1Which boys basketball team impressed you the most at last week's Beat the Zuke Utah County Challengefi

• Lloyd: I think the nod has to go to Springville by a large margin. The Red Devils played tough, hard-nosed defense and proved willing to be physical against Lone Peak. I think they could be a challenger in Region 7, but it won't be easy with Provo, Timpview and Orem also looking pretty good.

• Beaton: Lehi. Even though the Pioneers lost to Provo, they played the defending 4A champs right down to the wire. This team has some exciting players and some nice balance. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do against some other good teams.

2In the Springville-Lone Peak game, fans got a little bit irate when the Knights elected to hold the ball both at the end of regulation and in the overtime period. What did you think of the stallfi

• Beaton: It was a smart decision by a coach who understood the flow of the game and the strategy being used by the opponent. I realize the fans didn't like it and it's not my favorite, either, but it's an approach that other teams have used against the Knights plenty of times to try to keep the ball out of their hands.

• Lloyd: There're two ways to look at it: It's cowardly and boring, but it's also legal as established by the current rules of the high school game. Coaches have the discretion to use whatever methods are allowed in the rulebook, and fouling a top scorer or to extend the game fall under the same category. Personally, I don't enjoy it. I prefer games that are played, not where the majority of the people playing stand around for long periods of time. But the only way to get rid of it is to get a shot clock, which I think will happen at some point, but not immediately.

3What did you learn from the opening night of girls basketball action last Tuesdayfi

• Lloyd: The Provo-Pleasant Grove game was one of the best of the evening, with the Bulldogs rallying from a six-point deficit to get the win. I think this was a nice early statement from Provo and head coach Cory Green, since they don't have a lot of size this season and they still got the job done. I think the Vikings are just going to keep getting better, so watch out Region 4.

• Beaton: Bingham is either really, really good, or the Miners and Huskies agreed not to play defense in this contest. The teams combined for an astounding 151 points. The other top teams who played that night -- American Fork, Riverton and Lone Peak -- all won very comfortably.

4The Utah High School Activities Association elected to move Uintah full-time into a 4A region with southern Utah County. Do you like the movefi

• Beaton: The school suffers from a double whammy, as it is isolated by both size and geography. From a competitive standpoint, this was certainly the best move to make, but travel and safety considerations expressed in the hearings are certainly valid. Now that the decision is made, I hope everyone involved works together to make the best of it. There is an opportunity for some creative scheduling here, such as playing doubleheader basketball games on Saturdays in the winter so the teams can travel during daylight.

• Lloyd: I'm not a fan of this at all. Uintah isn't alone with facing these types of issues, since San Juan and the St. George schools also have faced a number of size- and location-related problems recently. I heard all the arguments during the reclassification hearings and I don't know what came up that changed everyone's minds. What needs to be done is to have football classified separately from the rest of sports, since the number of students factor much more into football than other sports. Uintah needs to keep its local rivalries instead of being forced to come to Utah Valley so much.

5Fall postseason awards will be published shortly. What are the biggest criteria to you in determining that recognitionfi

• Lloyd: I think you have to take a number of things into consideration, but probably the biggest single component in my book is performance under pressure. Numbers are nice, wins are nice and raw athletic ability is nice, but I will always give a slight edge to players that step up and make things happen at crunch time, in games against top-level competition or that come down to the final play. That's when everything you've worked for is really put to the test and the true ability of an athlete is more accurately measured.

• Beaton: I couldn't agree with my colleague more.

• Jared Lloyd and Beky Beaton cover high school sports for the Daily Herald.