How to watch Utah take on BYU + Open Game Thread

The Utah and BYU rivalry opens up another chapter this Saturday at noon in the Beehive Basketball Classic at Vivint Smart Home Arena in downtown Salt Lake. The is a bit unique for the rivalry game to be going down at a neutral site, especially outside of any kind of conference play. The young Utes are a week removed from a win against Tulsa, and have had a solid week of rest and practice to gear up for a tough remainder to their non-conference play. It will be interesting to see how well the youngsters battle in a rivalry game. There will be opportunities for the Utes to score, because defense is an unknown for Dave Rose coached teams, but the question is will they be able to capitalize on those opportunities? For the Utes to win this game, they’re going to have to outscore BYU, because they’re going to run up and down the court and chuck up as many threes as possible. It will be fun to see if Utah can control the tempo of this game and make BYU play the game they want to play.

Here’s more info on how to check out the game if you can’t make it:

GAME 8: Utah (4-3) vs. BYU (5-4)
WHERE: Salt Lake City, Utah (Vivint Smart Home Arena)
WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018
TIP-OFF: 12 p.m. MT
TELEVISION: ESPNU / WatchESPN
RADIO: ESPN700

More information via UtahUtes.com about the Cougars and the series history:

SCOUTING BYU

Heading into the week, BYU was 5-4 overall, but will play Utah State on Wednesday ahead of its meeting with the Utes on Saturday ... BYU had dropped three straight heading into the week, which included a 113-103 defeat to Weber State in its last contest ... BYU ranks No. 1 in the nation with 33.2 defensive rebounds per game and rank 21st in the nation overall with 42.4 rebounds per game ... Yoeli Childs ranks 3rd in the nation with 11.9 rebounds per game ... Childs is also the team-leader in scoring, averaging 22.0 points per game ... BYU ranks No. 8 in the nation with 157 total assists and 26th in the nation with 17.4 assists per game ... the Cougars have three different players with 20-plus assists on the year ... TJ Haws is the team-leader with 45 assists, while his 5.0 assists per game ranks 71st in the nation ... BYU ranks 39th in the country with 219 total 3-point attempts, but rank just 322nd (out of 351 teams) in the nation with a .283 three-point shooting percentage ... Haws is the team-leader with 17 made three-pointers ... Zac Seljaas has made 16 three-pointers and leads the team with a .372 shooting percentage.

UTAH vs. BYU SERIES HISTORY

Utah and BYU will square off for the 258th time when they meet on Saturday. BYU leads the all-time series by one game, having won 129 times, while Utah has won 128 games in the series. This will mark just the 12th meeting between Utah and BYU when the game is played on a neutral court. It is the first neutral court meeting since March 9, 2006, when the two teams met in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, which was played in Denver, Colo. - Utah won the contest 74-70. BYU leads the series 6-5 when games have been played on a neutral court. Utah has won two consecutive neutral court games against BYU and three of the past four dating back to 1999.