Mason Madsen finally got to experience one of the most intimidating environments in college basketball when Utah closed out its regular season at BYU on Saturday. He was very impressed.
The fifth-year senior threw heavy shade at the fanbase in Salt Lake City while discussing his lone experience in Provo. (Even if it wasn’t intended that way!)
Madsen will play only one road game against the Cougars. His college basketball career is likely going to come to an end with a loss in the Big 12 Tournament on either Tuesday night or Wednesday, barring a Cinderella run by the interim-coached Utes. That does not mean he did not get the full experience.
BYU is ranked No. 23 in the country at 23-8 overall with three top-25 wins in its last eight games. Although the Marriott Center will (almost) always sell out, the fanbase reaches another level when their team is good. Void of caffeine and boozer, they still manage to bring the juice. It’s a tough place to play.
Madsen played two years at Cincinnati and two years at Boston College. This was his first and only season at Utah so the Holy War rivalry is not something for which he was previously familiar. He heard stories about the raucous road environment and played against the Cougars at home, but Saturday served as his first and only opportunity to experience the insanity for himself.
Mason Madsen was thoroughly impressed by his 40 minutes in Provo. The 6-foot-4 guard actually threw some shade at the folks in Salt Lake!
In all seriousness, that was a pretty good environment. Yeah, definitely one of the best ones I’ve played in, so it kinda lived up to the hype. I heard good things about the arena. Kudos to all the fans who were there. That was a good environment.
It would probably be fun to play for BYU and have those fans because that was pretty sick. And that’s something I hope to experience in the future, not that I haven’t at certain places, but playing where people really care about basketball.
— Mason Madsen
To be fair, Madsen made sure to establish his hatred of BYU prior to his flattering remarks.
Nevertheless, he said what he said. Mason Madsen directly implied that the University of Utah does not care about basketball. His comments also implied that he might rather play on the other side of the rivalry— strictly in terms of the home-court advantage. BYU should use the remarks to recruit!