Game Day!!

[dwainegf]

8 p.m. on Pac12 network.
Great time to break through with a road win. Go Utes!!!

[bopahull]

Wazzu is certainly a winnable game. Utah hasn’t shown much of a propensity for winning road games. This seems like it could be a good place to start.

[The Miami Ute]

Gotta start winning some of these away games. I most certainly would not take Wazzu for granted. They’re 9-1 at home and we’ve all seen Utah’s struggles on the road. In addition, Wazzu is only one game behind Utah in the PAC standings, so they have something to play for. If you want to look at how they’ve done against the same opponents, Wazzu blew out Stanford in Palo Alto, whereas Utah lost there. They’ve also beaten Arizona and Oregon State at home but lost a close game to Oregon.

[HPrete22]

wazzu beat arizona at home… but hopefully we can steal this one

[cj13]

Don’t know if we can win this game without Lovering and Worster. When Carlson and Smith are out I don’t think we can score lol

[//r00t4Utes]

Rebounding and free throw discrepancy is the biggest reason why the utes lost this game, then injuries.

This is the first game where Lovering’s absence was really felt, 45 on Wazzu was being a physical as he wanted to be and no one on the utes could do much about it.

[//r00t4Utes]

If 45 and the other Wazzu big for called for fouls like Keita (and Carlson this game) they’d both foul out in the first half, they’re really physical.

Not why the utes lost by any stretch just annoying to watch.

[The Miami Ute]

This team is so maddening. They just can’t seem to get over their road blues. The Utes are currently on track for a 20 point 1st half. Thank God that Wazzu isn’t much better.

[The Miami Ute]

Well, Davion Smith is out. Hurt his ankle landing on a Wazzu player’s foot. If he’s out for an extended period, Utah’s season is cooked.

[AZUTE]

Welcome to the NIT……..maybe

[cj13]

L take. WSU is actually good and we are down 3 of our best players. Even at full health I wouldn’t expect a for sure W. We are almost a guarantee tourney team this year

[The Miami Ute]

Depends how they do during the rest of the season. If they have another swoon like last year they won’t even make the NIT. The big problem with this team is that they play very poorly away from home. If they can’t pick up some away victories, it’s going to be problematic to make any postseason tournament.

[cj13]

Teamrankings.com gives us over a 90% chance to make the tourney. The only way I see us missing the tourney is if the injuries continue to persist. Anything can happen but it’s statistically unlikely we don’t get some away wins

[The Miami Ute]

That ranking was estimated prior to the injuries taking hold. I would imagine that the percentages will change in the near future. Why? Because if Smith, Lawson, and Worster are out for an extended period, Utah is going to be lucky to win another game this season. I mean, who are they going to beat? They still have a ton of difficult games ahead on the schedule. Right now, Utah’s PG is Hunter Erickson and that would make him the worst starting PG in the PAC by a mile.

[cj13]

We can afford a loss to Washington but we need them back starting at Colorado. If the best team we’ve had in 7+ years fails because of injuries I will be disappointed.

I think Craig Smith could’ve made something out of the 2018-2020 teams. They were honestly more talented than this years. Larry K sucks

[The Miami Ute]

I agree with you that Smith is a better coach than K but that’s only one half of the equation. I’m decisively not impressed with Smith’s recruiting. When you look at the guys K brought to Utah, and I’m not even talking about the three NBA #1 draft picks, and you look at what Smith has brought in, it really pales in comparison. Now, if Smith could coach K’s talent, you might be on to something. I sure hope that Smith didn’t suffer a high ankle sprain because that’s something that only goes away with full-time rest.

[AZUTE]

Hahaha down only 3. How did that turn out for ya? No PG Utah could easily lose 7 of their next 8 games including tonight.

This team is crippled without a PG

[cj13]

Yes and being “only down 3” of our players is a lot and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Are you being sarcastic?

[AZUTE]

This team could handle any injury to any other player or position but this team without a PG is a death blow.

If Smith and Worster are out for any significant amount of time there is maybe 3 or 4 wins left on the schedule

[chinngiskhaan]

only down three of our starters. I can’t believe this team can’t win with 3 of its 6 best players out, must be because Smith is a terrible coach. /s

[Rick]

I keep hearing blanket statements that Smith is a much better coach than Larry. Can anyone give me clear, on the court, evidence that objectively proves this assertion?

[The Miami Ute]

Rick, for me it’s the eye test…Smith is winning with a less talented, and more injured, roster than what K usually had on the floor. In addition, in K’s worst years, there were many more episodes of disjointed offense for longer periods of time in games. If you really want a technical solution to the question, someone is going to have to do a deep-dive on the analytics side of the house.

[Rick]

You are telling me that in Larry’s first three seasons he had a more talented roster than Smith has had? Do you remember Larry’s roster his first two seasons? No way and Smith’s best player was a Larry recruit.

What I see is a team that does not play decent perimeter defense. They are horrible free-throw shooters. They get aggressively out rebounded pretty consistently, especially on the road. I do see D. Smith as a huge improvement and it showed last night when he went down but there is zero depth on this roster and coach Smith has had three years to build it in the modern era of the transfer portal, which Larry did NOT have his first three years at Utah. I think the whole basket case road mentality is equally on the players and the coach but most of the things I have seen are coachable issues that are not being resolved. I do not see this team being better in year 4 unless he somehow magically improves his recruiting.

[Minnesota Ute]

Please look back at my post from last week (or was it two weeks ago?), I’ll not regurgitate it here because you can read it there. The TLDR is that Larry only made the tourney the years he was leaning on NBA talent that underperformed at Utah. The comparison 3 years-in leans in Smith’s favor. The comparison of career success leans in Smith’s favor. The year over year player development leans in Smith’s favor. And the end game situations and end out success leans WAY in Smith’s favor. In the other post, I provide some numbers backing up some of these points.

There are some key areas that Smith needs to show improvement which others have identified, perimeter D, free throws, and consistent rebounding are some I def agree with. And recruiting is a question mark too, but unlike some others, I think that will come with reputation if Smith can put together consistent winning programs here like he has in his previous stops.

[Rick]

Consistent winning programs? Smith was at Utah State for a cup of coffee using other coaches recruits. I think you are way too generous with your assessment of Smith. I love how you say Larry underperformed with NBA talent. How did that NBA talent get here in the first place? Right now, the only NBA talent, and it is marginal at best, on this roster is Brandon who was a Larry recruit. Something happened to Larry near or right after the recruiting failure surrounding Lauri Markkanen and things rapidly declined from that point forward with him but before that, I would take him all day over Smith at this point.