Submitting this a little late.
Went to the Huntsman Center on Sunday to watch the women live. Huntsman is dug out of the side of the hill so one enters at the top and walks down 32 rows to get to the courtside seats. Seating is open, except floor level which is roped off.
During the warmups the women tigers are a noisy bunch, cheering each other on, presumably for pep.
Not a bad crowd; full band, cheerleaders, mascot, dance squad. Dance squad has “Utah Hair”. Only a smattering of scattered people wearing orange.
Pre-game the band played Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You”, although original lyrics were more obscene. The Princeton Band also plays this, so I guess the kids like it. A bit surprised to hear it, although the BYU band recently got in trouble for playing a song with obscene lyrics after an “adult” recognized it.
Key player for Utah is All-American Gianna Kneepkens, a 6-0 shooting guard, and she proved to be excellent, with a solid 3 ball, good driver (with a good “hesi” move), and tough to stop at the rim. She is from Duluth Minnesota, like me and Robert Zimmerman.
We were even at the half despite HORRIBLE refereeing. Berube was almost apoplectic at times. Most of the first half scoring was layups and post moves by Parker Hill. Second half we went down about 18 at some point, but clawed back with some excellent three point shooting by Skye Belker. In fact we had a chance to take the lead with a few seconds remaining, but Belker missed two free throws. The foul call which sent Belker to the line was for a ticky-tack foul, so I guess it was a makeup call.
I have not seen the team live before, so I have no basis for comparison, but they seem to play excellent defense. I wish we had a bit more three point shooting, and gave up fewer offensive rebounds.
Can’t say how they stack up against other Ivy teams.