Just don’t have the horses to compete

[AZUTE]

With teams like ASU, Arizona, Oregon, USC, and UCLA

0-5 to finish the season and a probable first round exit in the Pac12 tournament is not a good look for Smith.

With the portal a good coach should be able to flip a bad team in 3 years.

Massive offseason for Smith coming. If he doesn’t figure out a way to get some long athletic playmakers this is a .500 team next season and should be Smith’s last at Utah. Recruiting is everything in CBB and so far Smith has been less then impressive in that department.

The problems are obvious if he can’t fix them during the offseason Harlan can’t wait around for “his hire” to figure it out.

Also where is Coach Morris? Haven’t seen him on the bench these last two games. Quit? Get fired? Personal?

[RedRocks]

The team has obviously improved. Incremental improvement is all that should be expected. Some fans…

[Ute2]

Disagree.

Smith massively exceeded expectations for this year. We’re still in joe lunardis tourney literature even today(near the bottom but we’re there). Nobody expected us to be a bubble team. I’d say we’ve popped for sure but we took it way later then we ever had business taking it.

As for recruiting…
Madsen, huge win.
Keba, he’s a total hit.
Exacte, hit
Lazar, hit
Saunders, hit(he’s fallen out of favor for what seems to be some character issues or something. But he hung 20+ on ucla)

Losing madsen was devastating to our offenses. Hasn’t been the same without him. This final 5 has been heavily discussed. We pick up 2-3 wins if Madsen didn’t take the high ankle. And we’re still on the bubble to I reckon.

This season has been a roaring success and a feather in Smith’s cap.

[Trailgoat]

If games play out as they should, Utah ends up 7th overall in the P12, 3 spots above the predicted 10th place by the media, coaches??? Starting with the UO game, Utah went 5-10 in the last 15 games (counting last CU game a loss). Two more wins compared to the last 15 games from last season.

After the UO game at home the team pretty much slid down hill. 8,000+ fans showed up fueled by a lot of hype after some early season success against what now proves to be against a bunch of weak teams. A long with the early season wins, Utes had a blow out loss to BYU (7th in the WCC) on the road, loss at home to Sam Houston (2nd place in the WAC), home loss to Ole Miss (9th in the SEC). The first half of the season success was misleading. Fans pretty much went back to doing better things with their time and money after the UO game. Who knows where the program is headed.

[D T]

We didn’t play Ole Miss at home…..In fact, we didn’t play Ole Miss anywhere.

[chinngiskhaan]

Not a good take. Yes we do not have the horses considering our two guards are injured… but to claim that Smith looks bad right now is beyond horribly wrong.

This team has exceeded expectations by leaps and bounds. The players have all visibly improved since last year. What more can you ask?

if we take a similar step forward we’re dancing next year.

[dystopiamembrane]

Amen. Thank you for this post.

[Rick]

I do agree that this year is progress. I don’t think it’s as significant but the defense is better and I think every player got better this season. That is a significant positive about the players and the coaches.

I do not think the offense improved much – even before Madsen went out. In fact, Madsen is emblematic of the offensive problems I noted this season. He had good games and then bad games – not a lot of in between. That’s our offense this year. Sometimes good – rarely very good – and sometimes bad – often very bad. This team does not shoot the ball as well as it needs too. Hell, Brandon gets to shoot threes whenever he wants and sometimes does so to the team’s detriment when he should be posting up or moving the ball. Don’t get me wrong, Brandon can shoot it and he’s helped us there; but Smith is relying on a center’s three-point shooting.

I don’t mean to sound too negative. I don’t think things are dire but it may start moving that direction if we aren’t a more complete team next season. With the returners – and the progress they are making – I am optimistic, especially if Brandon takes the Covid year.

[Charlie]

I think you need to consider where Smith started from. When he came in most the players were gone and he had to put together a team after recruiting was mostly complete. First year was simply saving a team from falling off the dock. This year he brought in as many good new pieces as anyone else in the conference that is not Az or UCLA. But the team this year lacked development and depth needed to keep running after losing two starters. Still, I feel Utah is the most improved team this year. At full strength, Utah is running with anyone in the league that is not Az and UCLA. Next, the Pac is enjoying the greatest number of good teams that we have seen in years making ranking progress more difficult than expected.

If Smith recruits as well this year as last and fills the last scholarship along with expected development, next year will be great in my view. Next, consider we don’t always see who Smith is recruiting until they commit. With two starters out I saw a couple of players very tired at the end of the game. I have seen other Pac teams have a similar struggle having even one starter out for a couple of games. We very nearly made a bye in the Pac tournament which is awesome progress.

Keep ahold of the players and coaches we have, add like last year, and I will be encouraged.

[Tony (admin)]

That’s our first problem. Why are we trying to compete with horses? 

[Rick]

Smith “inhereted” a much better program that what Larry had to contend with and has followed a similar path of development.  However, Larry brought in 2 NBA-level players and also recruited the best player in the state of Utah to get the program ramped back up in 3 years.  I think the question here is can Smith pull that off or not and I am just not sure.  I am willing to give him next season to show us he can but if we don’t make considerable strides the way Larry did in year three then I will probably doubt him as being “our guy.”