Runnin UTES anyone?

We are a young team, we will struggle this season but just wait a couple years.

No, they were a young team LAST SEASON. This season they return virtually EVERYBODY who played last year except for Both Gach and they’re adding a star freshman in Ian Martinez. Couple that with the fact that many Pac-12 teams graduated players or lost them to the NBA Draft, I look for Utah to make a big splash this season.

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Ha ha. The annual “we are young but we will be good in a couple years…”

you guys gotta stop giving moose the time of day. lol.

This is a tournament team. Really looking forward to this year.

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Which one is Moose?

Jim Fassel Era.

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I like the optimism. I think it could happen, but it depends on multiple things. We were not close to a tournament team last season, and we are mostly the same team with a few additions.

We need the most of the following to occur:

  1. More outside shooting. We know we have Jones and Plummer, but we need someone else to step up here. Carlson? Allen? Martinez? Brenchley? Larsson? Good teams nowadays have 4-6 players with a green light to shoot.
  2. Some kind of post presence. This could be Carlson or Jantunen. Neither showed any ability here last season, but both have the potential.
  3. General imrovement across the board on defense and rebounding.
  4. Carlson must make a sophomore leap to be an all-conference contender.

We typically have a primarily 7-8 man main rotation with a few others thrown in for 5 minutes per game. I think that rotation will be:

Guards: Jones, Plummer, Martinez
Forwards: Jantunen, Allen, Battin
Centers: Carlson, Thione

We’ll also find one guard out of Brenchley/Wenzel/Larsson/Keller who will get a handful of minutes. Whichever of those four either shoots it well consistently or plays tough defense will probably earn minutes. They are all tall guards, which may be useful since our main 3 are all short.

Are we the underdog against all teams in this tournament?

A couple of disagreements here…1) Jantunen was terrific around the basket last year. Dont need a back to the basket guy in todays game as much as you need smart guys who can get open and finish close to the hoop.
2) Larsson will either start at the 2 or he will get a big chunk of minutes. Rylan, Alfonso, and Larsson will be the top 3 minute guys there, with Ian getting time as well. Id say we have a 9 man rotation with the guys you mentioned plus Larsson.

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If we have a 9 man rotation, it will probably be the first time since Larry arrived. But if Larsson is better then Martinez, we can swap them in my post. I obviously haven’t seen either of them play.

Jantunen was alright, at times, around the basket. “Terrific” is a word I’d save for someone who makes more of an impact. There is a lot of room for improvement there, and if that improvement happens, it increases our odds significantly.

I agree that a back to the basket post player is not necessary, but it still helps a great deal to have one. Our offense has a tendency to stall. Our shooters are small and can be removed from the offense by good defenders. It’s always great to have a post option.

Its been a while, but 14-15 through 16-17 all had 9-10 man rotations. Hes done it when he has the personnel.

Jantunen shot 71% on 2’s last year on 105 attempts. Thats terrific. Yeah, im with you 100% it would dip at a higher clip, but thats still amazing in a college game.

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Is that a question that you are honestly asking? We were terrible last year, and we have the same guys suiting up for us this year minus one of our best (but still bad) players. Yes, we are the worst of those teams, and least when based off of last year’s production, and it really isn’t close.

I was really asking, and I don’t believe you really know where we stand relative to Dayton, Memphis, etc.

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  1. Yes, we need more, a lot more outside shooting. Jones and Brenchley are good shooters, but both missed a crapton of wide open looks last year. As a bit of a side note, if Jones is our go to perimeter scorer we will be every bit as bad as last year. He is too small and slow to get open shots when everyone knows he’s the one that is going to shoot with limited time on the clock. He was put in that situation a lot last year, and predictably did a terrible job (not his fault). My hope is that Allen will be a good three point shooter this year (ok ok, just kidding, that isn’t ever going to happen). Battin is also allegedly a good shooter but he, like the other two, misses most of his wide open threes (the ones he takes anyway, he passes up on most of his shooting opportunities). Battin in particular needs to shoot the ball or take a seat on the bench. He is too bad at everything else to pass up wide open threes.
  2. I think of your 4 points, this is the most likely to happen. Carlson and Jantunen were both actually ok down low on offense. They weren’t the classic Utah big man, but they were not useless on the block either. I think those two guys will be huge for us next year. Also, did you forget about Allen? He lives on the block.
  3. With Jantunen likely starting over Battin from now on, Carlson hopefully getting a bit stronger, and Thioune putting on what seems to be a ton of muscle, I think we are going to be better there.
  4. This will be the most important element to our success. If he becomes a consistent threat from midrange and maybe even 3 point range, plus cuts down on his fouls, that alone will put us in the tourney conversation. He has the potential to be one of the best players in college basketball. All the tools to score 25 a game, with at least 2 blocks, and 8-10 boards. I am a little concerned that he didn’t put any weight on this offseason, that is odd, and does not bode well for this team.

The biggest thing for this team will be to get out and run as much as possible. That is when we were at our best last year. We have 5 guys that can all run the floor exceptionally well, and a PG who is an excellent passer. We have to take advantage of that.

  • When we can’t take advantage of that, and teams put us in the press (which they always do because coach Krystow’s teams always suck ballsack at breaking the press), we MUST MUST MUST find a way to get through the press and get into our offense EARLY EARLY EARLY in the shot clock. No more of this pass the ball around the perimeter until 3 seconds left on the clock before we try and shoot the ball. That has been a hallmark of Krystow teams, and it is TERRIBLE basketball. That type of ball screams “I KNOW WE SUCK AND I SUCK AND EVERYBODY ON THIS TEAM SUCKS SO WE ARE JUST GOING TO HOLD ONTO THE BALL UNTIL THE LAST SECOND SO WE DONT GET BEAT BY AS MANY POINTS!!!” Yeah, that needs to stop. Get into the offense as soon as you cross half court, get the ball inside to Allen, Carlson, or Jantunen, make a play from there, shoot when open. Easy peasy.

Not being able to break the press is the root of every problem that every Krystkow team has ever had. Taking forever to break the press leads to a lack of confidence, which leads to nervous playing, which leads to missed shots and turnovers, which leads to players passing the ball around the perimeter and passing up open shots until there is no time left on the clock.

We HAVE TO GET BETTER at breaking the press, but that has been an issue for years, and it has never been addressed. It probably won’t happen this year, but if it does, our confidence as a team will improve, our passing will improve, our shooting will improve, our defense will improve… We’ll be a very good team.

Let me rephrase, We were the worst of those teams last year, and thus are likely expected to be the worst of them this year. We may turn out to be better than a few of them, but we will certainly be underdogs. How is that even a question?

I will wait and see. I’m not certain that we will be underdogs vs the entire field.

Let me add this to my list. We will be much improved if there is someone other than just Allen who is willing/able to drive to the basket. Maybe Larsson is that guy. Maybe it’s Martinez. If anyone can do it, it will help a lot.

(this was supposed to be Gach’s job)

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According to Newman, UVU is very likely to be added as well. That gives us 2 more assuming we can make the BYU game work. Im guessing itll be USU and Weber. They can both bus in, play, and bus out without having to spend the night (weather permitting).

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