What a horrible defensive effort. Just don’t understand passing lanes, on both offense and defense. So many back-door cuts for Stanford.
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Wow, possible NCAA bid to no NIT in a three-week span. Sad. This team is so hard to watch.
It was a better season, but the end of season fade was a rough kick to the nuts. It’s like some of these guys simply forgot how to play basketball.
Both teams stunk up the building last night. We simply added more stink to our game.
It won’t surprise me if we just played our way out of the NIT.
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Correct. I’ve been trying to be philosophical about this. The improvement we saw early in the season was not a fluke. At least I don’t think it was. The utter collapse at season’s end is very disappointing. It makes me worry a bit about the future. I’m left hoping that the earlier part of the season is more a predictor of the future than the latter part. I think that’s a reasonable hope. But that’s all it is at this point – a hope. I’ll hang onto it. But…wow. Just wow.
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We really need Carlson to return. Without him next year is going to be bleak.
Coach needs to recruit him some floor-ready help.
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I used to love the NCAA tournament, but Utah losing 8 out of its last 10 has killed hoops for me, at least on the mens side.
I don’t know. Didn’t Stanford have nearly 40 points in the paint, mostly back-cutting the Utes to death for easy layups and dunks? Also, they only had 3 turnovers and had higher energy. They were clearly better than Utah and I thought they looked pretty solid.
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The real turn for the worse happened primarily from lack of depth, IMO. When Madden got hurt we couldn’t absorb that, and when Worster went down too we didn’t have a real chance. Both looked slower to me last night.
Exacte and Keita are excellent athletically, but aren’t good players yet. I have some hope they can be. Ben Carlson needs to be our M’Kay McGrath, and he isn’t yet. The puzzler to me is why we didn’t see more of Mike Saunders. When he got his chance a couple of weeks back he was lights out, but then never even got in the last two games. Something’s up there that’s not public is my only guess.
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For most of the season I’ve been pleased that the team has been getting stronger, but after the last few weeks I’ve lost much of my optimism. Last night in particular the team just seemed to have no real effort or desire (Branden had a nice final game at least). Stanford seemed to just be running pre-game layup drills most of the night with far too many uncontested shots right at the basket.
And quite disappointed that whatever has gone on this year with Saunders was never fixed. He showed he can play a damned good game of hoops when he lit up the Bruins for 25 points a few weeks ago and quite apparently there are underlying reasons why he has seen so few minutes this season. Part of that is likely due to the player’s attitude/actions, but part of that has to be with the staff not able to correct the situation.
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Watching UCLA/CU while eating lunch. I’m envious of schools with good basketball programs. To me, college basketball is more exciting without overly hyperbolized fanfare and pageantry. Listening to the commentators about what CU has coming in next year and who’s coming back, it’s exciting.
IMO, for Utah, there are so many unknowns, it’s tough to be sanguine about its future. Not sure if Carlson is coming back; not sure if other players will improve (especially given how poorly they played down the stretch); no known commits. As a student-of-the-game, I’m at a loss.
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That is what is most disturbing at this point. Hope that changes.
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Also, unlike many, I’m not sure about our freshmen players, either. Both Keita and Exacte bring in athleticism, but I’m not sure I’ve seen enough basketball IQ given their limited minutes. Tarlac – no clue.
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I agree.
In other games today, Colorado gave UCLA a good contest, leading with about 5 minutes left to play before the Bruins finally put them away. Right now, with 5 minutes left, Wazzou giving Oregon all they can handle.
This time of year, underdog teams tend to put forth their strongest effort, something we sadly didn’t see (as the higher seed) from Utah last night.
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Watching a good one between UO and Wazzu.
UO pulls it out. Again, envy.
FWIW
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Furd and Zona are playing neck and neck.
Props to Furd for playing tight for most of the game.