BB Game

[Charlie]

Hoping that Carlson and Madsen return to mid season form and looking for more minutes from Saunders. The defense needs to return to mid season form vs the three.

[D T]

Can’t allow Jones to go off from deep.

[Tony (admin)]

Unless we light a fire somehow, our season is coming to an end shortly. 

[The Miami Ute]

This team is utter hot garbage. They can’t rebound, they can’t shoot, they can’t handle the ball, and they can’t run a simple offense when it matters. They’re making a team that won a massive total of 13 games look like the Showtime Lakers. Yeah, great, they won 17 games but their last victory seems to have occurred in the previous century. I’m telling you guys, this team has regressed in such a shocking manner during the last 10 games of the season that it’s placing doubts in my mind whether Smith is already on the clock. Yeah, ok, they had injuries…cry me a river…every team in every season since Naismith invented basketball has had injuries impact their season. Is it just me or does anyone else not see shades of Coach K’s team (waiting until the clock goes down to zero to heave a desperate shot, etc..) in this team? I’m glad tonight was the last game of the 22-23 season. Not sure I’d be up for seeing the Utes getting their asses handed to them in the first game of the NIT.

[//r00t4Utes]

Stanford is better than their record. The last month of the season, they have been good.

With that said, the game over pretty early. Carlson scored the first 5pts and the only points for awhile. Meanwhile early in the game Anthony had the most shot attempts, too bad he couldn’t make anything. It’s good he was being aggressive thought…..But he’s not out there for scoring, he’s out there for energy, defense and rebounding, which he was just average at this game IMO.

But I’ve complained enough about him and Rollie playing too many minutes despite their mistakes and limitations which causes diminishing returns on the positive contributions they bring.

It’s not the players fault they’re playing too many minutes

[The Miami Ute]

Tell us how you really feel Craig. Your team wasn’t competitive in the majority of the games during the last half of the PAC schedule. Look it up…I’m tired of excuses when this team continuously loses to others with worse records and lesser talent. Stanford is a crap team…that’s in the dictionary as the definition of a team that started the conference schedule 0-7 and only won 13 games in the regular season. Whatever good will Smith built up in the first half of the season has been p**sed away by a six game losing streak to end it. I’m really thinking that Smith has next year to prove he’s the guy or else it’s curtains for him and on to the next coach…er, victim. I mean, if this team has a similar season next year as this year or, God forbid, regresses then I can’t understand why we’d hold on to him. Utah has had s**t luck with MBB head coaches since Majerus stepped away from the program. I mean, why can’t we hire a guy like Randy Bennett or Mark Few? In basketball, it’s much easier to rebuild than in football but Utah just can’t get it right.

[Rick]

We didn’t have to hire someone like Randy Bennett – he reached out and asked to be interviewed the last time around. He was given no consideration. The job was Smith’s (behind the scenes) by the time Larry was dismissed. The only reason Jensen received consideration was the pressure applied by alums. Smith is absolutely Harlan’s guy. Smith is a likeable guy and I do think this team got better but the complete free fall to end the season is worrisome. Unless we’re knocking on the NCAA Tournament door next season and a complete lock for the NIT, I join Miami wanting a change. A program with our resources and history should not be an after thought year after year.

[The Miami Ute]

And where the f#@# is Mike Saunders, Jr? I was in the second row of the Huntsman when the Utes played UCLA and Saunders was the Utes’ best offensive player by light years. There’s no one else in the entire freaking roster that combines his ball-handling, elusiveness and play-making ability. He torched the Bruins for 25 points but yet can’t get any minutes versus Stanford? Come on man…are you f’ing with me?

[Hahnenwk]

I know there is a lot of Larry hate on this board. His teams always improved over the season.

[Tony (admin)]

They did?!!?!

[Hahnenwk]

Yes

[AlaskaSteveUteAlum]

The only silver lining to this game is that we won’t get beat by Arizona (by 40 points). Just an absolutely disappointing finish to the season. Our players looked “gassed” early in the second half. Maybe they caught norovirus at the buffet. No defense. No offense. No foul shooting. Too many turnovers.

[Tony (admin)]

Utes fall to Stanford 73-62. 🙁

[GameForAnyFuss]

From a confidant close to the program: Certain players mailed it in after the USC loss. This team isn’t deep enough to deal with anyone not giving max effort.

[utefansince79]

Often during the season, against a stronger better team who has beaten our team, I’ve left the Hunty (or finished the TV broadcast) feeling that the Utes played hard and were simply outmatched.  But last night I felt they just gave up early and most of them just stopped trying or caring.

Guess it’s wait til next year now.  Team still seems to have a long way to go.

 

 

 

 

[alexsmith]

I also have someone with an in and heard the same thing, which is rather unfortunate considering the potential they had

[The Miami Ute]

Dude, if I didn’t know better, I’d be saying that guys like Anthony, Stefanovic, and Exacte had money on Stanford to win. I lost count of how many bricks or blind passes into the teeth of a defense those guys had last night and over the last couple of months of the season. The comment above talking about the relationship between Harlan and Smith is really quite demonstrative of the issue with Utah MBB.

And talking about Harlan, how exactly has he moved Utah sports onward and forward? I’m not on the inside but it seems to me that the answer is “not much.” It seems to me that all he’s been doing is surfing on the groundwork that Hill laid out for him. If the above is true and Utah didn’t even consider Randy Bennett for the job, well, to me that’s close to criminal negligence.

Folks, this is basketball not football. It’s easy to turn a program around if you know what you’re doing. Cronin inherited a dumpster fire from Steve Alford when he was hired at UCLA and turned that program around from his first season. I guess the real tell on this program will be seeing how many guys leave in the off-season. If we have something similar to your regular, garden variety Coach K off-season, when 4-5 guys would routinely jet then Utah, we have a problem.

[Rick]

After what I saw last night, I wouldn’t mind seeing 4-5 guys leave this team!

[Minnesota Ute]

It better be the right 4-5 guys, and there better be because good talent is coming and they need room.  That was not what was happening with Larry. 

[Author]

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