Atrocious basketball until the final 4 minutes

[chinngiskhaan]

Refs made several questionable calls down the stretch. 

[chinngiskhaan]

That being said they showed potential in the last 4 minutes. Need to play with urgency all game.

[Mule]

“Atrocious” seems a bit much. They were playing decent defense during that stretch, but not great offense and shots weren’t falling.

[chinngiskhaan]

Bricking open shot after shot, getting confused on defense, repeated last second heaves by the worst shooter on the floor… it was bad.

no team should shoot that poorly on their home court.

[Ute Dub]

Shot 45% fg with 7 team turnovers, idk wtf you’re talking about. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Ftr I wasn’t referring to UofU only. It was bad/not fun basketball. Part of that is a severe lack of talent, but most of it is just the fact that cbb is just almost always bad.

[SantaVaca]

This team is so close! Tonight was just another close loss that woulda / shoulda / coulda been a win.

Next year all these close games will finally go our way. I still believe.

[Ute2]

I’m a believer and I like our players!

Add a couple pieces in the offseason to this group and we’ll have a team!

[GameForAnyFuss]

I disagree on the assessment of our talent. This team leaves a lot to be desired in that area. The things that have plagued them all near (namely, poor shooting) continue to plague them. That shows me that the skill set simply isn’t there.

I can’t complain at all about this group’s heart, commitment, and desire. After all the losing they’ve experienced this year, the fact that they continue to show up and play hard is beyond admirable. They give it all for the shirt, and I’m grateful for that.

But at the end of the day, a team full of tryhards will only take you so far. At some point you need more talent. At some point you need a few consistent scorers. Craig has a hard job in front of him. He now needs to show he can recruit talent to a program that’s not very attractive right now. Whether he can do this will probably decide his fate at Utah.

[chinngiskhaan]

I like these players, but it’s clear that we don’t have the horses to compete. Imagine if Bachynsky was by far our best player on those Jacob and Delon teams… that is where we are at right now. Carlson is solid, but he’s the number 3 option offensively on a pac12 contender.

The only other player on this team that would even get rotational minutes is MAYBE Worster.

[Ute2]

That talent is there, albeit very young. Carlson is the best center in the state. Lazar is gonna be great. So will madsen. They’re, young and already doing some real good stuff.

I’m still a total Gach honk. He’s really making strides lately. I’ve always said he’s raw and needs Craig’s patient touch. But you’re seeing it if you’re watching close enough. He’s just starting to put it together. When he blows up next year just remember who called it!

The problem is roster composition. We have one good center. And we have a bunch of good guards. And we don’t have anything in between.

Having Mahoric be a horses rear was also a blow because we need what he brought.

If smith can find quality backup center minutes next year (via lahat improving or another transfer) and fill in the front court with a baller or two that has some size we move right to the top half easily next year, may better.

As a Logan resident who takes in more usu bball then I like to admit, we’re a Justin bean type player away from being pretty dang good.

Our current group isn’t just a bunch of try-hards. They’re good players that just need a more balanced roster around them in terms of 1 through 5 rather than 1,1,1,1 and a five.

[chinngiskhaan]

Sure… we have a freshman or two that could turn into solid starters

[Trailgoat]

Craig Smith is a solid coach and with the right players could compete in the P12. Utes desparately need 2-3 athletic players from the transfer portal and a solid recruiting year. On record, this is one of Utah’s worst conference performances in Utah’s 100 year history. Basketball celebrity Coach LK holds that record at 3-15.

Utah loses 2-3 of their core players to the transfer portal combined with the current lack of recruting, the program could be in big trouble next season. Another season like this year is only going to make it harder to recruit making the hole deeper for Smith to dig out of. Smith was handed a complete mess of a program. That said, I am all in to support Smith, he can turn this thing around. Go Utes!