Seriously

[UtesRule]

I kind of getting sick and tired of seeing Gabe Madsen think if he has a half a second and he’s within 35 feet of the basket that it’s a good shot! That’s four consecutive horrible shots that he’s taken.

[//r00t4Utes]

I didn’t have a problem with most of the attempts, and there were a lot, 3 or 4 bad shots, IMO. I think sometimes he has more time than he realizes and rushes enemies he doesn’t need to and doesn’t get his feet and base set.

Rebounds were the most disappointing for me and the biggest reason they lost.

I find it odd that they only called 4 or 5 fouls against CIN in the first half and 3 in the 2nd half (they technically did call 2 more meaninless fouls in the last minute of the game for 5 total). Can’t think of a game where 1 team only gets 7 or 8 fouls caked against them.

[UtahUtesRock]

It’s just not clear to me what Craig is running. It seems like Gabe is always 90/10 3 pointers vs shots inside the 3 point line and nearly all 3’s he shoots he appears to be falling backward, to the side and just generally rushing. I’d be frustrated playing with somebody like that. Seems like the offense is “Gabe create something and if you absolutely can’t jack up a 3 pointer, pass it to somebody else.”

[OmahaOmaha]

He kept us in the game. Then he shot us out of the game missing like 6 straight down the stretch. 22 three-point attempts from one guy is wild.

[Minnesota Ute]

I agree, he did shoot 36% from 3, so his eFG is still 54%, which is much better than Ezra at 40%. However it pales in comparison to Keanu, Mike, and Lawson each at 80%. Which (broken record here) Ezra played 27min, was in foul trouble, had a BPM of -5.4 and GmSc of 3.6 compared to Keanu that only played 20min, was not in foul trouble and had a BPM of –0.4 and a GmSc of 5.2. That aside, looking at the eFG of other players means maybe we’d score more if he got those other people involved?

Rebounding was a problem. Ezra had 2, yes 2 rebounds in 27 min. Keanu had 5 in 20 min including 2 offensive rebounds.

Meanwhile Keller had 6 min and contributed nothing. This is where Craig shows his greatest ineptitude in my opinion. We can debate Ezra and Keanu, but why not just have both. Keller does not need to see the floor, Keanu and Ezra could play 30+ min a night, and if either got foul trouble, mix and match Lawson’s and Wahlin’s minutes.

[TheNuschler]

There has been a talent gap for years now. With NIL being so out of whack, I honestly think this team is where Utah will be in Hoops unless we get some mystery donor, which I don’t see happening. NIL seems justifiable for football cause it’s a cash cow when schools invest. Gone are the days when you could have a tyrant as a coach, screaming at kids 24/7 but somehow made the tournament because he was some sort of basketball savant. It’s about the $$$ and Utah isn’t on the level of other schools willingness to invest. It’s that simple.

[concerned]

I wonder if his 22 shot attempts had anything to do with the fact that he (and his brother) transferred from Cincy. Maybe he was trying to prove something.

[utefansince79]

When it was 72-72, twice in a row we gave up offensive boards (where they just out hustled us to the ball) leading to 5 points for the Bearcats. Those were daggers.

[Noah]

Honestly we just don’t have any reliable offensive players for both scoring and/or playmaking. The defense is good. They just gotta play good both sides. I miss Kyle Kuzma lol

[Minnesota Ute]

I wish I could peek in on a parallel universe where Craig Smith just let’s his best (its all relative) players just play, and would quit tinkering with minutes and lineups. I don’t think you can overestimate the value of reps at game speed. And I’d feel a bit different if I thought that there were players (like Keller) that are getting minutes this year to prepare them for next year. But if Keller is a starter for us next year, then to me it’s sort of like Whalin being a starter for us this year. He played minutes last year, but if you told me last year that this year he would be a starter, I would have said “damnit, we are gonna suck again”. And guess what, we suck again this year.

Are we overperforming our last place prediction, sure. But guess what, craig won 11 games in year 1, 17 games in year 2, 22 games in year 3, and likely going to only win 17 maybe 18 games again this year. So, yeah, this is NOT progress.

Side note, last year:
Gabe 32 min
Worster 31 min
Carlson 29 min
Deivon: 29 min
Bajema 28 min
Next closest is Hunter at 19 min. and they only went 9 deep with 4 guys in the teens and then dropped off to whalin at 6 min. after Bajema, it went: 19, 18, 17, 16, 5, 5, 3, 1

Compare that to this year.
Nobody over 30 min, and everyone besides Gabe is below 23min per game, and we are going 11 deep with Keller bringing up the rear at 11 min per game. 28 (Gabe), then 22, 22, 21, 20, 20, 19, 17, 17, 11, 10, 4, 2, 2, 2.

Good lord what a joke.

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