NWTRU

[GameForAnyFuss]

Tonight I tripped up to the Hunty with about 500 of my closest friends to see the Runnin Utes. I like to go to the exhibition game every year so I can see the new guys. I’ll spare the gory details, but here’s who stood out to me:

Saunders is the ball handler we’ve needed for years. Unfortunately he doesn’t score or rebound like Worster yet so he won’t be a starter, but he will get time.
Keita is a grown ass man. He’s just a freshman but has the body of a much older player, and has a good feel for the game. He’s playing center which I think is a problem. I’d like to see him at the 3 or 4, but unfortunately we have no size outside of Carlson.
Exacte is also going to be a good one. He is very active on both ends. His problem is he can’t hit the ocean from a boat. Hopefully just first-game jitters.

The bad news is we still don’t have the dead-eye shooter this team desperately needs. The good news is I think we’ll be fun to watch. Also, Marco Anthony didn’t play tonight…not sure why.

I sat behind the women’s bball team. Nice group of young ladies. Good luck to them this year.

[Tony (admin)]

Thanks for the report!

[Hahnenwk]

Also braved the snow to see the new improved Utes
Must have been 500 non friends also.
Shooting was a problem which is hard to say when Utes score 92 points
Wooster was good but can he do that with Pac-12 competition
Branden Carson also good, took too many threes but it was a practice
Lazar okay not great shooting
Ben Carlson looked like he’ll get some time
Madsen still not the shooter we need
Boston Holt looked like he might help this year
Mike Saunders might be the biggest help time and competition will tell
Keba Keita was impressive for a first college game
Exacte is unknown based on his shooting tonight also a first game
Gavin Baxter had some good moves in limited time
Brenchley was the only player with no points for a player with more than just a couple of minutes

Yes they are improved could be a team to keep fans interested

[chinngiskhaan]

I didn’t watch the game, but I can still help out with a few things.

– No Exacte cannot shoot. If you can’t make em against the worst competition you’ll face all year, at home, in a meaningless game… you can’t make them against Pac12 competition when it actually matters. If he could shoot the ball he wouldn’t have come to Utah.

YES THIS TEAM IS IMPROVING

but

We are a team filled with players that are fatally flawed in at least one way. We added some helpful, but similarly fatally flawed players to the team.

– Brandon Carlson: NBA length, High School strength/girth, meh athleticism and shooting. He is by FAAAAAAR our best player, and he has ONE NBA level trait. No bueno.
– Marco Anthony: NBA rebounder, NBA strength, non-existent shooting, meh athleticism, pretty good defender.
– Lazar: All around meh player. Meh size, meh shooter, meh athleticism, meh defense… you get the point.
– Rollie: NBA size, terrible athleticism, not a good shooter or defender, decent passing.
– Madsen: could eventually develop NBA shooting, decent length. Utahutes.com says he weighs 200 lbs. That is a flat out lie… unless he’s hiding a 20 lb gut under wraps. Not particularly good or bad (so far as I can tell) at anything else. He’s THE ONLY PLAYER on our roster with any shot at being a true knock down shooter.
– Saunders: NBA athlete. no shooting, no clue about his defensive capabilities.
– Keita: NBA body, NBA athleticism, zero offensive skill. There is a reason a guy with his athleticism and body wasn’t recruited hard by better teams.
– Baxter: used to have NBA athleticism. NBA size. Not a good shooter. No clue where he is athletically after injuring every bone/ligament in his lower body (basically).

Nobody else is ready to contribute in any meaningful way.

This is not going to be a good team. I was hoping hoping HOPING that one of our new guys could shoot the three, or that Madsen or Worster could figure out their shooting. Looks like that isn’t going to happen.

In college, with the way zone defenses are, you have to have at least one knock down shooter on the floor or an otherworldly dominant post player to have any chance at scoring enough points to win most games.

The coaching and hustle will keep us in most games, but it’s going to be another very long season for us fellas. Our only hope at a decent season is Brandon Carlson averaging 30 minutes + per game and hitting 40% of his threes. Neither of those things is going to happen.

