My Impression of this Utah Team after 4 Conference Games

[The Miami Ute]

I’m not certain that they have the athleticism or gas to be a top tier conference team. It seems like they have to play at their very best and the opponent has to falter a bit for them to get the win.

As I look at the schedule, I have to ask where the away wins are going to come from. Cal is the only real gimme. Wazzu and Oregon State are improved and then you know that there’s no way that Utah is going to win all of their home conference games. Will a .500 conference record get the Utes into the dance? I guess it depends on who the wins come against but I kind of doubt it.

[Utes 69]

Just like the football team. No offense. Carlson can shoot and make three pointers. A good bb team needs 3 guys shooting and making three pointers depending on your center for three is nonsense

[The Miami Ute]

Very little dynamism to this team. For example, I have my doubts as to whether Worster would start for any PAC 12 outfit. I kind of get the feeling that the word is out on how to play the Utes. Essentially, wait for them to hit a 3 point dry spell and pull away. Again, I’m thinking that, unless something miraculous happens, we’re looking at another.500 conference record. Smith has three more seasons on his contract after this year so his job is safe for a while.

[Charlie]

I can wait and see. I have watched UofA several times and they played very well tonight. They will be a top 10 team all year. The other teams will have difficulty getting a road win in Az. Assuming Kata will be ok there is no reason yet that they can finish top 4 or 5 yet.

We need to put Exacte on a milk carton and find him. Teat might be coming for Erickson’s minutes. Lovering is in a lull, maybe he settles in. Still some things that can break our way.

[NarfUte]

Exacte is redshirting, coach said that pregame

[The Miami Ute]

And we still have no idea what’s wrong with him, correct?

[UtesRule]

Exacte has an injury that required surgery earlier this year. I’ve heard Coach Smith multiple times mention that there’s no drama but it’s legitimate injury.

There’s also a little thing called HIPAA that prevents teams, and or coaches from simply stating what the injury / medical injury someone is dealing with. That’s the primary reason why Coach Smith and Whittingham never discloses what an injury is (without the players consent to do so), not that they’re trying to be secretive.

[The Miami Ute]

I agree with your Teat comment. He’s looked pretty decent in his garbage time appearances so far this season. He’s more dynamic than Erickson, that’s a certainty. When Lovering transferred in from Colorado, I mentioned that I’d seen him a few times and he was just a guy for the Buffs. Why would we expect him to be anything different at Utah? I’m not sure that Exacte would make much of a difference. He’s another guy that would get rotation minutes but he certainly wasn’t anything close to a difference maker last season.

I’ve watched a few other PAC 12 games this season and, to my eyes, it seems that Utah lacks the dynamism present in teams like Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, even Washington, etc…who knows how the rest of the season will play out. Hopefully in a positive manner.

[Minnesota Ute]

I’m very curious if Jayden Teat plays legit minutes in a competitive ball game, will he shoot every time he touches it? Because what I’ve seen in garbage time does not inspire confidence. He jacks it up like a roman candle and it seems like very few go down. Maybe I need to check his stats because it may be recency bias, but I didn’t seem much to like there other than some apparent athleticism.

As I’ve said before, I have low expectations for Exacte when he comes back because his numbers last year were no better than Hunter, but sounds like we’ll have to wait for next year to see how that comes out.

[Utes 69]

Just like football. There is always next year!

[Utah#1]

They are still not a top notch NCAA mens basketball program. When they can’t win games against Arizona or ASU, that means they are no where near where they should be. How do they expect to get fans to watch their games at the Hunty when they can’t win these critical games? Craig Smith has been the head coach for 3 years now. I’d say give him another two or three years tops. If he can’t turn the program in three years (which would be six years total) and win a conf title and sweet 16th/top 8 appearance in March, time to search for a replacement.

[The Miami Ute]

Smith is in the third year of a six year contract. I have to imagine that if by the end of next season there’s no discernible sense of progress, Utah will can him. At that point, Utah would only have to swallow $3.7M of his buyout, making it more palatable.

[ironman1315]

My guy were well on our way to going to the tourney.

[Redblood]

Not being able to win at ASU, and Arizona is nowhere where near where we should be because we have a substantial recruiting advantage over them? What does that mean, we’re like BYU in that we are just supposed to be better than them because we’re Utah?

