[Anonymous]

First of all, three of your four examples are incorrect- Baylor’s arena holds 10,600 for basketball; Oregon holds 12,600 and Pitt holds 12,600.
The Huntsman is an iconic venue and has hosted many brilliant games. It has aged well.
Yes, it has its flaws but it is still one one of the better venues in college basketball.
When full or near capacity it is loud and vibrant.
There are a hundred things that need to be fixed/added/replaced with Utah Athletics ahead of demolishing the HC.

[Anonymous]

My guess:
PG – Little / Erickson back-up
SG- Gabe/ Mason back-up
SF – Mike S. / Dawes / Wahlin
PF- Ausar / Lohner back-up
C- Lovering/ Keller back-up

Ausar and Gabe leading scorers and best players.
Little is the wildcard—-they desperately need him to be good.
Center is scary unless Lovering is in much better shape.

[Anonymous]

I’ll believe it when I see it.
Craig Smith can’t close worth a damn.

[Anonymous]

Well he was consistently bad when he played early in the season and now Smith has tightened up the rotation. From what I saw, he played wild/out of control (TO prone) and shoots very poorly (his shooting form is FUGLY). He got yanked multiple times for wtf-type plays almost immediately after entering the game. He was given opportunities and repeatedly underperformed.

38% FG, 11% 3P, 65% FT, 1.33 A/TO. Awful numbers for a PG and consider most of his minutes came against cupcakes. This is Saunders’ third year at D1/P6 and it looks like he’s just not cut out for this level.

[Anonymous]

I’m guessing between -6 to -7.5. I think we lose by 10+.

[Anonymous]

In these two games we were -22 TO’s (-19 steals).

This team plays hard, but it’s obvious they are severely lacking in talent and athleticism.

Our true bigs are slow and soft. Brandon Carlson, supposedly our best player, is easily out-physical’ed into being a non-factor. Keita is an exception, but he is extremely raw.

Other than Madsen, we have no decent 3pt shooters. Worster, Stefanovic and Saunders are pathetic shooters for guards.

The newcomers haven’t shown much. Saunders has been terrible. Ben Carlson is Riley Battin 2.0. Baxter is physically limited. Exacte and Keita have shown some flashes of ability, but both have a lot of development to do before they can be reliable contributors. Tarlac hasn’t played enough to judge.

Overall I’m not seeing much reason to think this team will be much better than last year.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know, but what I do know is that we have no decent 3pt shooters other than Madsen. Worster, Stefanovic, Saunders are pathetic shooters for guards. Coach Smith claims Exacte is a good shooter, but his shot has looked awful so far.

[Anonymous]

Spot on AZUte. Smith is as good as gone or Harlan will be the one packing.
There is money waiting for the “right guy”- a Majerus disciple of either Alex or Andre or possibly both.
Smith never connected with this fan base and his inability to recruit is transparent in every game.

[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.

[Anonymous]

Saunders has been objectively bad. He’s shooting 33% (12% 3pt) and -1.7 A/TO ratio (and most his minutes so far have been against cupcakes). Worster is shooting 46% (27% 3pt) and +1.75 A/TO ratio. He is averaging 2.0 TO/game, which is not really bad for 30 min/game.

Saunders is quick, but plays wild/out of control. In his short Miss St stint he had multiple wtf plays; I understand Smith yanking him. Even when Worster fouled out of the GT game, Smith opted to use Stef at PG instead of bringing in Saunders. This is Saunder’s third season at D1, his game should be more polished by now. I’m not a Worster fan either, but I think he is clearly the steadiest option we have at PG right now.

[Author]

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