Search Results for 'fano'

[Ute Dub]

Lazar Stefanovic is a 6’7″ freshman that has bought in despite the skid. His post game comments were very good. This thing is going to get righted. 

[WasatchRanger]

Posting this because this might be where it all goes downhill – Stefanovic seems to be playing aggressive and getting to his spots on the floor. Impressive game by him so far.

[chinngiskhaan]

Do we have any momentum with any recruits at all? When do basketball recruits normally start committing? I have heard ZERO buzz regarding recruiting since Smith lost Chandler (who would have been our highest rated recruit ever, and was a life long Ute fan) to BYU.

Smith either needs to get extremely lucky with a couple of no-name guys like our previous coach, or he needs to be let go, and we need to hire someone flashy in order to get recruits to commit.

So far his recruiting commits have all been guys who were or already had left Utah, but not the ones that we actually wanted to stay, transfers from his previous coaching stop, Dusan Mahorcic, and a handful of ineffective transfers from nowhere.

Here is how I rank his recruits so far:

Marco Anthony – a very good role player that would be in the NBA if he was a better shooter. Our best defender and rebounder. At 6 ft 5, that is not a good thing.

Dusan Mahorcic – A very tough big man, something we were sorely lacking the past few years. Plays angry, doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. Again, not a good offensive player at all, but at least not a turnover machine.

Rollie Worster – Essentially Rylan Jones in a bigger body. Not a terrible player, but not athletic enough to stand out in the Pac12.

Both Gach – Athletic enough to succeed in the pac-12, probably the only guard on the team that can claim this distinction, which is bad news for this team going forward. Can be great sometimes, and utterly useless sometimes.

David Jenkins – Looked to be the go to scorer we needed early on in the season, has all but completely disappeared lately. He’s gone from our best scorer to a guy who hasn’t scored a single point in his last two games, with over 30 minutes of playing time. Seems to be a good shooter, something we desperately need more of, yet he goes ages without even attempting shots. Not sure what is going on with him.

Lazar Stefanovic – A promising young player. Seems to be pretty solid all around but nothing special in any particular category. He looks like the future of this team, which is a sad sad thing.
_____________ That’s it for the good ones, onto the second tier Smith recruits

Riley Battin – The fact that a player like him gets significant minutes on a Pac12 basketball team is an embarrassment to our program. Terrible athlete, terrible defender, terrible ball handler and passer, streaky AF shooter, timid on offense. The proud owner of the ugliest shot on the team. Holy s**t… he’s 6 ft 9, has played significant minutes if not starter minutes every year since he’s been here, and he has a total of 8 blocket shots, EIGHT BLOCKED SHOTS! for his entire career at Utah. Oh yeah, and he’s shooting 27% from three this year. Honestly a 6 ft 9 inch cardboard box with arms would be roughly similar in production.

Bostyn Holt – demonstrated some amount of potential against bad teams early on in the season before his season ended early due to injury.

Gabe Madsen – Transferred here because he couldn’t get any PT on a mediocre Cincy squad. Seems like a decent shooter, but doesn’t have the athleticism or ball handling to create his own shot, much like all but one or two guys on this team.

Lahat Thioune – I like Lahat, but he isn’t a good basketball player. This many years of collegiate level coaching and he still looks lost half the time he’s on the court, and doesn’t seem comfortable with the ball in his hands.

________________

I will say this, Smith did an admirable job of putting together a basketball roster with some decent pieces in a very short amount of time. That being said, this team is deeeeeeeply flawed, devoid of athleticism and shot creation. Too slow and small on the defensive side of the ball. A team that has such a dearth of athleticism really needs to have an abundance of three point shooting prowess and/or size. Unfortunately, we are sorely lacking in athleticism, length, and shooting.

[Ute Dub]

with his over the top criticism of Gach and simultaneously wanting Lazar Stefanovic to get all Gach’s minutes. Genghis Khan’s man crush, Lazar Stefanovic, had 4 points on 12 FG attempts, a down night you could say. Quote “Gach is maybe the dumbst basketball player I’ve ever seen in a college game. Very very rarely makes the right play…..Battin is to athletecism as Gach is to basketball intelligence.” LINK  You know what making the right play looks like? Putting the ball in the damn basket and Gach has a high ceiling for that skill and we should allow some player development with Smith and Gach without jumping off a cliff on down nights. Gach has been with HC Smith a few games, right? I’m one that will allow for the cream to rise to the top without slamming players into the dirt the first few games.

In summary, Chinngiskhaan: STFU!!!

Too bad Dusan Mahoricic, Anthony, and Carlson were out last night. Those 3 are Utah’s best rebounders and Utah got out rebounded 51 to 32. 

[Ute Dub]

Battin has 45 lbs on Stefanovic and 34 rebounds to his 6 in roughly the same amount of minutes. Not everything is about scoring to these coaches. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Coaching: team came out with very little energy, but picked it up. Played pretty much everyone again.

worster: good player. Better than Jones because he’s bigger and more athletic. Not as athletic as Pelle but honestly a better player.

Jenkins: He’ll be the guy we get the ball to when we need a bucket. He scored a VERY easy 25. If it had been a closer game he could have scored 40.

Anthony: great rebounder. Poor shooter but he is unselfish and doesn’t force up shots.

Battin: tries hard. Should not be starting on a pac12 team.

Carlson: clearly worked on his game. Much better in the post offensively. Much better rebounder.

Mahorcic: Best backup big we’ve had since bachynski. Tough as nails. A man’s man.

Gach: same player he’s always been. Had a few nice plays, several WTF plays. Swishes, bricks… Still hasn’t put it together mentally.

