BYU, Utah seemed to play in slow mo

They shot quickly.

They fell behind quickly.

They exited quickly.

About the only thing that wasn't quick for BYU and Utah in this year's NCAA Tournament was their players.

If anything illustrated the plight of both teams this year, it was the need for speed. Texas A&M and Arizona faked BYU and Utah out of their respective shorts. That's not unusual. How often have you found yourself saying, "Wow, those guys are fast," but it's not the local team you're talking about?

All the time.

Slowness, or something near that, is an ongoing problem with Mountain West and Western Athletic Conference teams. Those conferences don't get the fastest of the fast or the quickest of the quick.

Sometimes, though, they'll get the burliest of the burly, like former BYU center Rafael Araujo or Utah's Mike Doleac. Which works quite nicely, especially against one another. For the most part, that's what the rest of the conference gets, too. So unless you're going into the tourney with a seven-foot future NBA player — and sometimes even when you are — it's tough to win. You look like you're idling while the other team is moving.

It happened Thursday to BYU, which fell behind early to a faster, more athletic Texas A&M team. Sound familiar? It should. Same thing happened last year, against the same opponent. And what happened against Xavier the year before. Meanwhile, Utah got sideswiped by Arizona, which slapped on an impressive full-court, trapping defense from the beginning. The Utes never recovered.

"It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment," noted Cicero.

Good point, but if you can have all those things AND amazing quickness, you're really in business.

Thus, the Mountain West's only two representatives lacked juice. The Utes were unable to handle the full court pressure, mainly because they were unable to manage Arizona's you-know-what. The 'Cats were in Utah's spots before the Utes could get there.

BYU got three charging calls in the first half, due to A&M's speed, and trailed 26-8. Utah threw passes all over the Everglades and dropped behind 23-10.

Exactly what Utah and BYU — and Utah State, for that matter (though the Aggies did a nice job against Marquette) — are supposed to do about that is a puzzle. You don't just find a batch of quickness in the classifieds. They may get a quick player or two on occasion, but they never get the majority of a team.

That's not to say a team can never advance without speed. You just need to be near-perfect in other areas. That's what happened in 1998, when the Utes went to the NCAA Championship game on the not-so-fleet wings of Hanno Mottola, Alex Jensen, Mike Doleac, Andre Miller, Britton Johnsen and Drew Hansen.