IT’S GAME DAY!!!!!

[bopahull]

It’s cold outside, time to chop some firewood. GO UTES!!!!!!! Cut down the Trees. 3PM on PAC 12 network.

[Charlie]

Tomorrow

[bopahull]

I was only just a little off, at my age that’s not bad.

[Charlie]

Take care, when you are my age a little off is a hope.

[UteBacker]

If you need something to scratch your Ute sports itch, Red Rocks is taking part in an epic meet this afternoon at 2:00 against LSU, UCLA, and Oklahoma. It’s on ABC too…

[//r00t4Utes]

Well, injuries and foul trouble making this a bit of an ugly and close game.

At one point, it was 7 fouls to only 1 for Stanford. Half ended at 11 fouls to 5.

Worster is out this game, and Lovering hurt his ankle, so those are 2 starters out.

[The Miami Ute]

Well, another away game, another away loss. This time to a mediocre Stanford team. Disappointing to see the Utes not have the capability to win games like this. Having a .500 conference record isn’t going to cut it come March.

[AZUTE]

Another flop on the road loss from Smith.

That’s St Johns, Arizona St and now Stanford

Three games they were favored to win but somehow Smith managed to F it up.

Hey but he was given over half a decade to figure out so maybe next year.

This team is gonna be scary bad next season without Branden Carlson and recruiting has been subpar at best and there is no one to replace him.

I feel so bad for he BC he was stuck with two lousy coaches during time here at Utah.

[//r00t4Utes]

Yeah, I know. Arizona would never lose on the road to Stanford. If they did, they should fire their coach right.

I didn’t like the Utes’ defensive strategy, but what cost the game was free throw shooting.

[The Miami Ute]

Yeah, but somehow Stanford has lost to seven other teams this season. And didn’t Wazzu just beat the Arizona team that destroyed Utah? Utah killed Wazzu in the Huntsman late last year.

[AZUTE]

I don’t get these Smith apologists. A good Coach can flip a program in two years but Smith somehow talk Harlem into 6 years.

Smith is a good coach but not great. Utah is a good team but not great. Smith is a terrible recruiter. I’ve talked to Coaches who have had players recruited by Smith at the AAU and prep school level. They say he just comes off weird and awkward when he tries to relate to todays youth.

That’s the reason he hired Burgess and Slocum to do all the recruiting.

There is no one to replace BC next year. You have to hope for a portal miracle at this point

Smith has improved the train wreck Krysco left behind but he’s gonna plateau after this season which was supposed to be his veteran laden team. Yet he can’t figure out how to win on the road against bad teams.

[Minnesota Ute]

I’m not an apologist but I stand by the statement that he is a huge upgrade from Larry. Beyond that, he has proved his teams and players can get better, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. IMO recruiting lags behind the demonstration that you improve the players and the program when you don’t have a proven track record like a Pitino.

The two things I am questioning right now is FTs because I struggle to understand any D1 team that doesn’t make them. And while they were horrible tonight, this isn’t just a tonight issue. And the other is his substitution pattern. Short handed tonight, I think he should have ridden the horses that would give us the best shot and leave Hunter, Teat, and even Luca on the bench for the most part. No way to get around playing pajama with Rollie out, but Teat is not good and Hunter looked lost tonight (did he regress??).

[Redblood]

Huge upgrade from Larry? larry went 21-12 in year 3, then in year four (next year for Smith) they went 26-9 and went to the sweet 16, year 5 27-9. and won the first game of the NCAA tournament. That was in a total rebuild just like Smith. You telling me now that they will lose BC and Baj at the least, they will sniff the sweet 16? Their roster was a significant upgrade to what we’ll have next year and we’re all recruited by coach K.

Look I was a huge proponent of removing coach K and starting over, but saying he is a huge upgrade is so far removed from reality I don’t know what to say. And it is all recruiting. He just hasn’t been a good recruiter at all.

[Minnesota Ute]

He had Delon, Yakob, and Kuzma all who went on to long NBA careers, and especially in the case of Kuzma, it can be said that they underperformed in college relative to what they’ve accomplished in the NBA. But something about Larry and his system never parleyed that brief success into filling the pipeline with similar talent. So, with marginal talent, Larry’s lack of coaching ability was exposed and we went into the duldrums for the next 5 years. Including the two subsequent seasons that should have been much better than they were but due to his bad coaching, we ended up in NIT and losing early. His teams had no heart, and what’s more his players seemed to get worse year over year.

