[Maple Leaf]

Bigger effect IMO is the short turnaround and game this Saturday. I have to believe that we won't be as fresh and legs rested to do well. I'm expecting us to look slow and shoot poorly.

Agreeing with you, our worst games of the year have all come as the 2nd in a weekend, the loss at USC, the loss at Washington.  It is not that our athletes get tired--although that might be a small part of it--but that there is so little time to install and practice the scouting report.  Fortunately we have played Utah before, so hopefully the scouting report will not have radically changed.  But this has been true for decades--our defense is always better on the 1st game than on the 2nd, given the nature of scouting report preparation.  It is a problem in the NCAAs too.  We may have played over our heads to defeat South Carolina, and then almost stumbled against a lesser foe in Arizona.

The seniors and juniors on this team were part of that National Championship Team that prevailed in one pt wins over South Carolina and Arizona, in addition with having to practice and play games away from Maples due to COVID.  They got a real gritty determination in part do to what they experienced that year which gives them an edge, this edge maybe enough to win on Saturday at Utah.

[Maple Leaf]

Bigger effect IMO is the short turnaround and game this Saturday. I have to believe that we won't be as fresh and legs rested to do well. I'm expecting us to look slow and shoot poorly.

Agreeing with you, our worst games of the year have all come as the 2nd in a weekend, the loss at USC, the loss at Washington.  It is not that our athletes get tired--although that might be a small part of it--but that there is so little time to install and practice the scouting report.  Fortunately we have played Utah before, so hopefully the scouting report will not have radically changed.  But this has been true for decades--our defense is always better on the 1st game than on the 2nd, given the nature of scouting report preparation.  It is a problem in the NCAAs too.  We may have played over our heads to defeat South Carolina, and then almost stumbled against a lesser foe in Arizona.

The seniors and juniors on this team were part of that National Championship Team that prevailed in one pt wins over South Carolina and Arizona, in addition with having to practice and play games away from Maples due to COVID.  They got a real gritty determination in part do to what they experienced that year which gives them an edge, this edge maybe enough to win on Saturday at Utah.