Back from the Runnin' Utes vs SDSU Game

[Tony (admin)]

It was a very fun game. It’s late. I’m tired. I’ll comment more tomorrow.

GO UTES

[Jumpmasterute]

Wakeup Tony it’s tomorrow.

[TheJuggernaut]

I heard there were going to be comments….

I’ll make a couple of my own. First how in the hell is Fisher getting that kind of talent to come play for him? I get it, it’s San Diego, great weather, great place to live, maybe that’s part of it, but guys like Pope and Cheatham could have gone anywhere (including Utah, we offered both). Anyway, SDSU is a really good team, I would be shocked if they don’t win the MWC.
I loved the clutch free throw shooting at the end of the game, we got some incredibly clutch FTs from Poeltl, Chapman, Taylor, Loveridge, and Bonam. It was nice to see us close out a game at the FT line.
What happened to Reyes and I Wright? They looked like they’ve regressed, although we’re only three games in. I’ll be concerned in a few weeks if there’s no improvement from those two. Taylor had a nice bounceback game last night after his 0-9 night vs SUU, which was good to see. We need Taylor (among others) to hit outside shots to keep teams from collapsing down on Poeltl. Last night SDSU doubled Poeltl a lot of the night whenever he touched the ball, I expect that to be the gameplan for most teams we play, as there just aren’t a lot of big men in college basketball who can consistently guard Poeltl one on one. Teams need to pay for doubling him, part of that is him recognizing the double team and finding the open man, the other part is knocking down shots after he passes out of the double team.
At the end of the season I’m thinking this is going to look like a pretty good win.

[leftyjace]

Reyes has a back injury of some sort. I noticed during the SUU game that he was sucking wind pretty bad and having a hard time moving. I think he’s doing everything he can to try to be effective, but he’s still healing.

I. Wright – who knows. I think he just needs to hit a shot or two. He’s 0-season. After Brandon Taylor hit that 3 to end the 1st half, it’s like the floodgates opened and he found his shot again. I would bet the same will happen with Isaiah. And I hope it happens with Dakari Tucker also… he’s in the same boat. Isn’t hitting shots, kind of floundering out there.

Poeltl was a freaking BEAST. But the biggest surprise for me was when he went out with his 3rd foul short of midway through the 2nd half. We had a front line of Kuzma, Chapman, and Loveridge in. And we went from tied to having a 4 point lead by the time Poeltl re-entered the game. Shocked me! Granted, San Diego State is not a tall team, and so it wasn’t like we were undersized height wise.

Kuzma…. man. Wow. What a difference a year makes. That dude is a changed man.

I’m greatly impressed with Bonam. He has some things to work on, but for a transfer in a new system, he’s making a great impact. I love how he can go to the basket with his left hand.

Guys… the depth of this team. THE DEPTH! Wow. If only we had another tall tree to fill the middle when Jakob needs a breather. But Kuz, Chapman, and Loveridge stepped up and crashed the boards hard when Jakob wasn’t in there.

[Tony (admin)]

Okay after two jumbo coffees, my observations.

I knew we had no chance to win last night if we played the same as we did Friday. Fortunately, we didn’t.

Poetl did a great job and was very good with rebounding and being aggressive. He did get one crappy foul call and yes the officiating last night was horrid. There were many bad calls on both sides. Replay would show literally no contact between players though a foul was called. Fortunately it didn’t cost us the game.

Our foul shooting at one point was 3/9 and I feared that being a close game, the bad free-throws would kill us. Fortunately when it came down to crunch time we shined and made nearly all of them.

Loveridge was CLUTCH. He really helped keep the team in decent shape, especially during the couple of times when the team went cold shooting.

I knew Taylor would start hitting shots and had he not hit the three as time ran out at the end of the first half, he would have gone o-fer in 1.5 games. Fortunately the floodgates opened for him and he hit some very important shots in the 2nd half.

Kuzma has come up big and the sky is the limit for him.

Tucker seemed out of place last night. In a crucial time he lost focus, dropped a pass off his foot and it the ball went out of bounds. That all happened right in front of coach, who benched him. Hope he gets out of his fog.

Very glad to see Bonham able to bring the ball up and he’s got some mad moves and a solid left hand.

Wright seemed a little off last night too, but he did contribute a little bit on D.

Chapman played a much better game than he did Friday, and was a crucial part of the win. I’d like to see him hit the weight room and put on a few pounds. With his skills at 6’8″ he could be a force.

Overall I was very happy that the team was able to pull out a clutch win against a very good team, who was close to winning within the last minute or two. That shows maturity and some good coaching.

The crowd was electric and the atmosphere was really fun.

There are a few things we need to work on: Foul shooting, offensive dry spells (two major times in the game last night), getting the ball inbounded.

Toward the end of the game during a timeout I saw coach K give the clipboard to Connor and had him draw up the play(s). Coach stood by, almost not even looking. He was clearly giving some great coaching time and opportunity to Connor at a crucial point in the game. Very interesting.