Wow…bully? It’s a basketball game. It’s an observation about basketball, not a personal attack. I see why I had previously left UFN. Basic human interaction and social etiquette are almost non-existent. The fact you are making this personal really says something. sigh…
I’m finished here.
Agreed. Given the age/experience of this team, I think we are on the track – as long as the team continues to progress on this trajectory. Should hav more help coming in next year, in addition to the development of the current team.
You’re finished here, after one observation by a fellow poster? Grow a spine. It just seemed like you had zeroed in on Battin, without recognizing that there are shortcomings with other players as well.
I just really dislike ingame observations from fellow fans when they involve focusing on one individual. How about a more balanced approach to your critique? This is not a personal attack, merely a suggestion.
Mom…Dad…please stop fighting.
Yeah, I agree. Mommy is going to back down now.
Timmy needs more rest
Spine? haha. Must be a Trump-supporter. Making comment about one player does not preclude not having thoughts about others. Must be difficult for some to hold multiple thoughts and ideas. Not surprising. I guess I just wasted a few more minutes of my time. Oh well.
Not a Trump supporter here, that’s for sure. Sorry if I misconstrued your comments, I certainly didn’t mean to get into a conflict, I just saw the focus on Battin in a couple of posts and assumed an agenda.
I’m interested in your other observations about the game. Battin certainly didn’t have a great game (other than on the boards), but overall the team played well.
Dude, don’t worry about it. Sh!t happens and I didn’t take it personal in that you don’t know me. The reason I focused on Battin’s play because what he’s done over the season, not just this game. And, of course, other players made mistakes. When a player is not particularly athletic, and that’s ok, if one off-sets it with good fundamentals and understanding of the game – offense comes and go, but defense and good fundamentals don’t. Battin didn’t do that and really hurt the team’s chances. I’m hopeful he continues to improve, but we need him, who’s more experienced that most of his peers to step up. Maybe he doesn’t have the capacity. I don’t know. I certainly he will.
Overall, we clearly played a very competitively. We don’t have the horses to compete with the likes of Oregon/AZ, but we are young and more talents are coming in. I noticed that we don’t play the passing lanes very well and don’t play enough help-defense. Because our players, collectively speaking, are not as athletic, we have to do the little things. For example, after Pritchard drove into the lane and under the basket, Timmy went outside of Oregon’s big man (Dante?) to defend him – kudos to him; however, Timmy should have gone between the between Pritchard and Dante to cut off the passing lane and deny the pass; instead. Dante just boxed out Timmy and caught the ball for an easy dunk.
When Battin when to help Jantunen double-team an Oregon’s player, Brenchley should have rotated down, but he did not; again, instead, Oregon’s player made a pass for another uncontested dunk. Also, as impressive as Rylan is, I think he tried to make too many cute/spectacular passes that often failed and led to turnovers. Threating those passes is cool when we have the players to catch and finish them. As of now, I don’t think we are there. Other than Timmy and Gach, most of the other players are “blue collar” players who are not spectacular athletes. Majerus was successful in making his “blue collar” workers into good, effective players, and thus team, with just a couple of great athletes.
Above are just a few examples of my observation, correct or not. Anyway, overall, I am quite pleased with this team give its collective age and experience. If they can continue to develop, and with a couple more prized incoming talents next year, I think we’ll really have a team. For this year, if the progress continues, I think we’ll finish well. Of course, redundantly and obviously, this is just my opinion.
What I saw at the game:
I really like this team. I think they’re going to get better and better, especially with the incoming talent. We’ll have to be patient, but I think we will be in the NIT rbis year if we keep playing as well as we are. That post-season experience will really help. And who knows? We might really pull off a miracle and end up in the tournament. (When I say “miracle” I mean it, because I don’t think we should expect that.)
Our guys are gritty, and hung around in the game even though it was boys v. men — and we were the boys — skinny kids against long, tall, sturdy, experienced men who had a speed and quickness advantage. We just didn’t have enough to overcome that.
BUT — We were in the game until the last 15 seconds. Yes, I know we don’t like moral victories, but sometimes they are important, as when you have a team of freshman and sophomores against a definite tournament team at the very beginning of the conference season.
Carlsen and Lahat are not strong enough yet to win battles under the hoop. They won’t be until next season, and even then only if they hit the weights in the off season.
Larry’s end of game weakness showed — again. Didn’t we have a plan to get the last shot into the hands of a good three-point shooter? Instead, Allen took the shot. That last play was bizarre and disappointing. The odds were against us making the trey but we ought to at least give the team the best chance to win.
Our lack of speed showed as Richardson and others repeatedly blew by their Ute defenders and got to the rim for layups. It was hard to watch.
I was very encouraged by almost everything I saw in this game, with the exception of the last few minutes of the first half, and the end of the game. I don’t blame Allen for taking the shot, whatever they were trying to run fell apart - but the game should not have ended with him taking that shot.
I really see it the same way. I don’t think the final play was a blemish on the game, which was pretty much lost already, in the absence of a heroic play by someone. It was just interesting to see that we can’t seem to find our way to making a well-conceived and well-executed effort at the end of a close game. You’re right, almost everything else about this game was encouraging, and I am proud of how this young group is playing. They’re fun to watch.
Really enjoyed both games this weekend. Solid win over a good Beavers team and gave the best visiting team we’ll see in the Hunty all they could handle.
This is a good article.
Utah is short on big men with experience and ability. We need the minutes played by who we have while we wait for experience to improve them or others to come in. That said, they exceeded expectations against Oregon. Jones will learn what passes he can make about what kind of players. He will refine his basses and be great.
The other problem at the end of the game was waiting so long to put Oregon into 1 and 1 free throws. Creeping up to the end of the game we had fouls to give but needed to be at six to be ready to foul and get the ball back. Number 6 came way late where #7 should have been, #7 never happened.
The TV color man noted on that play that Allen was looking for Gach and it seemed the play was designed that way, but Oregon had it well covered and left no other choice. The open 3 that Jones missed with about 90 seconds left that would have tied was the big miss.
Yup…Casey Jacobsen said the same during the PAC 12 BB show.
Yes. We got outplayed and maybe out-coached. I’m optimistic that we will learn, but this kind of thing has been happening for a long time.
I read a few weeks ago that there are 353 mens Division I hoops teams, and the Utes are the second youngest. So, if they go .500 in Pac-12 play they are doing pretty good. If everybody comes back next year (not a foregone conclusion in today’s environment) then I am going to be expecting that they ought to be doing much much better.
Agreed. We return our roster plus that nifty recruiting class and I think we look pretty good the next few years. I am cautiously optimistic.