The Utah Jazz and BYU Cougars Basketball

It’s that time of year when football is in the playoffs and starting to wind down and I start to turn my attention to the hardwood floor of basketball. This year my beloved Packers missed the playoffs so I am going to be paying more attention to the Utah Jazz and BYU Cougars basketball teams.

I have been a fan of the Utah Jazz for many years. I remember watching many games as a little boy on an old TV that didn’t get very good reception for the Jazz TV station- KJZZ. I can still remember watching John Stockton pass the ball in to Karl Malone for the fade-away jumper or big Mark Eaton blocking someone’s shot. I remember the “Golden Grif” and Thurl Bailey. The Jazz had an incredible team back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I got real excited to turn on the TV a couple nights a week to hear “Hot Rod” Hundley announce the Jazz games. I can still hear his funny sayings in my mind “he puts up a frozen rope”; “Stockton yo-yos at the top of the key”; “The Mailman delivers”; “You gotta love it baby”; and many more.

I am still a big fan of the Jazz and always will be. The faces have changed, now there is Derron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and others to watch. My TV now gets great reception and I now get excited to hear Craig BolerJack call the games. (For those of you that still like “Hot Rod” he now announces for the radio station that broadcasts the Jazz games, although I can never keep up with him). The Jazz are doing okay this year. They are currently 20-15 but should do better as they get some of their injured players healthy again. I am actually going to attend the game on Jan 24th when they play the Cleveland Cavaliers with “King” Lebron James coming to town. It should be an awesome game. The faces are different, the shorts are longer, and the announcer has changed, but it is still the same old exciting basketball game that I watched as a child.

BYU basketball is underway as well. The Cougars jumped off to a great start- they are currently 14-2 with the only 2 losses coming to nationally ranked teams- Arizona St and Wake Forest. BYU played both of these teams very close, though, and almost beat Arizona St at the buzzer. BYU fell to Wake Forest at home ending their nation’s best 53 home game winning streak. Wake Forest was ranked 6th and knew coming in that BYU would be very tough, especially on their home court.

BYU has some great players this year in Lee Cummard, Jonathan Tavernari, and Jimmer Fredette. They can score a lot of points, especially on three pointers, and have shown they can hang with the top teams in the league. BYU should go far this year and will play one of the biggest games of the year against Utah on Jan 29th. It will be payback time after the Cougars football team got hammered in SLC to the Utes football team.

Go Cougars!


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