The rest: ballstaedt needs more minutes, so does Holt. Take some of Barton’s minutes please. Stefanovic is quick, but plays waaay faster than his brain can keep up with. Triune had two nice plays at the end.

 

[chinngiskhaan]

*** I have no idea what this team is going to look like when they are up against good competition. ACU might be decent, they might be bad. I have no idea.***

First of all. I was at least partially wrong about this team, and Smith. He did a great job replacing all those dopes that left last year. Seeing all the names of guys that left last year really emphasised to me the amazing work Smith had to do to get a respectable team together. Jantunen, Martinez, Jones, Allen, Plummer, Pelle. That’s a lot to replace, and Smith may have done that and more.

Coaching: Smith is clearly a better coach at this point in his career than K was last year. It’s not even a little bit close. The offense moves the ball SOOOOO much quicker. Seemingly gone are the days of multiple shot clock violations in a half, and generally terrible offensive possesions where we don’t even attempt to get the ball inside the three point line.

PG: I love Jones since his father had a huge impact on my life, but Worster is easily better. He’s a step down from Pelle athletically, but is a more polished product, and still a freshman. Gach will give us added athleticism if/when he’s allowed to play.

Wing: Jenkins is a good scorer. Him vs plummer is a wash IMO. Plummer gave minimal effort on defense at times, Jenkins seems to do the same. Marco Anthony does the stuff that Jenkins doesn’t. I think this group brings a more total package to the table than last year’s SG group. Didn’t really see anything of note with Brenchley, Madsen, or stefanovic. My guess is those guys won’t get regular minutes.

Bigs: Battin does not, and has never belonged on a D1 roster. His only valuable skill is an incredibly unreliable three point shot, and he hardly ever pulls the trigger. He tries hard, there I said something nice about him. Mahorcic was a HUGE get for Smith. He is exactly what we needed. He’s mature, he’s angry, he’s strong, he is relatively smart with the ball in his hands. I REALLY like him, and would honeslty not be upset to see him start over Carlson, or in some cases start him alongside Carlson. If he is slower than Battin at all, it’s not by much. Carlson showed increased toughness down low on offense, but was surprisingly useless defensively. He really struggled to keep up with ACU’s smaller players. He had a really nifty post move or two which was a welcome sight. I don’t want to see him bringing the ball up the floor. NO THANK YOU! I really wish we had held onto either Allen or Jantunen TBH. I think this group is a slight step down from last year’s group because Battin will inevitably get more playing time than he has any right to have.

Overall I actually think this team has a chance to be better than last year’s mediocre team, but not by much. I wasn’t wrong about this team not having a single NBA caliber player on the roster. There are no stand-out athletes on this team. Anthony is decently athletic, but isn’t very skilled offensively. Worster is BARELY athletic enough to be a good D1 point guard, but his size helps there. I think we will compete very well with the non-elites of the pac12, and may even finish in the top half of the conference. We will struggle mightily to to compete against teams that have superior athletes. I don’t see us being able to create shots against long athletic teams like Oregon.

While this team doesn’t have the potential that it would have had some of our young guys from last year stayed, I think this year’s team is actually better than last year’s team. If we had held onto Larsson or Jantunen to take Battin’s minutes, I think we would actually have a decent shot at making the tourney this year. Unfortunately, we will likely be forced to play a massive waste of space for significant chunks of time every game, and that will cost us dearly.

Also, I think Carlson will benefit from having a coach who actually wants to help him be better.

[WhitewaterUte]

First round picks are rare.  If Ian Martinez puts in the work.  He has the athletic ability to be a potential NBA first rounder.   Pelle Larson will get a good look from the NBA.  Jantunen, Thelissen, and Stefanovic will have careers playing pro ball.  They have experience with Euro pro ball.  The came here for a taste of the U.S. style of the game and maybe an shot at the NBA.  Timmy Allen will most likely play on Europe.  If Brandon Carlson decides to put in the work (weight room) he will play pro.

I was excited to watch Matinez.  He has the athletic ability to do things you just don’t see every day. Ian and his father were here to get Ian tuned up for the NBA.  I would put him in a catagory with Danny Vranes, Mike Sojourner, and Jerry Chambers.

I could ramble on but it might put everyone here to sleep.

 

[WhitewaterUte]

Look a little closer.  This (was) a team that had more talent than any team since Majerus left.  All of the key players were staying.  With Stefanovic and Thelissen comming in they were getting more depth.  As a team they committed to hitting the weight room to gain strength.  That light finally went on for Carlsen.  Five of the 7 teams that finished ahead of Utah went to the Dance and left with the best record of any league in the country.  Considering that the committee (in my opinion) screwed the pack 12 over on the seeds they did an amazing job.  13 and 5.  If Az. was not on self probation and Oregon and USC having to play in the same bracket, (that is a discussion in itself) it would have been better.   I believe that 10 years of Majerus lunchens taught me a little about what it takes to be a successful NCAA Tourney team.  Utah was there.

[Charlie]

I am more open to this.  Smith has a lot to do.  We had 11 scolarship players with 2 coming in.  I expect he needs to make sure that Thelissen and Stefanovic stay committed because they may other options and may get interest from other schools.  We then had 4 go to the portal leaving 4 open slots.  Battin coming back still leaves 3 spots and I expect Smith has an idea about the likelihood of Allen or Plummer returning where we have no idea at all.  Smith has a good feel for the likelihood of filling 3 spots with what kind of player can be expected where we have no idea at all.  Smith has an idea about what he can change and do with Battin where we have not so much of an idea.  Smith still has 3 spots to work with and this move tells me he wants Battin in his 13.  At this point we need to trust Smith and see what he does with some time.  Battin only has to be the best option for the 13th spot and this works out.  Smith must have a different development play than Larry,  time will tell.