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SALT LAKE CITY — Riding a three-game losing skid against in-state rival BYU, Utah men's basketball is looking for an end to the streak.
Against the No. 14 team in the nation, who also features the No. 1 rank in the early NET ratings and No. 6 rank in KenPom, it's a tall order — even in a sold-out Huntsman Center.
That task may be even more difficult without veteran center Branden Carlson in the lineup for the Runnin' Utes. The senior who averages a team-high 17.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game is questionable for Saturday's (5 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks) contest.
Carlson suffered an undisclosed injury ahead of Utah's game against Southern Utah Tuesday, which kept him out of the lineup in a closer than expected win over the Thunderbirds. A day before an important game against BYU, Utah head coach Craig Smith said Carlson's status was still up in the air.
"Don't know yet," Smith said Friday morning. "Didn't really do anything (Thursday), and so we'll see how things go today. ... We'll just see how things go at practice today — what he can do, what he can't do, if anything at all."
Though Utah has developed more depth since last year's meeting at the Marriott Center, where BYU pulled away for a 75-66 victory, Carlson remains Utah's biggest scoring asset — inside the post, as well as outside where he's shooting 37% from behind the arc as a consistent 3-point threat.
Carlson's absence could be big.
Should Carlson not be available, Ben Carlson, who Smith described as one of Utah's most improved players since last season, will return to the starting lineup for the second straight game, and be another asset used to combat BYU's sharpshooting that Smith described as the Showtime Lakers in how the Cougars operate on offense.
"Honestly, their numbers are really, really high all the way across the board on the offensive end, on the defensive end; and that's why the NET rankings and all these different the statistical stuff, the analytics, they love them, and they should," Smith said. "They come at you and they want to shoot 40 threes a game, and so they score in waves, they score in bunches.
"They put a lot of pressure on you, they play through the pass," he added. "They just have so many guys on the floor that can shoot the three. And they're playing with a ton of confidence; and confidence really, really matters. So they're gonna make some tough ones, they're gonna get us sometimes, but we've just got to do our very best to make them earn shots."
Smith feels like his team is up for the task — with or without Branden Carlson.
No. 14 BYU faces first, only nonconference true road test Saturday against rival Utah
This one's a little bit different, from the rivalry that will soon rekindle a conference game to the sold-out Huntsman Center that will await the No. 14 team in the Associated Press Top 25.The Runnin' Utes offense, Smith said, is playing "unselfish" and the team is "very connected," which has led to scoring an average of 81.6 point per game in the early part of the season. The problem is BYU averages 91.9 points per game — the fourth highest in the country.
"We've just got to keep getting better on the defensive end," Smith said. "We've rebounded well, we do a good job in the paint, we don't foul, so there's a lot of things that we've got going right, but certainly, we're far from a finished product, and we've just got to keep on climbing the ladder."
BYU enters the road contest with an unblemished 8-0 record but has the 294th-hardest strength of schedule, according to KenPom, while Utah's is ranked the 58th-hardest schedule so far this season.
But all of that is thrown out the window when the two teams tipoff at the Huntsman Center Saturday night in the last nonconference meeting between the two before the two eventually return as conference opponents a year from now.
For now, it's another Quad 1 opportunity for Utah to add to a resume that Smith hopes will eventually be good enough to get his team into a postseason tournament in March.
"Every game just takes on its own entity — maybe a guy catches fire, maybe certain guys get in foul trouble, or whatever it might be; there's a lot that goes into it," Smith said about the BYU game. "They are different. We're definitely different.
"I think the anticipation, the pomp and circumstance, the pageantry, everything that goes with it, it's exciting. ... With it being sold out, it adds a little more to it," he added. "Both teams are good. I mean, obviously BYU is ranked 14th in the country, and we've had a very good start to our season, so the anticipation is exciting."
