Breaking down the player matchups of the top 5 from both sides — this is what I'm seeing so far:

1. Hall (Jr) vs Little (So). Little's actually a really good PG talent. But in the present Hall wins this matchup. It might be fairly close, honestly, though.

2. Saunders (Jr) vs Madsen (+Sr). Man-bun Gabe is the yewt's best scorer & not a shabby athlete at 6'6. Clearly the yewts have the offensive edge in this matchup, but overall — even if it pees some yewties off — I call this one DEAD even.

3. Demin (Fr) vs Sharavjamts (Jr). Egor IS who Mongolian Mike WISHES he were. Don't get me wrong, Mike is a solid player. But this matchup ISN'T close. Egor is a much better athlete & a true PG in terms of skill. Mike is a facilitating wing. So far Mike is playing his role well for Utah, though.

4. Catchings (Fr) vs Ausar (Jr). If upside were a factor, we win this one hands-down. While I believe Kanon MIGHT surpass the very talented Ausar at some point this season, for now I gotta give the yewts the edge in this one. Not a hands-down edge, but probably not a slight edge either.

5. Keita (Jr) vs Lovering (Sr). Lovering's currently on the mend, & the yewts have plenty of talented size on the bench to deal with multiple injuries here. Unfortunately for them, if I were Craig, they don't got two guys among their bigs that I WOULDN'T package-n-trade to get Keba back in red. In a heartbeat. As a force of nature, Keba's a big time difference-maker (who hasn't found himself in our system yet — but I trust that he will).

BENCH: I will admit that the Ute bench is strong. On paper, they're comparable to us, I think. That said, in terms of experience, versatility & scoring talent — I'd swing with Fouss, Baker, Mag, Boskovic, Knell & Crawford EVERY DAY.