Around the Beehive: Four out of five in-state teams winning ain’t bad, right, Jim Boylen?

January 11, 8:48 PMUtah Sports ExaminerBrian Shaw

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Utah Coach Jim Boylen is gearing up to play some D. (AP/Alonzo Adams)

Welcome to “Around The Beehive,” a weekly recap of college sports only on Examiner.com. We’ll go beyond the usual box score and get to the nitty-gritty of the in-state college action every weekend.

This week: Men’s basketball. The conference season is in full swing for most instate schools and so it’s time to see some pretty good matchups. In order of importance we’ll break down each matchup that went down this weekend. Depending on the news of the weekend, we’ll try to cover it the way no other newspaper can. So, on with the show.

Utah loses pretty easily at San Diego State, 72-63

Breakdown: Utah commits 16 turnovers, which is far too many against a quality opponent like SDSU. Plus, Utah coach Jim Boylen flashes back to his playing days and also shows you how to steal the ball from your opponent while you're coaching.

Analysis: Simple enough, sure. But what the score doesn’t tell you is how evenly played the game was. The Utes outshot and outrebounded the Aztecs. If Boylen had a Ute jersey on, he would have helped too. But that says little about how well the Aztecs played defense.

For example, Aztec coach Steve Fisher had at least four hands (if you add them up, that means two players or one alien) in the pockets of 7-foot-2 Utah center Luke Nevill the entire game. And what that usually means for the Utes is they have to rely on somebody else to shoulder the heavy load that Nevill carries when lumbering down the court, knocking people out of the way and tip-dunking it.

But when your team shoots six-for-23 (yes! I know that’s a lot of shots!!) then you just know it aint gonna be your kinda night. The Utes drop to 10-6 with the loss while the Aztecs look like the team UNLV was supposed to be in the Mountain West, movin’ on up to 12-3 overall (3-0 MWC). There were other things that happened in this ball game, such as Jim Boylen swiping the ball from an Aztec player, dreaming of the good ole days when he could be a baller ‘n shot-caller. But that would take another three paragraphs and frankly, I’m sure it won’t be the last time we see Jimmy “Cool Hands” Boylen playing some solid D. As my daughter always tells me, though, “Swiper, no swiping!” And that’s good advice for Boylen, methinks.

BYU and that “Showtime” offense pummels Colorado State, 86-60

Breakdown: BYU leads by 16 points at halftime keyed by their reserves’ play after CSU Coach Tim Miles compares them to the '85 Lakers

Analysis: You know, I love CSU coach Tim Miles and that program of his on The Mtn. cable TV network. He’s a tough nut to crack and he loves (LUUUUUVS) making his Rams running suicides in Moby Gym. This after kicking out almost all the team early last season after he became the warden and basically going 0-fer. By love suicides, I don’t mean just the word; I think that after watching the show for several weeks he has taken running suicides to the HNL (Ho’ Nutha Levuh).

If you factor that in with his love for BYU’s offense, which he thinks resembles the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers and their “Showtime” offense, you gotta know you’re in for a love fest. I would rather call it a beat down, a whoopin’ and quite possibly humiliating, but I know Miles’ boys will find out the true meaning of the word beat down after running umpteen suicides, back and forth in Moby, until they throw up this week. This game was over in the first 15 minutes; the Rams only prolonged the agony by allowing the Cougar subs to run up the score earlier. Oh, by the way, BYU shot 57 percent from the field and held Rams go-to-guy Andy Okide to only 12 points on 33 percent shooting.

In other may-jur college action this weekend:

Utah State turned the ball over 21 times and STILL won the game at New Mexico State, 77-67. Shooting 54 percent from the field, the Aggies were led by Gary "Big Daddy" Wilkinson with 21 points. Amazingly enough the game wasn’t played at The Spectrum (Of Certain Doom), where even if you play the game of your lives (Ahem! Utah!!) you will still lose the game and possibly your mind. Jimmy's court sense (and a stopwatch) would have come in handy on that night.

Utah Valley University (still weird calling them that, BTW) is now 8-6 overall with an 80-70 win over Binghamton (N.Y.) University. Wolverine senior Ryan Toolson is one of the top scorers in the land and didn’t disappoint the home crowd (or the stat sheet), pouring in 21 points. Junior Jordan Swarbrick flirted with a triple-double, knocking down 13 points, hauling in 9 boards and dishing out seven assists. It's how they do in Orem, yo.

And last but not least, Weber State played a Sunday (gasp!) game at Eastern Washington, winning the nationally televised game on Altitude Sports by a score of 77-69. Led by a player who is shorter than my wife (5’7”) the ‘Cats roared to victory behind Kellen McCoy’s 21 points. It was a tight game in the final minutes, but Weber hit some clutch free throws to seal the victory, moving to 9-7 overall (3-0 Big Sky).

Until next time, may your baskets be flashy and your court sense enlightened. If you haven't sent me your press packet (uh, SUU and Dixie State, helloooooooooooo) please do so by emailing me at: bs113094@hotmail.com