Larry’s 3rd year was 21-12 (9-9). We are currently 12-6 (3-3). At this point in the season in 2013-2014, we were 14-4 (3-3) in conf. So we had two more non-conf wins that year, but take a look at the schedule:
Evergreen, UC Davis, Grand Canyon, Lamar, Savannah State, Ball State, Boise State(L), Fresno St., Idaho St, BYU, Texas St., St. Katherine.

I’m sorry, but losses to Houston and St. Johns are respectable. Had we played Our Lady of the Blind instead, we’d be 14-4.

Further, Larry won just 8 conf games TOTAL in his first two seasons, 3 then 5. Craig has won 4 then 10 for a total of 14.

Further, Smith has won everywhere he’s been. What did Larry do?? Two decent seasons at U of Montana, 19-9 overall in Big Sky Conf??

Your argument just doesn’t hold up. Larry was never any good, we all know that now. So let’s just let it go.

As for next year, let’s see how it plays out.

[Redblood]

That’s the whole point, you need players. Who recruited Delon, Jacob, and Kuz? And who has Smith recruited? Let’s have this discussion this time next year. You can’t say coach K’s 4th year doesn’t count because he recruited too well. We now have upperclassmen out the wazoo and our best case is maybe making the tourney. That is because we haven’t recruited studs like the three you mentioned. Like I said, will be interesting to see how you feel this time next year.

[Charlie]

Recruiting is key to winning. Larry took a few years to get an NBA player in. Smith may also get that going, we can only hope. What I do like is seeing the team run plays and make adjustments maybe the best since Majerus. What concerns me is periods where they slip into a funk. Likely this is due to the lack of a top guard. This was also a requirement for Rick. The combination of coach Smith and an NBA guard will break us out of the doldrums. It is also needed for Smith to become one of the great Utah BB coaches.

[Redblood]

Huge upgrade from Larry? larry went 21-12 in year 3, then in year four (next year for Smith) they went 26-9 and went to the sweet 16, year 5 27-9. and won the first game of the NCAA tournament. That was in a total rebuild just like Smith. You telling me now that they will lose BC and Baj at the least, they will sniff the sweet 16? Their roster was a significant upgrade to what we’ll have next year and we’re all recruited by coach K.

Look I was a huge proponent of removing coach K and starting over, but today he is a huge upgrade is so far removed from reality I don’t know what to say. And it is all recruiting. He just hasn’t been a good recruiter at all.

[//r00t4Utes]

I’m not a Smith apologist. His substitutes have always driven me crazy. But then I didn’t hate Larry K like so many on this board did, I thought he was a good X and O’s guy, better than Smith. But I also recognize it may have been time for a change only because the program didn’t have the energy around it.

Which that is one thing Smith has over Larry, energy. Hopefully, the assistant coaches can help coach up and recruit the needed players.

If you listened to the broadcast, they did say how much better Stanford has played in conference play, especially their shooting.

[Minnesota Ute]

I have to push back on the X/O statement, there is no way Larry was better than Smith in that department. How many times did Larry’s team not even get a shot at the end of close games, how many times did Larry’s teams turn it over off an end-out? Smith is infinitely better. Recruiting I think time will tell.

[GameForAnyFuss]

We are #19 in NET. Let’s stop acting like every quad 1 road loss knocks us off the bubble or something.

[AZUTE]

See me on March 1st

[Rick]

This team is horrible defensively. I do not care how much you think Smith is better than Larry. The proof is on the court and it has been 2.5 years of solidly crappy defense. If you are comparing Smith’s recruiting to Larry’s, it stinks. His defense to Larry’s, it stinks. This team will not be better next year. So that will be 4 straight years of bad basketball. How many more is he allowed by some of you who are clearly in his camp? I am not asking for Larry to be reinstated. I am asking for a P5 basketball team that plays some defense even when their shots aren’t falling. I am asking for a coach than can recruit at the P5 level. We are entering the hardest basketball conference in the country next season and we are not even close to being prepared for that. If you think Smith is the guy to get us there, please prove it to those of us who just don’t see it.

[Author]

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