CBI Preview: Utah @ UTEP

Constable Echelon accepts the Sisyphean challenge of previewing all CBI matchups to prepare you for The Grandest Tournament E’er Conceived ™.

When: Wednesday March 19th, 6pm PST

What do I know about Utah?

Rick Majerus coached Utah for years, but never owned a house in the area. He lived his entire Utah career in a hotel.

Head Coach Jim Boylen is a Tom Izzo disciple. As such they aren’t the most up and down the floor type team in the country.

Produces a lot of NBA talent such as Andre Miller, Keith Van Horn, Andrew Bogut.

What did I just learn about Utah?

Honnu Mottola was the first of my people, the Finns, to play in the NBA. He and Andre Miller likely had little in common off the court.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, the Utes are led in scoring by a seven footer pilfered from Australia – Luke Nevill.

Won at Cal.

What do I know about UTEP?

Tim Hardaway set white guards back decades when he unveiled something called the “crossover dribble”, also known as the UTEP Two Step.

Tim Hardaway is not best friends with John Amaechi.

UTEP’s football team was kind enough to employ Mike Price after the whole Roll Tide kerfluffle. Mike Price paid it forward by finding a scholarship for Carson Palmer’s autistic brother.

What did I just learn about UTEP?

Stefon Jackson was the leading scorer in Conference USA at 23.7 ppg.

Lost by 5 at Texas A&M and by 6 at Memphis. Didn’t really beat anyone.

Who do I like?

When I saw Jim Boylen’s Utes play at UW in the preseason NIT (sigh…NIT) he struck me as one of those coaches that can, you know, coach. I believe in Utah’s ability to shut down Jackson and let the rest of the Miners try to beat them.

Gimme Utah