I will go with the other post...."This was their finest hour". I cannot wait for the people to start posting anything......and I mean anything bad about out Utes....
The one single thing everyone will remember from outside of Utah and around the country is that.....The Utes are really a good team....They will not remember the Wyoming game.....the Weber State game.....definitely not the BYU game or the Kentucky game....They will remember an injury riddled Ute team that took it to Michigan State...The Utes went cold and CLeaves was ON in a huge way. He makes that shot in the regular season but not like he did here.....He was in the zone and it is almost an impossibility to stop a player when he hits that kind of stride......
The Utes did not wilt, the Utes did not fold up, the Utes played......well as good as a team that is far from healthy could. They were excellent. Hey you go cold sometimes......not a good time for it but it happens.
The Utes virtually shut down all but Cleaves and Hutson, who really was the only guy for 70% of the game that kept the Spartans in it.
To say I am proud of these guys is an understatement........They left a really good taste in my mouth.......far better than many of our wins did.
Rick is a helluva coach.....that first half and the hustle was outstanding. I was not the only guy impressed either. I had two friends both who played for St. Johns and UCONN respectively here and they loved the Utes hustle.........." Wow these guys are really good" was the one quote I will always remember. These guys did not see the CSU game or the Wyoming game or the BYU game.....they saw the game that actually leaves an impression.
We get the whole summer to not feel.....wow we sucked.....we get the summer to feel... wow.....these guys pulled it all out and gave everything they had with what was left.
The officiating was outstanding. I am beginning
to love Colbert again and his playing and ball handling have improved by
a zillion percent.
Alex was excellent ( I really hope 1 NBA guy
noticed him because he is a rare breed!)....Cullen is about a zillion percent
improved since the start of the season. Puzey.......well he made some weird
freshman mistakes but there is a guy, in my mind, whose improvement is
off the readable charts.
A salute to the seniors and I will miss Harvey and Möttölä, Jensen, Killion and yes Sluga. All really good and very tough to replace.
I feel really good about our program and I bet Rick hated the second half but somewhere inside of him he is saying.......that was excellent.
When the Utes went cold, and Mateen stepped it up, well they just went on a run. However the Utes still did not wilt because MSU never really wen anywhere after that one run. The Utes hung in. Minus that one 2 minute run, there was never any separation.
If we can get anything out of this......it is that we can feel really good. Not bad for a rebuilding team.....and before I hear any shit about that I will say that any team that loses Andre is in rebuilding mold.
Go Utes!!!!!!!!!! You did me proud. It was not the half time lead....it was not because it was against Michigan State.....it was because a team of injured guys who have not had 4 games to play healthy all year just rose to the level they were capable of and there is no way anyone can tell me that MSU without that 2 minute cold spell of the Utes had an easy time at all...not for a minute. (and no matter what anyone says....a team that is not together all year can in no way resemble a team that has a year without downtime because of injuries.)
I am way psyched about the potential and if Majerus does not wander off, our future is excellent. Actually it would still be excellent but I feel, now more than ever, that Rick really has finally become a Ute! One of the reasons is this years team. No one will go away feeling that a major effort was not delivered. We just had some bad health luck.......People will remember this game as an indicator of who the 1999-2000 Utes really were. NOt as losers but as gutsy winners. This was a good game to leave in the minds of recruits.
Another thing is that I feel way better than I did after the Miami loss last year........We did not run out of gas, we ran out of bodies.
Go Utes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What you have done is change my mind about this entire season in one game....I am proud of you!
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