Hoops tonight vs Manhattan College

Get out and support the team if you are in town. At the minimum, it’s cheap entertainment!

In the Hunty at 3PM MT time. On PAC-12 network. Joe Cravens on the broadcast.

Manhattan relocated to the Bronx in 1922 when their campus real estate became so ridiculously valuable they sold it to build their endowment.

They play in the MAAC (Iona, Canisius, Marist, etc) and were picked in the middle of the pack. They are 6-2, but their best win is probably Liberty. They have been pounded by Old Dominion and Quinnipiac. Their Sagarin rank is 264. The Utes are 68th. The Utes are a 16 point favorite.

They have some size. Like the Utes they used the portal to rebuild this year, so they are still trying to figure out exactly what they have. They rebound and shoot OK, but appear to be plagued by turnover problems. They get to the FT line a lot.

Here’s the preview from the official site:

I get to take my 8 year old grandson to this today. I’m pumped.

7 Likes

byu-provo delivering a blow to our Sagarin rating. Got stuffed by Creighton.

3 Likes

BYU’s climb to No. 12 in the rankings was based mostly on its blowout of Oregon. Turns out Oregon (shockingly) sucks this year. BYU has a pretty decent squad, but it’s in no way a top 20 team.

1 Like

I certainly hope we can social distance while in the arena this afternoon. :frowning:

2 Likes

yikes

I was considering going, even had someone offer me a ticket. Prior plans took precedent.

That said, I probably wouldn’t have gone because my knee is acting up and I didn’t feel like walking from the tailgate lot to the Hunty in brutal cold weather. I used to be able to park closer but that changed two years ago. You would think that since they are getting only about a thousand folks to games they would just let you park where you could find a place.

4 Likes

My zone is C so we parked north of HPER. Nobody checked the pass.

Utes win by 34. Too bad so few fans saw the game.

3 Likes

Surprisingly this wasn’t much of a game. Manhattan came in with a low RPI, but the consensus was they were better than that. The consensus was wrong. The Utes tore them apart. They couldn’t match up with the Ute bigs, so Carlson, Thioune and Battin all had good a good night. Career game for Thioune. Gach continued to impress.

First career bucket for walk-on Harrison Creer. Congratulations young man!

Worster got in foul trouble which has often shown to be a recipe for disaster, but the Utes survived it. The Utes shredded the Manhattan press.

It’s finals week, so the next game isn’t until Saturday at Missouri. 2:30PM MT time on the SEC network.

The upcoming schedule is interesting. The Utes could win the next 7 games! They could also lose all 7.

1 Like

Lahat kept racking up points, rebounds, even a block or two - hopefully this is his breakout.

He’s not a gifted offensive player by nature, he’s not a volume chucker, but remember that video that showed him knocking down 22 threes in a row (or whatever it was)? He’s definitely a good FT shooter, and that baby jump hook looks potent.

The game takes longer to come to some players than others, and hopefully things are coming together for Thioune, because he’s got great upside. And Smith seems like the kind of coach under which he could blossom.

4 Likes

I found Craig Smith’s comments about Riley Battin on the post-game to be really interesting. Apparently Battin had an injury early in the year. Smith’s comment was that nobody works harder than Battin, but they’ve needed to coach him to work smarter. He was pushing his rehab too hard, and as a result didn’t recover as quickly. They love the effort, but also want him to work within himself to be the best he can be. I’d say the same thing could be true for Lahat. The whole discussion by Smith made me think he’s better suited to work with 18 to 22 year olds than maybe Larry was.

7 Likes

here, here!

2 Likes

Lahat has really blossomed the first month of the season. Still seems a bit sloppy at times, but definitely improving and really getting those rebounds.

4 Likes

This is encouraging because we didn’t see this type of performance showing up on the floor under LK. Yes, this was against a low mid-major, but If Smith is able to get this out of his players consistently, that’s a great thing.

Maybe most importantly, Utah was plus-13 on the glass and defended at a superb clip, yielding just 32.8% shooting, including just 5-for-20 from 3-point range. The rebounding and the defense are two things that Smith demands, two things Smith will never go soft on, and he got them both for the majority of 40 minutes on Saturday.

1 Like

my wife has plantar fasciitis and I slipped on the ice on Friday and jacked up my back. Together we look like extras from the Walking Dead show.

We are both in desperate need of some magical elixir from a Utah county MLM. Send help

What is a Jasper anyway, is it a tree?

2 Likes

Jasper was the beloved Dean of Students in the early days of Manhattan College.

2 Likes

or is it “hear, hear”? It looks like it is :slight_smile:

1 Like