My thoughts on the game

[chinngiskhaan]

not sure why Smith thought sitting our best rebounder was a good idea if they really did think he might be able to go. The tourney or conference crown are not in play for this team. We are losing recruits to byu left and right, we HAD to win that game and would have if we could get a defensive rebound.

Marco and Dusan, our two toughest rebounders being out is the reason we lost.

I don’t know if Jenkins is playing hurt but he played like ballsack and looked like he struggled to get up and down the court at times.

Battin and Gach are the same or worse than they were as freshmen. The sooner we can get guys to replace their idiocy the better. Gach is maybe the dumbest basketball player I’ve ever seen in a college game. Very very rarely makes the right play. Even when he does he throws bad passes. Battin is the same player he was as a freshman in high school if only a bit bigger. Battin is to athleticism as Gach is to basketball intelligence.

Smith has this team on the right track. Priority one is finding a way to keep Battin off the court. There is no way there isn’t an equally talented and more athletic player currently on campus.

Carlson is really blossoming. Loved seeing his post moves tonight. Wooster needs to be more selfish. Especially if the other guards are useless like they were most of tonight. Losing mahorcic is a big big problem.

Mae win that game if healthy.

[chinngiskhaan]

They had 18 offensive boards. We would have ran away with this game with Marco and dusan 

[chinngiskhaan]

For the love of all that is holy please start Lazar over Battin. 

[Ute Dub]

Battin has 45 lbs on Stefanovic and 34 rebounds to his 6 in roughly the same amount of minutes. Not everything is about scoring to these coaches. 

[AZUTE]

Lahat, Brenchley, Battin and Gach have no business being on a D1 basketball roster.

Smith has a monumental task in front of him on the recruiting trail as this team needs major upgrades everywhere. I hope he can do it

[chinngiskhaan]

Nearly every D1 team has guys like that… they just don’t see the floor… ever.

I have to wonder how in the hell Gach has managed to not improve one iota in all this time since his collegiate career started. 

Gach and Battin should be the guys on the team that are smart/experienced enough to not make bad choices when they aren’t even under duress… Yet they do so every damned game. Battin still thinks his slow white ass can back down someone like Gavin Baxter, pump fake, and shoot it over the top of him without bothering to jump even a little tiny bit. Who the hell does Battin think he is? He’s shorter than Baxter, has shorter arms, and is NOWHERE NEAR athletic enough to get by Baxter in any way. When Battin puts the ball on the ground one of three things is almost guaranteed to happen. It’s either going to be a turnover (due to someone poking the ball out usually), an easily blocked shot, or an ugly ass attempt at a post move followed by a miss that had zero chance at ever going in. When Gach dribbles the ball into traffic he either misses, turns it over, or gets fouled if someone is stupid enough to think that he actually has a chance to do something effective with the ball in his hands. I hae to wonder how often he practices basketball when he isn’t in a team run practice. My guess is very VERY little. I wish we had a minor league sort of team he could play on to gain some confidence and learn how to actually play basketball. 

Losing Jantunnen to europe really sucks. He was exactly who we needed to replace Battin’s crappiness. 

To end this post on a positive note it was REALLY GOOD to see Carlson using his post moves, and playing with confidence. I saw several different post moves that almost all worked out in his favor… and it was against good defenders as well. I’m glad SOMEONE on this team from last year has bothered to improve in some way.

 

[younglurch]

Smith is clearly an upgrade over what Coach K was during the end of his tenure. With Larry at the helm we lose that game by 15+ easily. 

Agree that Gach and Battin are not what we need. Once Smith can get some P5 level atheletes in the program, I think we should be a force in the PAC and making the tournament regularly.

BYU is certainly the better team right now, but if we’re talking smack what have they actually accomplished? The last time either the U or BYU won a tournament game was in 2015 when Utah made the sweet 16. BYU has not won a tournament game since 2012. Utah has 29 tournament appearances all time, BYU has 30. Utah has 3 players in the NBA currently, BYU has 0. I will concede they have talent and beat us fair and square, but they haven’t dominated basketball in the state like their fans would have you believe. The tide could easily turn in a season. 

[RedUte14]

I actually cant stand your negativity. Its depressing and you make my day worse. thank you

[chinngiskhaan]

LOL… Am I wrong? Also, there is a block function, feel free to use it. I’m trying extra hard to be positive about football, so I have to complain about something.

Also, I’m only really being negative about two players… both of whom are being given a free education to hurt our team on the basketball court. Laying it on those guys is absolutely warranted. I am being 100% serious when I say there are at least 100 guys that play at rec centers around the state that are better than Battin in every possible way. He is NOT A GOOD BASKETBALL PLAYER. If he was two inches shorter he probably wouldn’t have made his own varsity basketball team in high school. 

As far as Gach is concerned I would prefer Eli Ballstaedt or Brenchley. Neither of them has the potential of Gach, but at least they know how to not throw the ball five feet over a wide open players head in a completely un-pressured situation. 

Just to add a little background information. Unlike football, I actually DO know what I’m talking about when it comes to basketball. I know the ins and outs of the game. I would not be a good recruiter at all, but I am confident that I would be a good in game and technique coach. I can and have taught many guys how to shoot a basketball at a high level. I could walk into a gym right now, having not touched a ball in over a year, and I’m confident I would make 90 free throws out of 100. I sometimes do this just to see if the skill goes away, and it doesn’t for me. I haven’t made less than 85/100 since 8th or 9th grade, and I’ve probably done it a couple hundred times since then. I could do as well as several of NBA players at the line with my eyes closed. I had the skills and height to play at the college level… unfortunately my frame did not fill out until after my mission, and my athleticism was mediocre to say the least.

Anyways… Not saying that to brag, it’s not impressive, lots of joe schmoes can do the same thing. Just saying, I actually do know good/smart basketball when I see it… and I know what players should be doing to fix issues that they have. 

[ironman1315]

Marco couldn’t participate in shoot around. So Syrah. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Like I said, IF he could have gone. The announcers insinuated that they were just holding him out to make certain he could go against USC. IF that is true, Smith made a poor decision. We aren’t competing with USC for recruits. If all we get are USU transfers and BYUs sloppy seconds this program is going nowhere even if Smith is a better coach than our last one.

————

so… we lost to BYU at our place. Now we mst resort to finding diamonds in the rough that nobody has heard of if we want to get back to where we should be.

Larry landed loveridge and generated buzz. Smith whiffed on his Loveridge, only this time he was a lifelong die hard Ute fan. Not really his fault as far as I know, but still a crushing blow to our program’s momentum.

Smith already lost what may turn out to be the biggest recruiting battle of his tenure. His climb uphill is going to be much more difficult than Larry’s because Pope is a better recruiter than Rose, and they are heading to the big12.

 

[ironman1315]

Bro you are the Ann Arbor Ute of basketball. Chill a minute. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Relax. I’m not claiming smith is doomed. He’s just going to have a much tougher go than Larry. Not his fault, but it’s the situation he is now in.

Do you disagree with anything I said?

[Ute Dub]

Regarding Battin: “There is no way there isn’t an equally talented and more athletic player currently on campus.” You’re saying there is another 6’9″ 230 lb kid walking around capmus that is more athletic than Riley Battin?

[RedUte14]

that fact you gave me this huge reply to my little comemnt is so pathetic bro. get a life man… go vent. go workout, do yoga, go to church. but your life must really suck.

[chinngiskhaan]

Wow… that really hurt. You totally pegged me just from a post or two on a fan website.

I dig the ad hominem argument style BRO. Attacking me personally and completely failing to even attempt to address my points. Nicely done.