The Start of Conference Play

My expectations had risen with our recent play and hot start. With our starting 3 and backup 3 4 and 5 out my expectations have lowered. A competitive game with USC and a chance to win vs Cal will make for an interesting start to the season.

Things I’d like to see/develop.
Carlson and Worster keep up their hot start. Really like what I’ve seen from these two so far. Going to be a fun duo for the next few years.
Riley keeps up his play. Fewer turnovers more offensive boards would be nice.
Jenkins gets his mojo back. We need every point he can muster and one lick of defense would be great.
Gach has got to be significantly better on both sides of the court. He has been underwhelming so far.
Lazar keeps being aggressive on offense. We desperately need something out of him rebounding the ball. Improved defense, not super high expectations for freshmen.

Hype article from the official site about tonight’s conference opener vs USC.

I am glad it isn’t worse.

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Coming up on the 12:00 TO in the first half. Rebounding is still an issue but I like the scrappiness of these guys. They play like they want it. As I type this they’re playing even with a much bigger and more athletic team. Just the effort makes me feel good about the long term prospects. Down 2 at the TO.

Oh, crap. Carlson goes down with a sprained ankle. Hard to tell how bad it is yet but it rolled quite a bit. Snake bit with injuries this year.

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Wheels off now. USC up 11 at the 4:00 TO. They are simply too much for us without Carlson. Time to just watch for warm fuzzies.

HoopUte…you ready to suit up? So many early season injuries…on an already short bench.

Any eligibility I had went away a long time ago and the skill was never there. :joy:

This specific injury isn’t worse, but the overall picture got worse today with the loss of Carlson.

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Who gave the injury bug the invite? I can’t remember the last time we had so many getting hurt this early in the season.

I think it’s just bad luck, but sometimes I wonder what training and conditioning regiment programs have as well as trainers approach. Maybe that’s just a futile hope that some injuries are more preventable, but again, it’s probably just bad luck.

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Brutal sequence of injuries. Had been hoping we might get Marco back last night, but instead he wasn’t able to go and now Branden is gone for a while.

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I’m finding comfort this morning in the simple fact that were not ASU

#tendermercies

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Wow. My daughter’s HS game was 50-35.

Reminds me of the 2015 and 2016 seasons when Utah played ASU at home. In 2015, Utah held ASU to just 8 points in the first half. The next year, I believe ASU improved to 9 or 10 first-half points. Utes won both games by about 40.

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I remember that game. I don’t remember ever feeling that bad for an opponent. It felt like there should have been a mercy rule in play.

As always: screw ASU!

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Utah’s first year in the PAC12 (when we had something like 6 wins all year long) we buried ASU in the Hunty. Believe it was our biggest margin of victory of the season.

I am starting to think Hurley might not last the season.

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I hope he lasts. He makes them really really easy to hate.

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