UVU senior guard Blaze Nield grinned as he walked into the tunnel from the basketball court at the Marriott Center on Wednesday night.

And who could blame him?

Nield — a former Lehi High star — transferred to BYU from Utah State Eastern and played in 17 games for the Cougars in 2019-20.

Then he moved on to become a Wolverine and played an integral part in helping UVU defeat his former team in 2021 and 2022.

“That was super fun, obviously,” Nield said. “It’s a rivalry game for us. We’re both competitors. But for us to come out there and fight and fight through adversity and get the job done was something super special for us.

Nield wasn’t the flashiest performer in the 75-60 Wolverine victory over BYU on Wednesday, tallying a modest 10 points with two assists, a rebound, a steal and a turnover.

But he hit a number of key shots, played good defense and was instrumental in helping UVU break the frantic Cougar press late in the game when BYU was attempting to rally.

“Blaze Nield came in and played a great game in his old home,” Wolverine head coach Mark Madsen said. “He hit shots, hit free throws and helped to run the club.”

Nield took a moment to remember when he was a Cougar.

“I started my career here, was working and learned a lot,” Nield said. “I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears on this court. To come back and have the performance we did tonight was super-special for me personally.”

He realized that pretty much every teammate from that 2019-20 BYU squad is gone now.

“I played with Trevyn Knell, but he’s sitting out (due to injury),” Nield said. “I helped Gideon George come on his visit before he committed here and it was the same with Dallin Hall before he went on his mission. I know a lot of those guys but it’s crazy that Trevyn is the last one who I actually played with.”

While it was certainly satisfying for Nield and the Wolverines to defeat a team in BYU that gets a lot more attention and has a lot lengthier basketball tradition, the reality was that this wasn’t a surprise for UVU.

This is a Wolverine team that believes it can be very good this season and Wednesday’s performance showed that.

“This performance was a tale of two halves,” Nield said. “In the first half we had 12 turnovers and obviously we were struggling. We didn’t look very good. But then in the second half we came out there, we were aggressive, we cut the turnovers down and we got the job done. I think that was just a glimpse of the potential this team has. We’re figuring it out as the season goes on and we’re just getting better and better. I think we’re ramping it up to get ready for conference play and to make a run.”

Madsen said he felt like his team showed it was up for the challenge of going to Provo and beating BYU.

“Our guys played well,” Madsen said. “We shot the ball well tonight. It’s probably one of the better nights we’ve had shooting the ball. Our guys played with great passion. I have nothing but respect for the BYU program and everything they do.”

Now it needs to take that same confidence and intensity into the upcoming big games against WAC opponents.

“This a great team win but it’s about conference play in the WAC,” Madsen said. “That’s where we have been good historically and that’s where we have to be great this year. There are probably five or six programs in the conference that are having the best stretch of basketball in school history right now. It’s not one program. But we wouldn’t want it any other way in terms of competition.”

Nield said the Wolverines have things to work on to be ready for the key battles in the weeks ahead.

“I think we just need to keep working every day, focus on the little things and trying to get better step by step,” Nield said. “Obviously rebounding is an emphasis we have, as is defense. The better we get at those two things, I think our offense will improve as well.”

UVU next heads to play at Northern Arizona on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Isaac Hale, UVU marketing

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