small things matter

[coachmorse8]

Utah sports are interesting to say the least!!

Last night the plays that people are talking about mattered, but not as much as the plays they are not talking about.

1st play: Rawsom over extending going for a steal on brooks at the top of the key that lead to the go ahead dunk by (25)

2nd play the three mde by PVD, the block by johnson, and then the turnover by Barefield that lead to (25) and 1 at the other end. Utah was in control at this time and that play took all the air out of the crowd if we could of excuted with that possession it would of been a different game. 

3rd play the high post pass from collette to Kuzma and he bobbeled the pass and missed a reversse lay up  with under 4 to play.

 

finally the great pass by PVD and then the missed layup by Barefield. 

Utah is in every game and they are going to be good I hope but these small play’s will make the difference if we can exicute.

 

I love Daniels too, however the dude needs to stay a lockdown defender and stop trying to steal every pass. 

[Tony (admin)]

Yes. In a game that tight the little things make the difference.  We had numerous missed layups and a few very bad breakdowns defensively that led to easy Oregon dunks.  We fell asleep a few times on our own made baskets as well giving up easy points when Oregon pushed the tempo and we weren’t ready for them.

[loyter]

Don’t forget the Utes are a super young team in terms of the amount of time they’ve played together as a team.  All but two of these players are first timers this year.  Oregon has had this nucleus together for quite some time and it shows.

 

[Minnesota Ute]

Yup, that is exactly right, and of course we can always pick on individual plays on either side of the ball and say to ourselves, what if… but here is the real tale of the tape:

FG 27-55 vs 26-54 even, slight edge them

3Pt 5-18 vs 6-19 even, slight edge us

FT 14-21 vs 9-13 edge them, but largely because of fouling at end, take away 3pts at end, its a 2pt edge

Reb 28 vs 33 and even a +2 OffReb edge us

Ass 11 vs 13 even, slight edge to us

Blk 6 vs 4 even, slight edge to them

Fouls, 17-18 even, slight edge to them due to more shooting fouls

Here is the kicker: Turnovers 9 to 15, Steals 9 to 5.  Huge edge to them.

At the end of the day, because we outrebounded them and matched them in shooting percentages, we had just as many shot attepts as them despite being blocked twice more, giving up 4 more steals and totalling 6 more turnovers.  Bottom line is IF we take care of the ball, then we have a winnable game, and could have overcome the FT edge by having 5 or 6 more productive possessions which might have netted us the 5 or 6 points we needed to give us an edge in crunch time.  But for the fouling at the end, this was a one possession game.  If we cut down on the turnovers, and many were bad turnovers due to panic at end of shot clock, this is a winnable game.  That makes me feel much better about the loss.  Turnovers are fixable, getting confidence and getting started earlier in the shot clock are fixable, we are a really good team.

I did predict that if David got in foul trouble, we would have a problem, and I think that ended up being true.  But even so, this game was within reach.

 

[Renegadefly]

thanks Minnesota, that made me feel much better about the game. They were so athletic though.

[Skywalker11]

this was definitely oregons worst game in pac-12 play

 

but to utahs credit, a lot of that had to do with utah forcing oregon to play bad.

 

Utah caught oregon off guard, I dont think they were expecting utah to put up much of a fight, which is why it took oregon so long to finally get to a point where you felt like they had control, and even then, they really didnt.  Utah didnt give up, which is something that every other team that oregon has beaten had done outside of UCLA

[Tony (admin)]

Oregon also forced Utah into one of its less-than-stellar performances.

[Minnesota Ute]

Glad I could help, stats are my comfort food.  Usually it gives you a pretty clear picture of what happened.  My son’s former highschool coach put a sign up in the locker room that said “Stats are for losers”.  I thought that was the most idiodic thing I’ve ever heard.  Stats are simply measurables.  Sure if you focus on points and don’t look at percentage, or ignore rebounds, etc then stats can mislead.  But all in all, stats are a measure of what each individual accomplished in 40 minutes, and collectively what each team accomplished.  It is rare, and I might even say impossible, to win a game without “winning the stats”.  I’m glad my son no longer plays for that coach, and furthermore it is easy to see why individuals in his program show limited growth, because rather than holding individuals accountable for what they contribute (stats), and playing to their strengths and shoring up their weaknesses (both of which can be seen in the stats), they go for this total team mentality.  Personally I think that is dumb because every hall of fame coach will tell you that a team is a collection of individuals.  The only way to get a team functioning most effectively is for everyone on the team to perform at their individual best, and you won’t get there the same way with everyone.