[NashvilleTNUteFan]

This performance was not nearly as discouraging as the game on Thursday in my opinion. Arizona has some dudes. Love is an explosive athlete and Ballo was overpowering. Larsson has also turned into a very solid player. We match up poorly against a team like UA. But we still showed fight for large stretches of the game, in the end we just couldn’t overcome the hot shooting and defensive intensity of UA. The ASU game was more alarming in the sense that we completely stopped playing in the second half inexplicably.

I still believe this team is improved from last year and we have a shot at finishing in the top 4 of the conference. But we need to get a few splits on our road trips and sweep pretty much every home stand.

[The Miami Ute]

Well, it was disappointing to me. I went into the game thinking that they would get blown out and that’s exactly what happened. Their two second halves during this road trip were by far the worst basketball they’ve played this season. Kind of seems to me that, now that there’s significant game tape on the Utes this season, they’ve been found out and teams can plan effectively for their tendencies. I still believe that they can beat just about anyone in this conference at home but winning away is going to be a tough slog.

[Charlie]

Goodness, the conference schedule just started. Some might not realize how good UofA is. Because Stanford beat them in Palo Alto, how I don’t know, you might think they are human. UofA lost to Purdue, another top 10 team on the road and FAU, another ranked team in Vegas. They likely will not lose at home and will dance with a high seed. ASU will be one of the top 4 or 5 teams at the end of conference and will also do very well at home. Most maybe all other Pac teams will lose the road games in Arizona. Colo will finish well and they did not stay with UofA nearly as well as Utah did.

Utah may or may not make the dance, however, outside UofA and Oregon and maybe ASU, Utah currently has as good a chance as anyone else in the Pac. One or two of those anyone else will likely make it to the dance. Still to go are hot streaks, cold streaks, and injuries for almost everyone. If you take a minute and watch the other teams you will see they have periods where defense, shooting or rebounding disappear and it would seem they will do poorly. If you are not simply a fan of winning sit back and enjoy watching Utah fight thru the conference season with ups and downs to see if they finish with a invite to the dance. Don’t miss the chance to enjoy basketball.

[//r00t4Utes]

Yeah, I’m not sure why anyone would say, not winning on the road at AZ or ASU means the Utes aren’t at the level they need or should be. Craziness.

Now I was disappointed in the ASU game that it wasn’t a more competitive game, offense went cold.

AU game, I was expecting a loss, and then they got my hopes up by being competitive and looking pretty good in the first half. But AU was just hot from outside, I thought the Utes had cleaner looks from 3 than AU, but just missed them, and AU hit darn near everything.

[Charlie]

ASU is up and down, we caught them on a day playing well enough to beat anyone not UofA at home. There will be many teams beat teams that finish above them in the final standings at home. I hope this turns out to be one of those.

[The Miami Ute]

As I said, this team can play with anyone at the Huntsman. My concern is away victories. Other than California, every away game is going to be a slog. Combine that with a certain 2-3 losses at home, and I think that you’re looking at a .500 conference record. Will that be enough to make it to the dance? I don’t know.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Watching the ASU AU games same story as last few years. Lack of athleticism on defense and lack of adjustments on offense. Once the offense breaks down as the other team adjusts we become stagnate and depend on Woster to create. When is the last time we had a good athletic point guard? Guards that can penetrate and shoot give you the best chance to win at crunch time. It’s a proven fact in the NCAA tournament.

Until coach Smith figures out Worster can only take us so far we are a bubble team at best. D. Smith gives us the best chance to get to another level. The offense is built around Worster Carlsen and Madsen. Everyone else seems lost. Good coaches utilize all players talents and give them roles. Majerus was the master of utilizing all the pieces. We have a size advantage almost every game and don’t take advantage. Frustrating for me to watch.

[Rick]

Here is what I see: We are 2-2. In our two wins we outshot our opponents 50% to 35% from the field, 44% to 28% from 3, and were only out rebounded by 7 total boards in both games combined. In our two losses, we were outshot by our opponents 55% to 41% from the field, 48% to 29% from 3, and were outrebounded by 12 total boards in both games combined.

My two big issues with Smith’s teams since he has been here is poor perimeter defense and poor rebounding. It seems like he has cleaned up our rebounding quite a bit which is great but our perimeter defense is still a huge problem. I personally think our guards are weak and they do not do a good job of rotating on defense. It has been a problem for the past two years and it is still a problem.

I do not dislike Smith in any way but his teams do not guard the perimeter worth a crap. That might be OK when you play at home but when you do that on the road where your opponents feel comfortable and get some home cookin’ it is a real problem.