Branden Carlson is officially back

[Tony (admin)]

UTE NATION!!! pic.twitter.com/ClgTLIaRGJ

— Branden Carlson (@ballerbranden35) May 31, 2023

[jobjohnsen8]

Nice! Now we need Ray J Dennis!🤞

[chinngiskhaan]

How interested is he, any idea? He would be a huge help. It would be really nice to have someone that would allow Worster to not play darn near 40 minutes a game. Rolllie is fine, but I gotta think he’d be more fine if he could actually take a breather and/or play off ball occasionally.

[GameForAnyFuss]

With this news, I guarantee this will be a better team next year.

[chinngiskhaan]

Yep, unless this year’s schedule is significantly more challenging, we should finish with a better record than we had last year, especially when you consider that the main reason we finished so poorly was due to getting several injuries to key players at the same time.

I think losing a guy like Marco Anthony will have a bigger impact on the team than most people would guess, but just having someone at that position who can shoot (like… at all) would be really nice. If we can replace his defense/rebounding and add a bit of a shooting threat that would be huge. Most important is the rebounding though, since Carlson plays on the perimeter on offense, having a 4 with more of an inside game is fine.

It would be GREAT if Smith/Burgess can work their developmental magic on Keba Keita. If he could be playable alongside Carlson that would be HUGE.

I actually think we added A TON of versatility to the lineup for this upcoming season. We still don’t have anyone that doesn’t have major flaws in their game (unless Carlson continues to improve his physique), but we now have more guys that we can plug in when we need different things to happen. We have multiple guys on the team that can fill each role, which is tremendously helpful.

My personal opinion is that Smith is doing a tremendous job. When I do get a chance to watch games, I see a team that is playing a much better brand of ball than they did with LK. It’s hard to recruit guys to play for a program that has little to no fan support, but Craig is doing a good job.

The kid we stole from BYU could end up being a steal if he sticks around long enough to grow into his body.

[UteBacker]

Glad to see that therapy paying off, chinngiskhaan!  I kid.  I kid.  You know we love you.

[Charlie]

I expect that we are already better than last year but injuries will always suck when starters miss games. Marco was awesome in the paint and with rebounding, however, last year the scouting reports figured out there was no need at all to guard him outside the midrange and that impacted his value a bunch. Keba will come along improving each year and we may be to the point that we can play big chunks with two bigs when needed. Smith should really help the guard line in a way that Saunders unknown issue prevented. Erickson is a wildcard in the guard line that may just be more help. Bajema will defiantly improve the long range shooting. Wahlin is an unknown but I expect he will help the second half of the team give the first half much better practices because last years team, I think, had a hard time giving looks that we would see in other teams in practice. And there remains one more spot… Smith and the staff is everything I ask for related to the Xs and Os, now if they get the recruiting to a high level, I could become happy. Half of recruiting is past success so that must grow to see their recruiting potential. Go Utes.

[chinngiskhaan]

Our bench was pretty shallow last year, and that is being kind. This year it should be improved. We added Lovering, Erickson, Bajema, Smith and Whalin. We also have Exacte, Keita, and Tarlac returning. All of those guys are playable (with the exception of maybe Whalin since he just got off his mission and who knows what condition his game/body is in).
We added size, quickness, shooting, youth, and experience… and that’s just the new guys

Carlson (both of them) should be better, Madsen improved a ton last year, I think Worster is who he is, but that is good enough, especially now that we (hopefully) have someone who can spell him off or let him play at the two.

Starting lineup possibilities next year:

– Smith/Worster, Worster/Madsen, Madsen/Bajema, Carlson/Bajema, Carlson
– Erickson is a wild card here, NO IDEA how good he is going to be for us. Could ride the pine, could be a starter.

This team is at least two deep at every spot (though nobody really stands out other than Branden Carlson and maybe Madsen). When you actually look at the roster, it is clear that we’ll be better next year.

[Charlie]

This is key for a couple of reasons. First, we need a couple of guys on the all conference teams to compete for post season and Branden is our best chance or first. Second, it gives coaches another year to create success to find the best replacement. Now, is it ok to say Let’s go Branden, asking for a friend?

[Author]

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