Boy, this Ute team is painful to watch

[The Miami Ute]

About to lose to Sam Houston State at home. It’s going to be a long season full of empty seats at the Huntsman Center. Realistically, Smith gets three years to right the ship and then it’s curtains. I’ve seen zero from this man that tells me “he’s the guy” and an improvement from Krystkowiak. Somehow, someway, the Utah basketball HC position has turned into a s**t magnet.

[Tony (admin)]

🙁

[palos_verdes_ute]

I can’t even give him a pass and say, “well, he needs his guys in to run his system”.   There is nothing on the horizon and the recruiting has been poo poo.  I think he thinks pac12 is mwc.  a great mwc team we have. 

[UtesRule]

Sam Houston beat Oklahoma at OU earlier this season. They’re not a horrible team.

That said, I’m disappointed in the loss.

[chinngiskhaan]

Came here to post this. Sam Houston has proven that they are a solid team… The Utes have proven no such thing.

[palos_verdes_ute]

Our defense for sure has regressed.   10 sam houston players scored.  Number 2 doing circles and no weak side help.  They shutdown Carlson and we have no one to pickup the scoring slack.

[DrahtUte]

All I know is that Marco Anthony has the ugliest jumpshot in the history of basketball. It’s physically painful to watch. 

[The Miami Ute]

And I watched a couple of Ute YouTube channels proclaim that Utah would be undefeated at the start of the conference schedule. I’m not trying to throw shade at Smith but I don’t see how this team can even come close to competing in the PAC. Except for Carlson, who’s pretty decent, it’s a team composed of “JAGs-just a guy.”. There’s absolutely nothing to get excited about yet. We’ll see if the team progresses as the season goes along.

[concerned]

There is very little talent on this team. 

[AZUTE]

SHS had better athletes at every position on the floor tonight. Let that sink in a WAC team with more talent then a Pac12 team.

In the transfer portal era that’s almost a fireable offense in its self.

A good coach and a good recruiter can flip a team in a season or two nowadays.

Smith is a terrible evaluator and even worse a lazy recruiter.

Just sign another byu or Utah st castoff

[UteROCK]

Coach Smith is the right coach to get us out of this. A few things, if you were a recruit, the environment at the Hunty is terrible and we all know it. Zero excitement for our boys vs football where Rive Eccles is an advantage. Unfortunately, Coach Smith is handcuffed recruiting because of this. He is going to have to find some diamonds in the rough who excite the fans and hopefully they start to show up which in turn brings better recruits in. WE NEED A STUDENT SECTION to help the environment and the Older fans will follow with excitement. Don’t lose hope in Smith because he is a good coach but he does need to figure out how to recruit some athletes here. He recruited length to compete in the PAC12 this last year which was needed but we need some more athleticism which was exposed last night. He will figure it out but do your part and show up to games. It all ties together and will help recruiting if the arena had more fans. Besides last night, the team plays hard and smart in a good system. I am as guilty as anyone. I have season tickets but haven’t been yet. Work, kids, etc.. keep me busy at night but I will start going knowing Coach Smith is the right man for the job. I really believe getting a student section full first is key just like Coach Meyer did in football. Go Utes

[RedRocks]

Like any spectator sport, college basketball is a product. If the product isn’t good enough, people won’t buy it.

Want the students (and other fans) to show up? Give them a reason to do so. If it isn’t winning, try to lure them with something else (not sure what that would be though…).

[Rick]

I have my doubts.  Defense and rebounding are two fundamentals that typically can be done regardless of talent level and I saw little of either last night.  I am willing to say we just had a bad night, which we certainly did, but there were some severe lapses in fundamentals that reflect on coaching and preparation.  Also, we had horrible issues with turnovers last year and we still have the same issues this year.  Last night was some of the worst ball protection I have seen from a Utah team in years.  

[Trailgoat]

College BB in general is painful to watch. 

[utefansince79]

I’m getting to almost all the games (gave seats to sister for one of them when I had another committment).  Complete absence of fans, in particular the students is distressing me.

I know that with football, they schedule recruits to visit Utah when they and family can attend a home game.  Does basketball do the same?

I would think any recruit that attended the USC game would think “DAMN!  What an amazing environment”  But I shudder to think what a hoops recruit would think if they attended any of our home hoops games which make a library seem boisterous in comparison.  Weber State and even most high schools have louder crowds than ours does right now.

[Distantute]

Crowds are on the coach. Part of his job to get people excited. Smith doesnt do that at all. And his recruiting is non-existent. Id take larry any day over this guy. Majerus rolling over in his grave.

[Rick]

Exactly.  Blaming the fans is the lamest excuse in the book.  Fans cannot stop you from turning the ball over excessively.  Fans cannot help you block your man out and rebound the damn basketball.  Fans cannot help you rotate to wide open shooters any faster.  We got outrebounded 41-31 overall and 14-5 on the offensive glass to a lower tier WAC team.  Fan base has nothing to do with this mess.  

[concerned]

Nothing will change unless we are able to recruit a dynamic player (hopefully NBA caliber) who can create some enthusiam and optimism for the future and some momentum that will attract otrher players.  

[utefansince79]

Vicious circle.     Poor performances —> few fans  —-> few interested recruits  —>  worse performances  —> fewer fans —> fewer recruits……

At least the concourse at the Hunty is far less crowded than the moss pit at half time at Rice-Eccles

 

 

 

[concerned]

Plus you can scroll twitter all game becasue the wifi isnt jammed.

[The Miami Ute]

The only way to really fix this is to go after a proven P5 coach who, by his track record in recruiting and winning, will almost certainly deliver results. That’s exactly what USC did when they backed up the Brink’s truck to Lincoln Riley’s front door. Will Utah do that? Absolutely not…they’ll continue to go on a low-budget enterprise and hire people that are convenient and relatively cheap. That’s exactly how we ended up with Craig Smith. For all intents and purposes, Smith was the “easy button” for Mark Harlan and he pushed it. The interesting thing will be to see what Harlan does if next year we’re in the same situation with the basketball program. Look, I certainly was one of Coach K’s biggest detractors and firmly believe that Utah should have cut ties with him a couple of years before they did (oh, that onerous contract!) but you saw progress and talent come in from Year 1 onwards. In addition, his teams made the postseason five straight years starting with his third season with Utah. I know it’s early, but I don’t see any real buzz or pizzazz from this team. Hopefully, they’ll figure it out but the skeptic in me sincerely doubts it.

[AlaskaSteveUteAlum]

I have a different view of this game. It was the first close game of the season, and there are a lot of new players on the team. They played poorly in critical situations, but this is part of their learning experience of playing together. They’ll also have another learning experience with their first true road game. Reserve judgement until they have played some more games. If they were exactly the same players as last year, then the harsh comments about their performance and that of the coach would be justified. By the way, I think that we have talented players and a good coach, but only time will tell if they perform up to their potential. Have been watching and listening to Utah basketball since Jack Gardner was coach and Billy “The Hill” McGill was our center.