SALT LAKE CITY - Each week, ksl.com's Robert Jackson asks Jimmy Soto three questions about the state of the University of Utah basketball program.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Coming off a season-best performance last Saturday in a win over Arizona State, the Utes succumbed to another road drubbing Thursday night, this time to the Bruins of UCLA.

Now Utah (5-15) faces USC (5-16) Saturday, still in search of its first road win.

Related:

Utes' road woes continue, fall at UCLA

The Runnin' Utes fall to 0-4 in conference road games after a 76-49 drubbing at the hands of UCLA Thursday night in Los Angeles. A UCLA scoring run in the latter end of the first half keyed the route, and Utah could not answer.

How can a team play well at home, yet struggle to find any consistency on the road?

Let's ask Jimmy.

1. The Utes played their best game of the season last Saturday, a 64-43 win over Arizona State at the Huntsman Center. That was followed up with a 76-49 loss to UCLA Thursday night in Los Angeles. The Utes are 5-5 at home, yet 0-10 at road or neutral site games. What key differences are there about playing on the road vs. at home? Any advice you would like to give the Utes?

Winning on the road is very difficult, and as you would expect, that is what the best teams do. When you go on the road there are plenty of distractions with the travel, sleeping in a hotel and playing on an opponent's home floor, just to name a few. The great teams are good at putting all of that aside and keeping their focus on getting it done on the floor. Even more so than at home, where the crowd and familiar confines can help, the Utes will need to execute at a very high level when they hit the road. They will need to, as always, play solid defense, limit their mistakes, and most importantly (in my opinion), maintain composure.

2. Freshman guard Kareem Storey made his second-straight start against the Sun Devils, posting 12 points, three rebounds, six assists to just one turnover. He also did a great job getting to the basket and drawing fouls, hitting 8 of 11 from the free-throw line. Without a lot of in-game experience at the collegiate level, how was he able to step in and produce results so quickly?

Kareem is competitive and confident in his skills as you would expect with any college level athlete. Kareem may only be a freshman but even freshmen think they can play. It's amazing how much confidence will help a player succeed, but the key is to be consistent over a long period of time. Kareem did a very nice job last week getting his teammates involved early and once that happened it took some of the focus off of himself. Once the focus switched to his teammates it gave Kareem a few more opportunities, and to his credit, he took advantage of them.

3. The forecast for this weekend is 81 degrees in Los Angeles, a little better than the 27 and snow in Laramie. What stands out to you the most in Utah's first year in the Pac-12? Have you seen an increase of Utah fans at road games?

What stands out to me so far is the youth of the teams. Maybe it's me not being too familiar with the conference prior to this year, but it seemed like in the WAC (my era) and MWC you had teams with a lot of senior leadership year after year. There is no doubt we've been seeing much more support from our fans in the Pac-12. This is not to say we didn't have great fan support in the WAC and MWC, because we did. It makes sense that since we are traveling to areas where we have much larger alumni bases, not to mention the newness of the conference, that more of our supporters would come out.

If you have questions you would like to ask Jimmy, email Robert at rojackson@ksl.com.

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