Weird year. BYU has had (taken?) the opportunity to play a lot more than we have so far and as a result, they are further down the path than we are at figuring out who they are and what they are doing. Tonight, that factored in even though they clearly outplayed us.
I am confident we will get better as the season goes along. Its a tough pill to swallow for a number of reasons but on to the next I suppose.
Oregon, the highest rated PAc-12 team per kenpom, barely gets by Washington, who we dispatched pretty easily. Any given night. Especially in a season like 2020.
I think this is correct. When is his contract up? I like Larry, I donât want to see him fired. But I would like to see if someone could do better.
He has three years, including this one. We have gone the rounds on this board about it, but in normal circumstances, he would be in tourney or bust mode. He MAY escape this year simply because it would be a bad look to get a big lump of money together to buy him out when so many have been furloughed in that department. Perhaps someone could figure out a way to make it make economic sense to fire him (save money in the long run by paying a new coach a lot less or something), but time will tell.
Curious of some names to replace him should he go.
Itâs always the same - either an assistant of a big name coach or a mid major who just exceeded expectations.
Not interested enough in basketball to follow it nationally, but Alex Jensen and Chris Burgess are two local names likely to be bandied about.
Wtf??? Did Dr Hill give him like a 10 year deal after his only Sweet 16 season?? My God.
yes, exactly
Good Utah basketball would be nice, but I think an additional part of the issue is that college basketball in general is slowly decaying in quality and entertainment value.
The thing about basketball is the 3 point shot ruined it. It didnât initially. But somehow it took coaches 30 years to figure out that 3 points is 50% more than 2 points and the odds of an offensive rebound off a long 3 pt attempt approaches 50%, whereas offensive rebounding off close and midrange shots are below 25% because of defenders that block out. So really a three point attempt is advantageous on every possession unless youâre certain of getting a layup or dunk.
I remember watching Bobby Capener drain 3âs in 1987 with his stylish California bowl-cut, thinking wow, this is revolutionaryâŚwhat a disaster California, bowl cuts, BYU, and the three point shot became. Ruined everything.
You might be right. If so, I suspect we will have to go through one more struggling coach after Larry before fans will come to terms with the reality that not only will Utah basketball never again be what it was, but neither will college basketball ever again be what it was. I donât believe that, yet, but it may well be the reality we need to face.
Boy, Iâm a cheerful guy tonight, arenât I?
For me it is officiating. Pro basketball is barely recognizable as basketball anymore. College basket can still be fun but the officiating is truly horrible. Itâs difficult to discern if breathing on someone is a foul, or if a violent assault is required. Both, and neither are called during the course of an average game. It is easily the worst called game of the 3 major sportsâat least to me.
I think itâs the hardest sport to officiate.
I also think itâs a problem that drawing contact is one of the big three elite, essential skills along with shooting and defense. If you can crash hard to the basket and draw fouls, you and your team will go far. But thatâs not fun, and itâs not good for basketball.
I think this is one reason that basketball is more fun to play than to watch. In pick-up games, people arenât trying to draw contact. They are trying to score. Drawing contact just gets you a reset. It doesnât get FTs. And people arenât trying to foul; they are trying to play defense.
Timmy Allen spent the first half of last season going to the line. Thatâs what got his ppg so high. That dropped off later in the season. He did not get his 10 FTs yesterday, and that was a big difference. We need him to go to the line a lot, but what he did early last year doesnât seem to be sustainable.
All that said, basketball still has some great qualities as a spectator sport. The thrill and drama of a close game canât be beat.
Iâll just come out and say itâŚ
One of the biggest frustrations for me last night was watching Lohner and picturing him in a 3 man big rotation on our roster. He rebounds, can move, and can hit from the outside. He has some things to improve of course, but man what an upgrade.
I didnât like the way things went down this summer with him. I was hoping we would rise and take some payback. Probably as hard of a loss to take as I can remember.
I wasnât able to watch the game last night, so my question is based strictly from the boxscore. Utah took 10 more shots than BYU but made 7 fewer baskets. Did Utah have good shots that they just couldnât get to go down or were they consistently taking consisted? If the former, those nights happen.
We had a lot of open looks from outside that didnât go down. We also had to force a lot of shots as the clock ran down. We had difficulty getting easy baskets/points in the paint. And Allen was not able to get anything going offensively.
If youâve watched Utah basketball in recent years, you should have a pretty good idea what the game looked like.
I couldnât watch most of the game but your description sounds depressingly familiar. Larryball.