why, but I loved it! "My mom said I look cute. I sent her a picture."--that's exactly his personality!