Utah looks to keep winning streak alive down in Southern California

The Utes will face second place USC on Thursday night before a showdown with struggling UCLA on Sunday afternoon

Ahead of this week's matchups with USC and UCLA, Utah fans must be asking themselves which version of the Utes are going to show up?

Is it the Utah team that took down No. 13 Kentucky and just swept the Washington schools? Or is the youthful squad who just went through a brutal four-game losing streak where the offense was completely inept?

Either way, answers will be given when Utah faces USC on Thursday night before taking on UCLA on Sunday afternoon.

Got some business to take care of in LA. ✈️🌴☀️

Thu. at USC 7:30pm 📺FS1
Sun. at UCLA 1:00pm 📺FS1#GoUtes🏀🔴 #Pac12Hoops pic.twitter.com/n5XxuEnRid

— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 29, 2020

First up is the Trojans, who sit a half game out of first place in the Pac-12. USC enters the game as one of the hottest in the conference, having won 10 of its previous 12 games — its only two losses are against No. 11 Oregon (last weekend) and Washington (opening weekend of conference play). 

Freshman Onyeka Okongwu, who is arguably the front-runner for Pac-12 freshman of the year, leads the way for USC. The 6-foot-9 forward is averaging 17.3 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.

Playing second fiddle is Jonah Matthews, a deadly three-point shooter (38.1%) with 45 made triples on the year. He's averaging 13 points per game while Nick Rakocevic is putting up 11 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.

This trio will be met by Utah's own trio of stars in Timmy Allen, Rylan Jones and Mikael Jantunen. 

Allen is averaging a team-highs of 19.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game — but most importantly showing his maturity and letting the game come to him rather than forcing the issue. 

Instead of always having to be the guy, Allen had no issue letting Jones take over against Washington and Washington State last weekend. En route to being named the Pac-12 and National freshman of the week, Jones averaged 18.5 points, six assists, five rebounds and 2.5 steals in the two games — with 26 of the 37 total points scored coming in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Our @pac12 Freshman of the Week @rylanjones15‼️ 👏#GoUtes🏀🔴 #Pac12Hoops pic.twitter.com/ECAsy3lf7Q

— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 27, 2020

Jantunen has also upped his level of play the past three games, averaging 12 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in that span. He's helped take over for the offensive struggles of Both Gach, who is still averaging 10.6 points per game but hasn't hit double figures in his last five games.

Taking down USC is a tall task for the young Utes, but if the team from this past weekend shows up, there's not reason they can't pull the upset on the road.