Monson: Utes get 'Jimmered' by BYU

Jimmer Fredette was ridiculous Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center, not just killing a rival on its home floor, but just plain killing … it.

"That's what you want to do," he said after the damage was done. "You want to kill your opponent."

Consider the hit complete.

At the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a game that turned into pure brutality, there was nothing Utah could do about the BYU guard — except to go ahead and, at least in the competitive sense, die in front of him. It got to the point where you had to feel sorry for the dearly departing.

They flat out got Jimmered — by the count of 104-79, as Fredette bludgeoned them with his 47 points. And it wasn't just the scoring totals that rolled them, it was the way they came, in rapid-fire bursts from stupid-long range.

Not just stupid-long range, preposterous range. A 30-footer here, a 27-footer there, a 25-footer just for good measure, and a 40-footer launched a nanosecond before the half ended. That last blast stretched the margin in what had been a relatively close contest into a 53-42 Cougars lead at the break.

It got worse.

"When you're feeling it, you're feeling it," said Fredette, who then used odd terminology to mirror what has already been said here. "There's nothing you can do about it."

Nothing Utah could do … except, well, you know what.

R.I.P.

All told, Fredette dusted the nets on 16 of 28 attempts, hitting 6 of 9 threes, and 9 of 9 free throws, sending the Utes to their seventh straight loss, the first time since the 1949-50 season they've endured such suffering.

The senior guard from BYU was pleased to administer it, and might have unloaded another bit of hurt, too, if the opportunity had presented itself. Asked if he wanted 50 points on the night, he answered: "I won't lie to you."

All in the spirit of fierce competition, he said, nothing personal.

After all the havoc had been wreaked on the Utes, before Fredette left the court, he said Utah coach Jim Boylen, who may have had more to lose in this game than anyone else, considering the heat he must be feeling, told the senior guard that he had a "great game" and that he was a "great player."

Nobody was arguing, certainly not Fredette's teammates, who searched for words to describe what they had just witnessed.

"Unconscious," said big man Brandon Davies, who scored 12 points of his own. "That's the only word I can think of. He was unconscious."

"Amazing," said forward Noah Hartsock, who also had 12.

That's a notable thing about this BYU team. It has no problem — read: jealousy — with feeding Fredette the ball when he has it going, even if that feeding is going to obscure most of what the rest of the players accomplish.

Fellow senior guard Jackson Emery is Exhibit A. Against the Utes, he put up 20 points, including silky-smooth 5-of-7 shooting from behind the arc, and what did he say in the aftermath, when he was asked sarcastically what it was like playing with a ballhog?

"If you're going to score 47 on a pretty good percentage," he said, "I'm going to let [Jimmer] be a ballhog all he wants."

Added Davies: "When he gets hot, we just get him the ball."

Good idea.

On a night, then, when BYU and Utah were like vessels passing in the night, with Fredette's BYU playing the part of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan and Boylen's Utah playing the part of a kayak, a better idea couldn't have been conjured.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Gordon Monson Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.