Walking onto Utah Valley University’s basketball team definitely won’t be easy. For anybody, and for quite a while.
Particularly after a 2018-19 season which ended with a program-best 25-10 overall record and third consecutive berth in the postseason College Basketball Invitational, where it defeated Cal State-Northridge 92-84. The gave Utah Valley at least one postseason tournament win for the third consecutive year. The team eventually lost 66-57 in the quarterfinals to South Florida.
Expectations in Orem, Utah, only grew Monday when the school made official the hiring of former Stanford stud, two-time NBA champion, and six-year Los Angeles Lakers assistant Mark Madsen as head coach. He will replace former NBA veteran Mark Pope, who’d recently announced he’d accepted the role at “Crosstown Clash” nemesis Brigham Young University.
Bayfield’s Turner Kennedy knows all of this – and still would like to give it a shot.
“The competition, it’s going to be a completely different level than in high school,” Kennedy said Tuesday afternoon. “I’d have to get used to the intensity, but because I’m so used to having someone, like, ‘on you’ about certain things, I wouldn’t really be affected by it. Coach (Klint) Chandler, he was pretty intense during games, so I think I’d be able to adjust pretty well if I do make the team.”
And if nothing else, there’ll always be reminders of home one way or another with UVU’s mascot being the Wolverine and featuring a logo virtually identical to that inside BHS Gymnasium.
“A lot of my family lives in Utah, that’s where I’m from, where I was born,” said Kennedy, son of Kelly and Tiffany Kennedy, “and so there’s kind of a personal connection to it. BYU’s, like, the college I was planning on going to, but I just decided that UVU’s probably the place to be for me.
“And it’s right next to BYU, so I can still go cheer ’em on.”
Learning just how difficult it could be to defend a state championship will serve the senior guard well, should he follow through in pursuing his college hoops dream.
Hit hard by graduation last spring after going 19-7 and earning the 2018 CHSAA Class 3A crown, Bayfield still managed a second-place 6-4 mark in regular-season Intermountain League play and finished 11-11 overall after falling twice in the IML District Tournament and then 67-63 at Delta in the state tournament’s opening Round-of-32.
Kennedy logged a game-high 20 points in what ended up his final game wearing the purple-and-gold.
“Playing in that type of atmosphere – they had the best crowd I’d ever played in front of – and playing competitively, you can’t really describe it,” he recalled. “Because the crowd will get really excited, but if you do something to pull close, they’ll get silent, and it makes you feel good. That’s definitely one of my favorite (memories) even though we lost.”
Already named First Team All-IML after averaging 16.3 points and reportedly five rebounds, three steals, 1.5 assists and even one block per game during the ’18-19 campaign, Kennedy learned late last week that he’d been named the IML’s Winter Male Athlete of the Year for his efforts on and off the court, as he also boasts a grade-point average better than 3.7.
“I wasn’t expecting to get anything huge, but it means a lot to get this,” he said. “It kind of helps show, like, how much work I’d put in. Last year, I was dead-silent, but that was definitely a part I took the most pride in: talking to my team and trying to help them out, lead ’em.”
After a year of school, Kennedy also has plans to embark upon a mission for his church while he also formulates something of a plan regarding his next-level academics.
“Something medical,” he hinted. “If the athletic career doesn’t work out, I would definitely focus on a medical career and then at some point try to transfer to the University of Utah. They have a really good medical program, which I don’t think UVU has, plus classes that they offer.”
Currently courted by University of Hawaii-Hilo to run cross-country but as yet undecided as to where she’ll venture next after graduating Pagosa Springs, Pirate senior Emma Heidelmeier, a participant in cross-country, cheerleading, track-and-field, and swimming, was named the Intermountain’s Winter Female Athlete of the Year.
UVU’s 25 wins during the ’18-19 season eclipsed the previous school-best of 23 set the previous winter when the Wolverines went 23-11 overall. The 2017-18 season, however, began with two brutal road games against top-five teams. First, it was Pope’s alma mater (after transferring from Washington), No. 4/5 Kentucky inside historic Rupp Arena, then consensus No. 1 Duke inside raucous Cameron Indoor Stadium, all within 24 hours.
