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.

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.…[Read more]

Look on the bright side, we only missed one more free throw than they did…

That always seemed odd to me as well, his numbers were never that good. I’m not sure what they saw in him. That said, as I recall Larsen’s numbers weren’t great either, but in hind sight I guess it was hard to tell because most players underperformed in Larry’s system.

I’m a Smith fan, or at least I feel he’s a massive upgrade from Krystko, Giac, and Boylen. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I find a couple things concerning. But that’s a huge improvement from finding many BIG things concerning as was case with Larry.

That said, this games tells us nothing about our team or Craig. UCLA is historically…[Read more]

I’m very curious if Jayden Teat plays legit minutes in a competitive ball game, will he shoot every time he touches it? Because what I’ve seen in garbage time does not inspire confidence. He jacks it up like a roman candle and it seems like very few go down. Maybe I need to check his stats because it may be recency bias, but I didn’t seem much…[Read more]

This was a trap game from the word go. I said it on another thread, 9pm tip roadie against Crybaby Hurley and with Pac12 refs that, for some reason, have had it in for us for as long as I can remember. We get jobbed at home, and get jobbed worse on the road. But f that, we need to play through that, and I believe we can and will. The…[Read more]

Spot on, while from the inside it seemed like we had some momentum last year having barely missed making the tourney despite low expectations. But from the outside, if you aren’t dancing, you aren’t nuthin. Arizona really laid a turd for the conf by getting rolled by Stanford the other day. But then again, road games in the pac suck, even in a…[Read more]

Roadies in the pac have always bothered me. It has been damn hard to win on the road in this league, especially against crybaby Hurly. Get ready for some antics!!

My pushback would be that although the polls are of limited use in tournament selection, they have a large roll in visibility and subsequently for recruiting. I’d also say that I’m still skeptical that the beauty contest means nothing to the selection committee.

Its very bizarre. We sit at 16 in the NET rankings, but are a pretty weak ‘others receiving votes’ in both AP and USA Today. (Although the latter hasnt come out today, so we’ll see…) This is nothing new, as long as I can remember, we struggle to get traction in the polls. But we take care of business Saturday and to some extent, things will ta…[Read more]

Here is the difference as I see it. Even with 2-3 future NBA players, Krystko did not maximize their talent and impact because he was a bad coach. While we enjoyed the ride, there were some of us that were unsettled by some of what we were seeing. In 2017, which was the last time I was fairly active on this board, it all seemed to be settling…[Read more]

Totally agree, and like I point out to my kids all the time, it’s so much more satisfying welcoming folks onto the bandwagon when you already have a choice seat. In other words, I love watching a team develop and being able to say I told you so. I have been saying for a couple years now that Craig is the real deal, and I said last year I thought…[Read more]

Ug, I dont understand the hate.
H. Erickson 10 min, 2 asst, 1 turnover; no shots
B Carlson 9 min 1 foul. No shots, no rebounds;
No assists. No turnovers.
C Pajama 14 min 1-4 2pts 3 rb no assist no turnovers.

These are all not positive, but they arent super negative either. They are all filling roles by soaking ups some minutes without getting in…[Read more]

Yup that is exactly right, it seemed like a fairly precipitous decline from a 4 to 6 bid league to a 1 to 3 bid league, and it has been shades of sucky ever since. I’m less of an aficionado on FB so I’ll leave that to others, but I for one am excited about the change for Bball and I’m glad that the program seems like it’s on the upswing for that…[Read more]

Rollie is no better than a MWC guard is an asinine statement. I’m not saying he’s god’s gift either but I’ve watched a lot of Utah basketball over three decades, he is pretty good. He and Deivon will complement each other nicely.

We are 8-2 with losses to an undefeated #6 Houston and a good St. Johns (7-3) team with losses to Michigan (6-5), Dayton (8-2), and Boston College (8-3). We have a good squad with some depth, better than average athleticism, and whether folks on here want to believe it, good coaching (for the first time in a long time).

You should want to go…[Read more]

His Pick and Roll with Keba is nails and why he has such high assists for his minutes, but outside of that, he had a terrible game (worse than normal). But I continue to remind people that Exacte’s numbers were the same last year so he is not the answer either. Pajama had a bad night, but overall he’s not bad. I would say rotate him with Rollie…[Read more]

Yeah I’m a big fan of the +/- because it does a nice job of capturing some intangibles like simple solid defense. So I appreciate the point. I’d be interested to know what Exacte’s looked like last year because to my eye, I just didnt see very many positive plays other than he seemed to be able to make an open 3 when it came up. His D, espec…[Read more]