U of O vs. Utah…

[Ute2]

This game made me love Craig Smith even more.  

In a game where nothing was going right we kept fighting and clawing back again and again when we could’ve folded. 

the three ball had a lid.  We kept missing the front end of the 1&1 too.  Those were brutal.  Oregon is also looong and athletic.  And our measurables and composition are what they are.  Poorly coached teams fold.  Well coached teams may stay in it.  We stayed in it.

 I wanted that win bad.  So I’m disappointed about that.  And I’m bummed at the hit our tourney prospects took.  But digging deeper, signs are there that Smith is piecing this back together.

 

[Ute2]

Great crowd too.  I’m guessing 95% full.

 

may be removing the curtains soon???

[alexsmith]

Though it may take a small hit, I ultimately don’t think this loss hurts as bad as we may think. I just took a look at oregons remaining schedule and wouldn’t be shocked if they have 20 wins after the pac-12 tourney, which should sneak them into the tourney as an 8 seed

[The Miami Ute]

I don’t know. I tend to favor the theory that Dana Altman has Utah’s number more that anything else. I mean Oregon has some good pieces but this is the same team that lost to UVU and UC-Irvine in Eugene, with the loss to the Anteaters being close to a blowout. By the same token, the Utes didn’t play well at all on the offensive side of the ball and were in the game until the final minute. I’m interested in seeing how the Utes handle their upcoming road trip. That should tell us a lot about the real nature of the team.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I agree with everything you just said. This team does a lot of things that Craig’s first year team couldn’t do. They rebound, hustle, and defend. That alone keeps them in games.

The two glaring weaknesses are shooting and ball handling. This group can’t shoot themselves back into the game when they get behind, and they limit their number of attempts with turnovers.

Once Craig is able to get a lights-out shooter and guys who can take care of the ball, this will be a tournament-level program. Until then, we are NIT caliber.

[Utesby1]

They rebound? Did you watch the game?

[UtesRule]

41-39….Utah gave up the bad offensive rebound late, but otherwise rebounded pretty well. Utah is much better rebounding on the season than last year.

[Ute2]

A good bit of those rebounds can be attributed to their measurables vs ours. They were looong.

[GameForAnyFuss]

They rebound? Did you watch the game?

They are 6th in the country in rebounding with 41.3 rebounds per game.

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/932

Did you watch…any of our games at all?

[Ghost of the HEB]

Meh

[Charlie]

Utah is still in a good spot. We just need to win home games with only a few exceptions and win some road games. Az. is a top 10 team and just lost to a team below Oregon in Tucson. Oregon has been hot or cold, we caught them on a hot night. It is crazy how they have our number. I love what Smith does with what he has, as he gets more Utah will be a regular in the postseason. I do expect a rough week next week but I also expect to get to the dance.
I wonder why Ben Carlson did not return to the game after the start. We sure needed his size.

[D T]

Iirc, UO’s Top-20 in hot/cold teams nationally.

Hot, cold, hot, etc.

[CoyoteUte]

Honestly if you told me beforehand that we’d split the Arizona and Oregon games at home… I’d take that all day. Give Craig’s post-game interview with Riles a listen if you get the chance. Some good stuff in there.
Post-game interviews

[loyter]

I wish I had the same rosy outlook. This game just shone a spotlight on all the things wrong with the team. With enough talent, you can mask a general lack of fundamentals, but we don’t have that.

Turnovers, UO second chance points, offensive rebounds, 60% FT shooting, poor shot selection, poor offensive executuion… The only thing this team is really good at is defense, but it does no good to play great defense and then give up an offensive rebound.

The play that exemplifies this is that late offensive rebound that Brandon Carlson gave up on a missed free throw. I’ll call him out by name because that was 100% his guy and his fault. He completely failed to box his man out by lunging for the ball while it was still on the rim. Rebounding is all about keeping YOUR guy from getting the ball. It’s not about jumping high or hustling, it’s about putting your body on your man and boxing out. If BC had done that, one of his teammates would have come down with the ball.

Someone said “there are no little things in basketball”. Well, the Utes did 1000 little things poorly, and I’m not including their FG%, because that was Oregon playing great defense, so credit where credit is due.

Smith is making progress and might become a consistent winner, but that game Saturday is evidence that in terms of quality coaching, he’s much closer in terms of quality with LK than Big Rick…and LK managed to lose 10 games the year he had three NBA players on his roster.

[Anonymous]

This team unquestionably lacks talent and athleticism, but I’m becoming a believer in Smith’s coaching ability. What he is getting out of this team is impressive – they are overperforming and consistently play with effort and belief despite often being outmatched, which indicates great coaching and a positive culture. The big outstanding question is whether Smith can recruit and develop better talent because so far the recruiting has been lackluster. If he can get what he’s getting out of this talent, I think there’s good reason to be very optimistic about the program’s potential if he can get legit P6-level talent.

Also, I think it’s unfair/unrealistic to use Majerus as a measure of success standard – he was a truly a special all-time basketball mind who we were very, very lucky to have had. Look at the 1998 roster that made it the championship game. What other coach could have made that roster a legit championship-level team? The only comparable success-talent ratio teams I can think of since then are the Brad Stevens Butler teams that made it to the championship game back-to-back in 2010-11. I’ve been a Utah basketball fan for over 30 years and I have come to realize that it’s unrealistic to think that we will/should ever achieve the same heights as the 90s Majerus era.