As some of you know, I’m pretty much the only person on earth who likes Ute basketball more than Ute football. Now I like football plenty, but I just live, eat, and breathe Utah basketball. I’ve been lucky enough to see every minute of the season so far (against one good team and a couple of bad ones), and here’s my good, bad, and ugly of the team and the players so far:
Team:
Good:
– This team likes to get to the basket. It’s a driving team. Fun to watch and they draw a lot of fouls.
– Despite being a bit undersized, this is a better rebounding team than I expected.
Bad:
– This is a very poor outside shooting team. They can’t hit the ocean from a boat. Teams will pack the lane on defense and dare us to beat them from outside.
– The defense does a lot of ball-watching. They get back-doored a ton.
Ugly:
– Turnovers continue to plague the program and will cost us some games this year.
Players:
Good:
– Kuzma is a man among boys. He would start on almost every team in the conference.
– Bonam is our best slasher and only reasonable outside shooter.
– I really like Devon Daniels’ game. Good defender, crazy athletic. And he’s only a freshman!
Bad:
– Jayce has been a letdown so far, but he’s getting better.
– Sorry, I just don’t see it in Van Dyke.
Ugly:
– I couldn’t say enough about Rawson when Utah was feasting on cupcakes, but he had a disastrous night against Butler. I hope it was an anomaly and not what we’re going to see against good teams.
Overall I think Utah is going to finish mid-table in the conference and go to the NIT. Of course, the x-factor will be the mid-season arrivals. If they perform and are mesh with the team quickly, and if Barefield can shoot, this could be a bubble team. But in any case, I’m going to enjoy every minute of the season.
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