Wildcats face University of Utah

After falling to Brigham Young University 70-87 Friday night, the Weber State University Basketball Team will host another in-state rival, the University of Utah Utes, Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Utah, which is 3-3 this season, will travel to Ogden to face the Wildcats in the Dee Events Center. In their last meeting, the Utes defeated the Wildcats 74-64 in Salt Lake City.
The Wildcats, who are 1-4 in regular-season play, will be looking to add another win to their record before traveling to face Sacramento State University for their first in-conference game.
WSU guard Nick Hansen contributed 19 minutes on the floor for the Wildcats against BYU, and said the team is improving with each game they play.
“It seems like every game that we’ve had so far, we’ve really come closer as a team,” Hansen said. “We’ve really found out what we need to work on. The good thing about this pre-season is we’ve experienced a lot of different types of teams. The run-and-gun, just a variety of different types of teams, and so we’re excited to see what Utah has in store for us. It’s going to be a great challenge and we’re looking forward to it. We’re excited and we’re going to have a blast.”
The Wildcats have been focused on playing defense and aggressively chasing rebounds in preparation for Utah. Hansen commented that WSU is preparing for Wednesday’s game just as it would any other.
“We really haven’t changed from any of the other games,” Hansen said. “We’ve just been really focusing on defending and rebounding. Utah is a big team and they’re really athletic and they’re a really good team, but not much has changed for our preparation. All we have to do is take it one day at a time through practice and really focus on our defense and rebounding and let everything else fall into place.”
WSU will be working to stop the Utes’ big offense, as Utah will be bringing four players to Ogden that are 6’10” or taller. The Utes have two players over seven feet tall.
WSU Head Coach Randy Rahe said the Wildcats will stick to their game plan, but will need to play tough in order to compete with Utah’s size.
“You’ve just got to be aware of their size,” Rahe said, “especially in rebounding. They’re as big a team as we’ll probably play all year, and so it’s going to be a great challenge. You’ve got to block them out a little bit longer and a little bit harder. We just do what we do. I think the biggest thing is rebounding. You’ve got to do a great job of rebounding against a team that has that kind of size.”
Hansen agreed, saying that if WSU will play tough, Utah’s size won’t be a game-deciding factor.
“They have a lot of size pretty much everywhere on the floor,” Hansen said, “but I don’t think we’re really going to make any adjustments. We’re just going to play our game. We’re going to go out there and play as hard as we can.”
WSU guard Damian Lillard also said the Wildcats need to challenge the Utes by getting rebounds.
“We know they’ve got a real big team,” Lillard said, “so we’ve got to box them out and make sure we get stops on them, and in order to get stops you need to get rebounds. So we’ve been really putting an emphasis on getting stops and guarding the ball and getting a body on people.”
The Wildcats know that Utah will be a challenge, but say they are ready to play and look forward to hosting an in-state school.
“These are real challenging games,” Rahe said, “but they’re fun games for us, these in-state games. They’re not like conference games, but they are a great challenge. We love playing them, just because it is such a huge challenge when you play programs like that, that have great talent and a great reputation.”