I had to stop watching the game. Ugly basketball.

[Ute Dub]

I pray there is a bastard child of Rick Majerus floating around Salt Lake City that can come and teach how to play defense on the road.

[The Miami Ute]

How long do you think before Smith’s seat starts getting warm. Basketball isn’t a sport where you should need half a decade to turn around a team.

[Ute Dub]

I’m ok with losing if we have an identity and culture of playing basketball the right way. That is not what I saw tonight. Right now we’re tough at home and soft on the road. Washington shot 57% FG and scored 98 points. I liked Wahlin’s defensive energy when he came in. Madsen looks like he’s going through the motions on defense.

[cj13]

I honestly would fire him if we miss the tournament this year. I still think we’ll make it if Worster and Lovering make it back by next weeks game, but the team is not going to be any better next year and it would be embarrassing to choke away a great start to the season. We will see

[The Miami Ute]

Letting him go after this season is actually not prohibitively expensive. He makes $1.85M per season, so Utah would be on the hook for well under $6M to him. Personally, I’d be shocked if he was fired after this season, even if it went down in flames. I believe that he’ll get one more year though, as you say, given his mediocre recruiting ability, it’s hard to see how the team gets better in a harder basketball conference.

[Yergensen]

While I think there’s too much turnover in coaching, Smith’s body of work and talent that he puts on the court doesn’t indicate he’s going to turn it around.

I think Smith gets another season, but Big 12 will be the death knell.

[The Miami Ute]

Well, I’d say let’s see where we’re at, at the end of the season, and go from there. If Utah finishes with a sub-500 conference record and misses the tournament, then you might be right about having to go in another direction. Smith looks and sounds like a nice guy, so I really want him to do well, but those blowout losses away from home are pretty concerning. In those losses, the team looked about as bad as anything I’ve seen in the worst nights of Giacoletti or Boylen… can’t have too many more of those or Smith’s credit will start to expire.

[Ute Dub]

This will be Smiths, by far, most senior team. Brandon Carlson is in his 5th full season of play. Madsen is a senior, D Smith is a senior, Worster is a senior, Bajema is a senior, Ben from Wisconsin is a senior. If it’s not going to be a strong run this year, when will it? God forbid any other school starts talking with Keita for next year. I hate to even say it, knock on wood 1,000 times.

[AZUTE]

If Keba transfers it will be just to play for a better team. He’s not eligible for NIL benefits.

[Ute Dub]

Interesting. That sounds weird but ok.

[The Miami Ute]

Foreign players are not eligible for NIL because they’re here on a Student Visa. If you’re in the US on a student visa, you’re not allowed to work or conduct any activities that provide income.

I would however question whether that’s Keita’s case. I say that because he’s been in the US since at least high school and is labeled as being from Mount Pleasant, Utah instead of Mali, which is his birth place. If Keita has a green card and is s legal resident of the US, then he’d be able to get NIL just like any US born player.

If Keita leaves for greener pastures after this season, it could be the nail in Smith’s coffin for all the reasons you mentioned in your previous comment.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Ugly game. We looked tired and not mentally ready to play. A young team you put that on the coach. A veteran team you put that on the players. Our defense was non existent. Besides Smith we have nobody that can get to the basket and finish.

Hopefully we get healthy and start peaking at the end of the season. We need to play smart and as a team or we will not make the tournament. We don’t have the athletes to play one on one basketball.

[Minnesota Ute]

I’ve been a defender of Smith, but I guess I need to issue a mea culpa. Our defense is terrible. Since I was otherwise occupied for the WSU game, I watched it on the DVR on Friday night, rewatching many plays unlike I normally do when watching and listening to ESPN700. What I saw was pretty disturbing. Then I watched the Washington game last night paying attention to the same things.

We are consistently out-physicalled. Our rebounding techniques are terrible, we are often ball watching rather than reading the ball and playing for position. Then we are surprised when someone swoops in from the perimeter or along the baseline and steals it away or tips it out. Our pick and roll defense is largely horrible, and looks like a lot of times the players involved are not on the same page. For example, several times Deivon went over the screen but the the other player, doesn’t help on the curl. That’s one of the ways that that UW guard kept getting wide open layups that, unlike Deivon, he made.

But all that aside, the biggest worry I have for this team is we are simply not able to shoot on the road. I looked at the game stats for our 5 conf road losses compared to the rest of the season. I even included Houston and St Johns in the “wins” because they weren’t bad losses, and stats were more similar to our wins than our conf losses. And as you might expect, we were worse in every category, and I do mean EVERY category. However a couple stand out as glaring:

We averaged over 81 points vs 69 points while our opponents averaged 67 points vs 86 points. I get that these are largely wins vs losses, so a differential is expected, but an average margin of victory of 16 points vs average margin of lose of 17 points means these are two different teams. Especially given that 2 of the 5 teams in the conf loss group are the SAME TEAMS (WSU & UW).

Overall shooting percentage down 5% on road, which is understandable, but 3pt % is down 8% and we are taking 20% more 3pt Attempts (5 more) on the road in Conf, net result is nearly same number of made 3s, but we are jacking up 20% more shots to get them. Again, we are down and trying to crawl back in, so maybe understandable when getting down on the road. But why are we getting down in the first place??

