[Utopia]

Not just their PG; all their perimeter players absolutely abused us off the dribble all over the court…AND they know how to finish — strong layups, fake-outs, pull-up mid-range shots. That’s what skilled, well-rounded players look like. Freeman had his way in the 1H and the perimeter players took over in the 2H.

We play hard, but lack of individual talent and athleticism is glaringly obvious on both ends of the court. We somewhat compensate for lack of individual talent with great set execution and passing, but that only gets you so far, especially if you can’t get stops on the other end.

Mason was huge this game and I have to give credit to Lovering for being very effective in the post this game (not usually the case). Mason might actually be the better Madsen. He shoots the 3 just as well if not better than Gabe and he’s a better playmaker (he made a number of very slick assists). If Gabe isn’t making 3’s, he’s not really doing anything productive. His points and shooting % are plummeting the last few games (last four: 12pts 33%fg) after feasting on a cupcake schedule at home.

Ausar is a bust — underskilled and undersized for P4. It’s painful watching him repeatedly make the same two futile moves that result in a missed or blocked layup. His production and minutes are declining and his starting days might be numbered.

Sharavjamts played well off the bench in the 1H. There is still hope for him, but expectations are definitely much lower than they once were. Little has really disappeared the last few games. Dawes DNP again.

Once again shot <70% FTs.

And now B12 play starts. Oh boy…

[Utopia]

I didn’t see the game but noticed in the boxscore that Dawes didn’t play. He only played 4 min each of the two previous games after averaging about 20 min in the first six games and being pretty productive (10pts/8reb) despite being a little “raw”. I wonder what’s going on with him; haven’t heard anything about an injury. I was pretty high on his potential and certainly think he would be a more capable player than Whalin, who continues to get steady minutes even with the additions of Lovering, Keller, Lohner.

Ausar’s minutes are also declining, which is understandable. He is undersized and underskilled, especially compared to P4 competition. Of all the transfer newcomers, it seems only Little is going to be a significant contributor. Early season looked somewhat promising, but I don’t like how things are trending lately. I fear it could get really ugly come conference schedule.

[Utopia]

I’ll try. Thanks for the encouragement.

[Utopia]

I’d have to see some advanced statistics, but I highly doubt there is any significant overall decline in FT% and that it would be linked to the AAU influence.

Utah is currently ranked 340/364 in FT% (348th in 2024, 218th in 2023). This is a Utah problem. Players can still shoot, Smith just isn’t getting the ones that can.

The disappearance of the midrange game is mostly due to the influence of analytics, which have deemed midrange shooting inefficient and has emphasized 3PT, layups and FTs. You only need to make 33% 3PT to equal 50% 2PT and there are a lot of players that can easily shoot 33% 3PT. You cannot be a successful team in today’s game unless you have decent 3PT shooting (especially so in the NBA). The 3PT shot used to be called “the great equalizer”, but now it is a necessity — a primary weapon.

There are far more bigs today that can shoot 3’s than there were 15+ years ago and most players that can shoot 3’s also shoot a good FT%. Most teams today have a stretch-4 type player…but not Utah. Brandon Carlson had this skillet, but he wasn’t a Smith recruit. Carlson’s “3&D” skillset is the reason he is now on a NBA roster.

What has been corrosive about AAU is the emphasis on individual scoring talent (the 1-on-1 show-off mentality) and not developing an all-around/team-game skillset. That’s the difference between US and European players — players like Jokic and Doncic don’t get produced in the AAU system. US-grown players want to be social media celebrities and NBA teams, agents and brands want flashy “wow factor” superstars that they can market.

[Utopia]

10-24 for the game. The frontcourt was a combined 6-17.

Smith in the postgame presser: “We gotta be able to shoot FTs better than we did. I’m confident that we will do that. I know they’re trying.” Complete nonsense. This isn’t an aberation, it’s consistent with the talent/skill-level of the players we have (i.e. the players Smith recruited).

Career FT% of the frontcourt that shot 6-17:
Lovering 45%
Ausar 60%
Wahlin 55%
Keller 50%
Lohner 62% (not a Smith recruit)

So every Smith recruit is a career <60 FT%. All but Wahlin have also played for other schools and shot poorly there too, so it isn’t really attributable to just bad coaching by Smith; it’s moreso bad talent evaluation by Smith and recruiting low-skill/potential players.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this frontcourt is pitifully underskilled. Not a single big that can create and finish their own shot or can make anything beyond a layup/dunk (some of them even struggle to make layups). Smith loves Wahlin, who is shooting 43% FG. That is a pathetic FG% for someone 6’10” shooting mostly layups. The only one I see any potential in is Dawes and he has been riding pine lately for some reason.

Smith is in his fourth year and has yet to recruit a single big with decent offensive skills (Brandon Carlson was a Coach K holdover).

[Utopia]

Certainly doesn’t seem like there is any reason to be optimistic about the hoops program rising from the dead. Basketball seems like an afterthought with football getting all of the attention now. Unless we find a hoops enthusiast benefactor to put some money into NIL (like TDS), the program seems destined to keep rotting in irrelevance.

[Utopia]

I haven’t seen anything impressive whatsoever about Keller (also a newcomer), but he is also getting playing time over Dawes. It doesn’t make sense when only judging performance and potential.

[Utopia]

Smith’s recruiting has been an abject failure. It’s clear he can’t recruit enough P4 level talent to be competitive. Madsen is currently our top scorer and he’s a very streaky one-dimensional player who would only be a third-option/complementary type player on a tourney team.

Lohner (not a Smith recruit), who is not in basketball shape and has had minimal pratice time with the team, has already outperformed most of the frontcourt in his first two games.

Smith is in his fourth year and the best player he has had was a Coach K holdover who Smith was lucky was a devout Ute. Can you imagine just how much worse the last few seasons would’ve been without Carlson?

[Utopia]

Dawes is a newcomer, but he’s a sophomore who got decent playing time and was reasonably productive as a freshman. He looked pretty good in the first six games and was very productive in his minutes (10pts/8reb). He showed so much potential that I thought he could end up becoming our best frontcourt player this year. He was much more productive than Whalin and is physically much more suited for P4 competition. I just had a look at their stats and the difference is even more substantial than I thought. I was expecting Whalin to lose his minutes with the return/addition of the other frontcourt players, but he’s kept most of his minutes while Dawes has lost all of his minutes. I haven’t seen anything impressive whatsoever about Keller (also a newcomer), but he is getting playing time over Dawes. Based purely on performance, it doesn’t make sense. Something else must be going on for Dawes to be completely benched.

[Utopia]

Really disappointing trajectory. Had such a great start to the season and was growing as a fan favorite, then his play basically fell off a cliff in a matter of a few games. I predicted athleticism and physicality were going to be the challenge for him, but I didn’t think he would become completely irrelevant.

[Author]

Posts