Motivation will be key to Utes' chances tonight

The College Basketball Invitational is under way with four games being played Tuesday night. The home team won three of the four games as Ohio defeated Brown, Virginia beat Richmond and Old Dominion defeated Rider. The only home team to lose was the WAC’s Nevada, which fell to Houston 80-79.
It’s not surprising that the home teams won most of the games, since home teams usually have an edge whether it’s early in the season, or the postseason.
Utah’s biggest challenge tonight will be whether it will be motivated enough to pull off a road victory when they take on UTEP later tonight at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso.
It seems like the coaches and players are excited to still be playing basketball after losing to UNLV in the Mountain West Conference semifinals Friday night. Certainly coach Jim Boylen is still rarin’ to go. The question is, whether his players will have the same excitement. I think they have the talent to win, considering that they were in every road game they played this year until the final three minutes and every game except Oregon, until the final minute. I believe UTEP isn’t as good as BYU, UNLV or Gonzaga and no better than New Mexico or San Diego State.
I’ll remember well the last time the Utes played in a postseason tournament other than the NCAAs back in 2001 when they were invited to the NIT when Dick Hunsaker was coaching the team. You could tell the day they got the invitation and we interviewed the players that they weren’t too excited and it showed two nights later in a listless defeat to a Memphis team coached by John Calipari.
It’s that time of year when the weather is getting warmer and students have time off for spring break and it’s only normal that some players might be ready to check out for the season. And it might be that the Utes will play hard and just get beat by a better team.
We’ll find out in a few hours whether the Utes are done for the season or will be moving on to play next week against either Tulsa or Miami of Ohio.