Nice Win vs UW! A few random observations

Basketball
1

My random observations:

  1. I know people love to complain about the refs, but I thought the Utes got more than their fair share of the 50/50 calls. IMO the refs actually helped the Utes a bit.

  2. Gach and Allen are VERY right handed. Good defensive teams see the film and account for it. That’s why it is more difficult for them to score against better competition. Despite this, Allen keeps banging away and contributes. He constantly forced his way into the paint. He had a couple blocked, but he piled up fouls on UW and that was one of the keys to the win. His poor FT shooting was a bit of an anomaly. Hopefully that gets fixed. OTOH Gach seems to get gun shy if he misses a couple of shots, and with his thin build he’s not anxious to generate contact and draw fouls. He can disappear vs a good physical defender. Same with Plummer, who also does not like contact (watch him and you’ll see).

  3. Jones was wearing a large elbow pad on his right arm. Anyone know why? I wonder if it effected his shooting.

  4. UW was shorthanded. They were missing 2 guys, including their starting PG (academics). Like the Utes they don’t have any PG depth, and that resulted in a rare game where the Utes had fewer turnovers vs a quality opponent. When 2 guys fouled out, UW ended up reaching deep into their bench at the end of the game.

  5. Battin and Carlson were unusually aggressive. It will make a big difference if this continues. Maybe they finally understand they have quality backups, and an extra foul here and there would not be the end of the world. As a result the Utes killed UW on the boards (+9), despite the presence of post beast Isaiah Stewart.

  6. The Utes can struggle to score. There are 2 Utes who entered the program with reputations as big-time scorers: Battin and Plummer. Battin has been strangely shy about trying to score until the UW game. He needs to step up! The Utes need his points, especially now that teams have figured out how to defend Allen and Gach. Plummer isn’t shy about trying to score and I have noticed Larry trying to find him more minutes lately, since the Utes also need his points.

  7. A lob!! A lob!! The Utes do a lousy job of throwing lobs and entry passing. That should be a point of emphasis for Jones. I see 3-4 missed opportunities for easy lob buckets every game. The entry passing is more problematic. The Utes bigs are thin so they struggle to establish position. When they manage to get some position, the Ute guards don’t get them the ball. That needs to be fixed.

My 2 cents. I tried not to repeat things that have already been said in other posts.

2

Regarding point number 1. I made a post about it being a very poorly officiated game. One thing that I didn’t point out was that it went both ways. I should have stated that at the time.

3

Reminds me of Majerus, who always said if young kids want to play basketball and are serious about it, they should put traffic cones out on their driveway and zig-zag dribble between them, switching left hand to right, for an hour each day. It’s probably too late for Gach or Allen to do that.