Bball musings/observations

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- 11/09/2021 at 9:24 PM #156219
  5
  
  Ute2
  Ute Fan
  
  @ute2
  
  1. I liked that the crowd was more than friends and family. And the muss had a presence…. Certainly ahead of schedule for recent seasons imo. Wish I coulda been there. But I’m a cache valley boy now so it’s a bit harder.
  
  2. I thought we defended super well! Active amd detailed and well coached! Guys shading away passing lanes, etc. minus a couple blow-bys, it looked good. And ABL-c was a tourney team last year that won a game. So not scrubs.
  
  3. The offense looked like the coaches cared!! Spacing, cutting, scheme, etc.!! And we can shoot!!!
  My only question is do we have a game breaker that’ll get that crucial bucket when we gotta have it?
  
  4. Mid season from vs. the press.
  
  5. I love Carlson! He’s going to be a dude! And I love dusan behind him!
  
  6. I’m a total both gach honk. I so hope he gets his waiver! Him in Craig’s hands!!! I’m drooling thinking about what Craig did for Sam Merrill in Logan and thinking that he can do the same with a dude that he twice the natural gifts…. Maybe both isn’t cut from the same cloth mentally but…. I’m excited to see. He could be that game breaker.
  
  7. We played with all the energy and focus! That alone will get us places. And I like our size a lot more than I thought I might!
  
  Finale: great start to the smith era! I don’t have super high expectations for this year but I like the opener a lot vs. a small but very well coached ABC team from texas.
- 11/09/2021 at 9:42 PM #156220
  2
  
  Charlie
  Ute Fan
  
  @charlie
  
  I wish so much Carlson would add some bulk, I think he should be checked for worms. He did play better in the second half.
  
  Rebounding needs to get better, we are missing the size from last years lineup.
  
  Hopefully we develop the outside shooting, especially in transition, that we had last year. However, this Texas team had a great number of pests on defense.
  
  Thin crowd, parking lots half full.
  
  I do like Smith, I am excited about what he can do. Not at all a bad start.
  - 11/09/2021 at 10:37 PM #156230
    1
    
    chinngiskhaan
    Ute Fan
    
    @chinngiskhaan
    
    If I was the coach, and we were tied with 5 minutes left in a game that we absolutely had to win or I lost my job, and I had to play either Mahorcic or Carlson, and not both, I would play Mahorcic without thinking twice about it. He doesn’t have the potential that Carlson has, but he is soooooo much better at all the little things that win basketball games.
    
    I really hope Carlson isn’t Brekkot Chapman 2.0. He DID show some sings of improvement tonight, but the team he was playing against was incredibly small. We’ll see if he disappears against bigger/better competition.
    - 11/10/2021 at 12:06 AM #156236
      
      Ute2
      Ute Fan
      
      @ute2
      
      He didn’t last year. He’s really good. I’m not sure what your expectations are but Carlson is a stud.
      - 11/10/2021 at 9:46 AM #156272
        
        Charlie
        Ute Fan
        
        @charlie
        
        Carlson will often give us sneaky great moves in the lane and will block shots. He is a good shooter. Consistency is his next thing but maybe he lets the game come to him. He did grab some rebounds but then got it poked or taken away, this game may be a learning experience. He is so thin he can’t project an imposing figure. He must have been aggressive because he collected fouls, however, I sat close and had great difficulty seeing what in the world the refs saw to call most of the fouls. He will not dominate but is a very good piece for the team. At this point I expect he will simply stay thin. I was hoping Lahat would help him more.
        
        11/10/2021 at 10:17 AM #156279
        
        Ute2
        Ute Fan
        
        @ute2
        
        Yeah I agree with that.
        
        I’m not saying he’ll be THE GUY that bends the defense around him. But I really really like his game.
        
        11/10/2021 at 10:59 AM #156286
        
        chinngiskhaan
        Ute Fan
        
        @chinngiskhaan
        
        The thing that sucks is that he has the potential to be THE GUY that bends the defense around him. There are a lot of tall skinny guys that have figured out how to not get the ball poked away from them.
        
        He still looks so inexperienced out there. I know exactly how he is feeling because I was the HS version of him. Tallest guy on the team, waaaaaay skinnier than my coaches wanted me to be, and early on I got caught with my pants down nearly every time I had the ball in traffic. I had to learn how to be decisive with the ball in my hands. You can’t stand there and think about what you are going to do when you are being double teamed. You have to know what you are going to do when you get the ball BEFORE you get the ball.
        
        “If I get the ball here, and that defender does this, then I’m going to do that.” He has to be able to anticipate what is going to happen when he gets the ball in certain places on the court. He isn’t good at this. He still plays like it’s his first season at Utah.
        
        He feels comfortable shooting threes out on the perimeter because he doesn’t have to worry about any of that out there. The defense isn’t going to collapse on him at the top of the three point line, so when he gets the ball he can take a second or two or 5 to decide what the heck he is going to do with it.
        
        He also has to know what his teammates are likely to do when he has the ball in a certain situation. If he can get on the same page with his guys, and learn the tendencies of the defenses he plays against, he will be much more effective, and he’ll be able to take advantage of his skillset. Until then, he’s going to be a bit of a mess.
        
        11/10/2021 at 11:05 AM #156287
        
        chinngiskhaan
        Ute Fan
        
        @chinngiskhaan
        
        If he is somehow able to put on some significant weight (another 20 lbs would be nice), he won’t have to rely on this as much. If you are as big as Jakob Poeltl, you can afford to stand and hold the ball on the block for a second, because even if someone pokes the ball, you probably aren’t letting go.
        
        I don’t think this is going to happen, so he’ll have to learn to decide whether it’s time to Sh*t or get off the pot before the pants come down.