[chinngiskhaan]

Realistically, the only way this program has a chance of ever becoming a consistent PAC12 title threat is if there is a local kid, who is a surefire NBA prospect that can create his own shot, and also happens to be a huge Ute fan (not sure why he would be at this point, but it’s possible I guess). Then some booster comes a long and throws more money at him than the Ryan Smith’s of the world are willing to spend.

It’s either that or getting insanely lucky with overseas recruiting or JC kids like our previous coach did. If the type of kid I mentioned above doesn’t exist, we should spend 90% of our recruiting budget on finding some undiscovered freak of nature.

Otherwise we are doomed to be Pac12 cannon fodder forever.

[chinngiskhaan]

That local kid superstar (or undiscovered freak of nature) would have to be so good that he could take our current team of leftovers to the second round of the NCAA tournament at least twice. Then our recruiting can pick up a little, the fan support will return, and we’ll be back on track.

[Tony (admin)]

In other words, no. 

[chinngiskhaan]

It sucks… it really does. We were in the same situation when Larry K took over, only now we have NIL to deal with on top of everything.

We got SUUUUPER lucky with Poeltl and Delon. Without those two this program would have remained a dumpster fire.

Maybe one of the coaches has a kid or two they can teach to launch half court shots with 40% accuracy. If we get a couple of those guys, and find some 7 footer to stand underneath the basket we could make some noise. They wouldn’t have to be tall or athletic, just really good at hitting shots from really far away. A guy like Keita would have plenty of room to make noise in a system like that.

[DrahtUte]

Don’t forget Loveridge.

[Tony (admin)]

Was going to mention him. He was as close as it gets but a little short on size.  Good local player though. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Loveridge was a huge win, but he was never going to be good enough to make us any better than 10th in the Pac12. He had nothing to do with us randomly lucking out on a guy who is now one of the best value players in the NBA.

[Stone]

Here is to hoping for a Josh Grant and Jimmy Soto.

[UteBacker]

I know it’s going to take time for Coach Smith to build his team and culture, but man, how did we become the Nebraska of college basketball?

[Tony (admin)]

It’s terribly sad, especially for those of us who were around for the glory days. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Does Nebraska have zero fan support these days? Seems like we are worse than the Nebraska of college basketball.

There are so so so many problems with CBB. It just sucks. The whole effing thing sucks except for the tourney… Take away the excitement of that, and the product is awful. Terrible offenses. Nobody going mano a mano on defense.

The entire college game is 3 pointers, free throws, and zone defenses. In the NBA you at least have room for some level of physicality, and no true zone defense.

[Stone]

It pains me to say (because I used to love college and NBA hoops), but I agree with all of this.

The Nebraska comparison is correct in terms of product on the field, but chinngiskhaan is right about fan support. Nebraska football still has incredible fan support – Utah hoops, not so much. And I don’t blame the fans. I am one of those same fans that used to live and die with Utah basketball, and I rarely pay attention anymore. It is sad.

[Staples]

I also braved the elements to hang out with many close friends (There are dozens of us! Dozens!) I think others have covered everything for the most part, but let me weigh in with my opinion on Exacte. First off, that guy is a DUDE. Coach K often talked about looking good (or not good) in the layup line and Exacte is one of those guys that just stands out. USC and Washington (among others) always seem to have a couple of guys like this that make you wonder how you can even compete with someone that big. That being said, it’s one thing to have the size, another thing to make it translate to the floor. He seems to do a decent job of that, was scrappy, battled, went to the basket hard (8 free throw attempts.) Now this next thing is based on absolutely no evidence, but I don’t think his shooting is going to be as bad as the numbers looked last night. He hit 6 of his 8 free throws and his shooting form looks good so I think there’s a shot in there. Not saying he’s going to be a knockdown shooter, and frankly I don’t think that’s his game, but it won’t be as bad as it was last night. I could be wrong, only time will tell. All in all, it appears the team will be better but honestly it’s all relative. Most likely our ceiling is an NIT berth unless something crazy happens.