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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak is taking in-state rival BYU serious in the days leading up to Wednesday night's game. As would be expected, the Cougars have his full attention as one of the games that "gets your adrenaline going."
In his five years as head coach at Utah, Krystkowiak has a 2-2 record against the Cougars and is looking to get his third-straight win. Utah pulled away in a close battle on the road last season, narrowly beating the Cougars 65-61.
Although no longer in the same conference, Krystkowiak says his players are "engaged" and preparing for a difficult non-conference, resume-building matchup. In watching practice leading up to the game, Utah appears as focused on beating BYU as they would in its preparation to beat conference rival Arizona.
"We've got our hands full, no doubt about it," Krystkowiak said. "But it is cool. As much as I'd want to complain and fight and hope that we didn't have to play BYU, there is something special about it."
Utah's coaching staff and players are more than aware of the talented athletes on BYU's roster, particularly Kyle Collinsworth, who is well-known for his ability to pad the stat sheet with his knack for triple-doubles. It's containing guys like Collinsworth that will be the challenge, though.
"We've got a lot of different plans. Whether it comes to fruition or not, I don't know if we're going to be able to. There's been a lot of teams that have tried and he's got as many triple-doubles as anybody I can remember playing against in college," Krystkowiak said. "It's hard in 40 minutes to accomplish what he accomplishes. He's good at getting his teammates involved and he's very good on the glass.
"We've got a lot of different plans. It's not about having a (single) plan, I think it's about having plan A, plan B, and plan C," he added. "A lot of it is going to be accomplished, obviously, with some energy and you've got to have your mind engaged and know what the plan is."
Utah, though, has had consistency with its front court, namely Jakob Poeltl, Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Loveridge. Poeltl, alone, is averaging 20.5 points and 10.0 rebounds in six games and has been a difficult big to manage for opposing teams. Loveridge is averaging 16.0 points and Kuzma is averaging 10.0 points and 6.8 rebounds as stable counterparts.
"I'm not going to put anyone at the head of the list for us. In order for us to be good we need to have four guys — I'm just throwing that number out there. We can't depend on one person or two people," Krystkowiak said. "We need to get a bunch of guys clicking on all cylinders.
"We don't just pencil their production in and then hope you can get some more," he added. "They need to be consistent with their production and we need to get more from the guards. It's going to be a collective, as it is playing defense, it's going to be collective, I think, offensively. And we need everybody to step up their game."
Utah and BYU tipoff at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
