A Drubbing of Historical Proportions

[The Miami Ute]

Utah is drubbing UCLA 73-35 with 6:24 left in the game. I’m at the game and, let me tell you, this UCLA team really, really sucks. Poor Lazar Stefanovic…he thought that he was transferring to an elite program and he walked into a raging dumpster fire. Not all change is progress.

[Utehomer42]

You know, I honestly feel no remorse for him or anyone who transfers. Poetic justice in my book

[The Miami Ute]

You shouldn’t feel any remorse for him at all. He made his own bed. He thought that he was going to a better team and it’s turned out to be just the opposite.

[Tony (admin)]

90-44? WOW

[Charlie]

Unbelievable tonight. In ’78 I was in grad school at the UofA and watched my school beat UCLA in Tucson. At the time never expected to see my school beat UCLA, ever. Sitting in the student section in the McKale Center I was in awe. Almost 50 years later I was sitting in the Hunty watching my school go up 50 on UCLA. UCLA is not a good team this year but I was watching the second biggest loss in Bruin history, in awe.

Stefanovic is maybe their best player and the crowd was less than kind. Awesome bounce back from last week. It was their first loss by double digits. They lost by 5 on the road at Oregon.

[The Miami Ute]

Charlie, UCLA this season is probably the second worst team in the PAC after Cal. And Cal beat them about a week ago in Pauley Pavilion. Stefanovic was the same Stefanovic we saw at Utah. He’s still a slow, mediocre outside shooter that turns the ball over too much. At least his degree will be worth something.

I will say that one of the big takeaways of this season so far is how UCLA has stepped into an elevator shaft. They’re now 6-10, 1-4 in the Pac-12, and headed for one of their worst seasons in quite a while. Remember that this is a team that has made the Sweet Sixteen three seasons in a row and came within a last second shot to be in the Final in 2021. It’s not going to get easier for them once they move to the B1G.

[Charlie]

My perspective was not so much this year, it was more the claw back I have watched from the mid 60s to mid 70s when UCLA was completely untouchable to last night when we dominated, but for only one night, at the extreme on the other side. When I was in HS UCLA played Houston in the astrodome in what I feel was the biggest BB game in college history. It is just awesome to become their equal even if they fell as much as we have ascended. As a kid, Gail Goodrich was my favorite BB player at a time when I knew him from listening to the radio since TV games were few. But you are right, beating the Yankees now is not what it was in the 50s.

[The Miami Ute]

That Houston team you mentioned had one of my still favorite players of all time. The Big E, Elvin Hayes. Thanks for bringing back the memory.

[chinngiskhaan]

I would love to hear what the Smith naysayers have to say now.

[The Miami Ute]

It’s one game and it was played at home. As many people have said repeatedly, Utah can beat anyone at home but struggles mightily away from the Huntsman. Lastly, this UCLA team is a raging dumpster fire. I was at the game last night and was shocked at how they’ve regressed from their previous three seasons under Cronin. They could literally be fighting Cal (and they easily lost to Cal at home before playing Utah) for the title of worst team in the PAC. Let’s see how Utah fares when Oregon, Arizona, and Colorado come to town. Better yet, let’s see how the Utes do during their next road trip. That will be the best barometer of this team’s actual ceiling.

[chinngiskhaan]

it’s still more than doubled the score of a Pac12 basketball team. Would that have happened when Smith took over? Not even close. I’m not claiming this team is on their way to a Pac12 championship. I just think any argument that Smith isn’t doing a good job with this team is flat out wrong.

[The Miami Ute]

I agree with that. Utah is much better than when Smith took over but, boy, does UCLA suck.

[Minnesota Ute]

I’m a Smith fan, or at least I feel he’s a massive upgrade from Krystko, Giac, and Boylen. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I find a couple things concerning. But that’s a huge improvement from finding many BIG things concerning as was case with Larry.

That said, this games tells us nothing about our team or Craig. UCLA is historically bad and we shoot well at home. Not a big new flash there. Tomorrow is the game that turns the season IMO. If we can beat the Stanford at home then we have a legit shot to compete in conference and get an invite. If we lose to them, I feel like its a an indicator that we are probably a middle of the pack/NIT caliber team.

I am confident that we CAN win tomorrow, but I am not confident we WILL. We have to show that we can make shots on the road, we have to show we can effectively defend the perimeter, and we have to make FT especially on the road. We do those things, we win.

[chinngiskhaan]

In case anyone was wondering, we won this game because we nearly doubled their rebound total for the game. We didn’t play especially great, but we absolutely dominated on the boards, which suggests we were playing our butts off. That’s good coaching fellas.

[DataUte]

This team sucks. We don’t have depth. This isn’t even an NIT team. Smith should be replaced. The team has given up. Until we get, ahem, you know, not skinny white guys, we will continue to be terrible. Sigh.

Wait, this is Friday, not Wednesday. Sorry, all the naysayers. People get too low and too high on one or two games. 4 top 5 teams lost on the road this week. Smith has this team engaged and improving. Next step is to win some road games. Arizona swing was a test we didn’t do well on. Time to be tested on Sun @ Stanford.

[concerned]

The highlight of the night was the Muss chanting to Lazar after he missed a free throw “you let the whole team down.”

Lazar was -47. A UCLA guy tweeted that he thinks Utah sent Lazar to the Bruins to destroy the program.

[The Miami Ute]

Not much you can say about a guy that has a 33% FG percentage and shoots 30% from 3PT range.

[chinngiskhaan]

It was odd to me at the time that UCLA wanted the guy. We replaced him with someone who is at least as good.

[Minnesota Ute]

That always seemed odd to me as well, his numbers were never that good. I’m not sure what they saw in him. That said, as I recall Larsen’s numbers weren’t great either, but in hind sight I guess it was hard to tell because most players underperformed in Larry’s system.

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

Just imagine their how mad UCLA would have been if they picked up Battin from us instead :). I liked Lazar, but I really like this team this year. There continue to be some growing pains, but they seem to get better every week. The second line coming in with Smith and Keita is ridiculous. It just keeps the energy rolling.

[The Miami Ute]

Lazar’s problem is that he’s a backup player thrust into a starting job. He’s much better coming in with the second tier crew than when having to play significant minutes and carry a heavy scoring load.