Bye Week Topic: 2022-23 Utah Men’s Basketball?

[PlainsUte]

So Utah basketball tips-off on November 2, and the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Media Days are next Wednesday.  Please, someone, give me some meager morsels of hope for the coming season!?

[dystopiamembrane]

Chances are we will be better than Cal and Oregon State.

[utefansince79]

Keeping expectations very low but will be there to cheer on the team.  Hopefully can make progress and give us some hope for the future. Such great tradition with our program over a very long time and it’s sad that we struggle on the court and that fan support (in particular student support) has fallen so far.

And as always, wihle lack of students in the stands is disheartening, I will say I very much appreciate the small but very vocal and rowdy MUSS who do show up.

 

 

 

[utefansince79]

Thought I would add I just checked my ticket account for the first time this week, and tickets for home hoops games have been delivered.

[Hahnenwk]

I got hard copies of all mens tickets

Womens ready next week

[FtheY]

My buddy and I were the entire student section during the Boylen years. Student support has always been a challenge when we aren’t good. Met the team including Marshall Henderson in the locker room, got a death stare from Blake Griffin when we held him scoreless and got Jimmer to admit a hangover though, so that was worth it. 

Similarly to Tony, my basketball fandom has dwindled to an all time low and I’m not proud of it. Hard to stay motivated as a fan when you aren’t good. Also, I invest so much into football it’s hard to want to do the same with basketball. Maybe that would change if we were better. 

[Stone]

Maybe I am projecting, but the sport of basketball in general seems to be waning in the eyes of the public. May be totally wrong on this, but it seems that general interest in college and pro hoops has gone down a lot over the last decade.

[Tony (admin)]

Last season my enthusiasm level for Utah Basketball reached an all-time low.

[chinngiskhaan]

I think we definitely have reason to be optimistic about this year’s team. Smith was able to build on the core of guys we had last year. We brought back all major contributors in Carlson, Anthony, Stefanovic, Madsen, and Worster… We added much needed strength and athleticism in Keba Keita who is 6 ft 7, 230 lbs as a TRUE FRESHMAN!!! Dude should try out for the football team. We also added a highly sought after transfer in Mike Saunders Jr. He will provide much needed speed at the point (Worster is kinda crafty but slooooooow). We also added Gavin Baxter from BYU, who WHEN AND IF HEALTHY can be a major contributor. Ridiculous length and a very good athlete (at least he was before his body broke, not sure about now). Between him, Carlson, Ben Carlson and Keita our lineup of bigs is in a better spot than it has been since Poeltl and Bachynski were playing.

At the wing we have Marco Anthony, who is good at everything other than scoring. We also have Bostyn Holt, who was looking promising before getting hurt last season. Add Stefanovic in there (he might be the best of these three) and we’ve got a great group of wings that can all play the 4 if necessary.

At guard (1 and 2) is where we will struggle (unless Saunders turns out to be really good), we have Saunders, Worster, and Madsen… and then a bunch of bench warmers and unknowns. Exacte is a complete unknown who was recruited by us and pretty much nobody else… Then we have a bunch of holdovers from the last few years that probably shouldn’t be on a Pac12 roster. This was our worst position group last year. If Saunders is better than I expect he will be, and Madsen/Worster can become more consistent shooters we might be a fringe tourney team. If none of these guys learn how to shoot 3’s better, we will be better than last year, but still not good.

Our biggest issue will be shooting. We needed to bring in a reliable shooter, and we did not. We have several guys on the roster who are allegedly capable, but we haven’t seen it yet, hopefully their shooting (Madsen, Worster, Brenchley, Stefanovic, Carlson…) shows up finally, and we take some pressure off of Carlson to do everything. We need a 38%+ three point shooter on this team. That will make a huge difference.

Whatever combination of Carlson and (baxter/Keita/Stefanovic/Anthony) are on the floor at the same time presents difficult matchups for opposing teams. If Keita has any offensive skill whatsoever he will pair amazingly well with Carlson. Defensively if Carlson and Keita/Baxter can be on the floor together our rim protection will be off the charts amazing.

I am currently fantasizing about a defensive lineup featuring Carlson, Baxter, Anthony, Exacte, and Saunders. The defensive capabilities of that lineup would make us a top notch defensive team. Baxter and Carlson both have ridiculous length. Anthony is a great defender and rebounder. Exacte should be good for defense if nothing else… and Saunders is fast, so he should be able to defend well (not sure though tbh). OBVIOUSLY this lineup will not happen, as I’m pretty sure Anthony will spend a lot of time at the 4… but I would love to see it.

Yes, we have reasons to be excited, but we are not a good team yet. We needed to get a great shooter to be a good team this year, and we did not. Hopefully that guy is already on the team.

[PlainsUte]

Thanks, this is a very good summary I’ve yet to see in the media.  I hope a reliable shooter emerges from the crowd, and others realize and execute their roles.  Go UTES!

[GameForAnyFuss]

My tickets showed up the other day. No idea if we’ll be good, but I expect we’ll be entertaining. I’ll be there to watch (almost) every game. LFG!

[dwainegf]

I’ll be there most games as well. Go Utes!