Here is where it gets really ugly… Number of FT attempted 19.4 vs 10.4, number of FT made… 13.2 vs 5.2, 5 point fricking 2?? Are you kidding me?? We shoot 68% for 16 games, but shoot 51% in those 5 road conf losses??? We are getting to the line almost half as much, and making a lot less. This alone accounts for 8 points of the differential. Clearly this is some sort of joke. It’s just unacceptable.

Let’s see how our opponents do: Attempts 14.6 vs 17.2, and made 9.2 vs 12, 62% vs 70%. A more reasonable differential.

And it’s really plaguing us, because if we the take the W/L out of it, and just look at how we’ve done at the line since the 12/31 UW game, we are 8.1 of 14.8 for 55% since vs 13.7 of 19.2 for 71% before. This includes wins at home against UW and OSU where we were a combined 21 of 43???? Yet somehow still won??

If this team can’t get to the line on the road and can’t make FT, the rest of this season will be one long trainwreck.

But I should also mention that our opponents in those 5 conf road losses shot 51% from the floor and 44% from 3, vs 39% and 32% for the rest of the season. That differential is really surprising as well. I wouldn’t think it surprising in general that teams shoot better at home than on the road, but a 12% differential seems almost hard to fathom.

On a side note, years ago I noted that when the entire rest of the conference was using Nike basketballs, we were using Underarmor balls. Playing pickup ball, I had played with NCAA certified game balls of both varieties, and they were quite different in feel to me. The UA balls seemed to have a much spongier outer cover, while the Nike seemed to have a smoother feeling surface. The UA balls also seemed to come off the rim softer in general. No idea whether that’s still the case, but something is def broken on the road, and I’d love to blame an inanimate object if possible. (JK)

[The Miami Ute]

I guess the real question is, which is the real Utah? The one that plays well and can beat anyone at home or the one that looks like an NBA expansion team every time it plays away from the Huntsman? I know that people talk that about NET ranking and how Utah is almost assured of an NCAA tournament bid this year but these constant blowout losses away from SLC aren’t doing much for the brand.

[Charlie]

Thanks for the detail on the why that we have been watching. But that leaves me to wonder about the why for the why. Why did that all happen? I suspect the changes in the lineup may play a part. Bajema started the season much better than currently. Madsen has clearly taken steps back. The shift from Worster to Smith has been good but is a big change. This change began before Worster was injured but then picked up. Likely, if Smith was eligible from the start this significant mid season change could have been worked out long ago. The style difference on offense can ripple thru everyone.

Next, the loss of Lovering has impact. Again, a change for the better creates midseason change. Lovering’s passing is much different inside to out. Then, of course, out goes the big changeup that Keita brought to the game.

Last, all the changes to defense. Smith plays great defense but different defense. Lovering out means a third fewer fouls from the bigs and pressure on Keita not to foul. He added greatly to rebounding, second chance put backs and rim protection. Two guys out, two new guy minutes.

There may be other factors but I think the mid season changes just seem to have players thinking too much and don’t seem to be in rhythm. Goodness, Madsen threw the ball away more in the last two than all last year it seems. Loved adding Smith but didn’t like losing Worster and Lovering. If this is the case, hopefully we get everyone back in time to get settled into a rhythm before the conference tournament. Whatever it is it is maddening.

[Ute Dub]

I’ve been disappointed by the effort of Brandon Carlson and Madsen on multiple defensive plays and that lack of aggression has spilled over onto their offensive side. Not driving the ball to the hoop, not taking enough shots as the leaders of the team, not forcing the defense to collapse. When your leaders are going through the motions, it’s a problem. But at least they have their cushy truck to drive.

[Rick]

They way I see it is that most of our team’ issues are coaching related. I will grant you that some of our issues are due to lack of athleticism but then that points to recruiting. Poor defense. Awful free throw shooting. Horrible road performances. Pretty much everything you can think of point to coaching. If a coach like Bill Self or Duke’s coach K get credit for their program’s success then so too do does a coach get credit for their lack thereof. I get sick of hearing people here say that Larry won because he had pro level talent. Well, he recruited that talent in the first place, didn’t he? Hell, Smith’s best player is a Larry recruit. If recruiting is crucial in a sport like football, it is even MORE important in basketball because you only need 5-7 recruits to have a really great team. I feel it is all about recruiting first and development second. I think Smith fails in recruiting. As for development, well Keita still gets in foul trouble almost every game. Smith’s teams have consistently played horrible perimeter defense since he has been here. While they have improved their rebounding a little from last year, they almost consistently get pushed around on the glass on the road (see the last two games). This team is horrible at shooting free throws. Back when I played whenever we sucked from the line, our coach made us stay after practice and shoot free throws until we stopped sucking from the line. Again, coaching. If there ever was a sport that was almost totally dependent on coaching it is high school and college basketball. I keep hearing all of the talk about net ratings and tournament but there is no way in hell that team we all saw Saturday night is even an NIT tournament team. They can turn things around but it all begins and ends with defense. Everyone here knows it. Let’s start there coach!

[PAC12Teams]

Does anyone see Coach Smith ever consult with Burgess during a game? I have watched them all, but I have never seen that happen.

Grasping at straws I guess… If Smith is ever terminated, the new hire should retain Chris I think.

[The Miami Ute]

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Smith is fired and Burgess is hired as the next head coach. I read a story on how he ended up at Utah and there’s no doubt that he wants to run his own show eventually.