ASU at Utah Open Thread

The Top 10 ranked ASU comes to town tonight to take on the Utes, as both teams are coming off of loses this past Thursday. ASU is actually coming off of their 2nd straight loss, after losing to Arizona a week ago and then Colorado on Thursday. ASU raced out this season to a 12-0 start to open the season, and jumped up to No. 3 in the AP poll before suffering their last two losses. The Sun Devils have only played 3 games away from Tempe, going 1-2 in those games, with the one win coming at Kansas.

The last couple of times have been really brutal for ASU, when they’ve come to SLC. Utah jumped out to 30 or 40 point leads over ASU the last couple of seasons, and the games were over by the first media timeout. I wouldn’t plan on such a thing happening tonight. Utah need to contain talented guard Tra Holder, who has had an awesome start to the season, and is the heart of the Devils.

Utah will need for the guards to be on the top of their game, because ASU’s backcourt is dangerous, led by Holder. Barefield has come on strong for the Utes the last couple of games, which is great to see. Justin Bibbins has been the leader of the unit, and needs to make sure the team doesn’t get into a track meet with ASU. It’ll be on him to control tempo and to attack ASU’s guards so they can’t just focus on offense.

If you can’t be at the Huntsman Center, join us here and watch the game on ESPNU or listen to ESPN700.

Go Utes!