The Utes looked better than I expected. A road W is always a big plus.
Props to the team for opening on the road with a win. As young as this team is, that is a positive achievement and something to build on.
GO UTES!!!
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Nevada is not a great team, but for this team to go on the road, and play a true road game, and pull out the win is impressive.
I thought for sure they’d fold when Nevada took the lead with about 8 minutes left, but they didn’t, they looked like a veteran, experienced team, not a bunch of freshmen and sophomores.
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Lets not get crazy here, Nevada is as young as we are and frankly not very good. That said, I agree that we looked better than expected. Road win is a road win and Carlson is already better than Jayce, and Lahat is probably at least equivalent. Makes sense why he left. There was nothing left for him here.
Rylan will continue to improve, Both, Allen, and Battin will provide an ok anchor. But OMG FREETHROWS KIDS FREETHROWS!!
Glad to see our turnovers were at least somewhat under control. Sad that we lead the nation last year.
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The Running Utes looked much better than they have in years. I like these guys. Let’s hope they stick around a bit.
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Nevada is not as young as we are. They played five upper classmen and we played one, Alfonso Plummer. You are correct though when you say that Nevada did not look good. Except for Drew having a career night, it would have been worse for them. Unless Alford can right the ship, they will struggle this year. I also felt that a lot of calls went our way. The free throw disparity was significant. If Allen alone had shot better at the line, the margin of victory would have been larger. Hopefully we continue to draw fouls and rebound.
I was impressed with everyone who played for Utah. They all performed well I thought. Jantunen in particular was +14 and he is tough. The commentator rightly pointed out that he is a freshman who is not afraid to mix it up. He did not take a shot but he set picks and rebounded.
It was a good first outing for a very young team.
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They did well considering their lack of experience. I thought many of their mistakes are fixable (spacing, especially) and they need to shoot free throws better. Carlson can get to be very good. Both Gach has seriously bulked up, too. I’m liking the new, svelt and quick Timmy Allen as well. We won’t be world beaters but have the potential to be ok. I don’t expect NCAAs this year, but this core group can be really good in one or two years.
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IMO it’s only a matter of time before Jantunen replaces Battin in the starting lineup.
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There is some raw talent that could be good in a year.
Whats with all the rebounding fouls? I don’t watch the NBA so I’m not sure if they are called as often in the league. On TV it’s hard to tell why one player is being called for a foul when both players are going for a loose ball. All the rebounding fouls I saw favored Utah, as they all seemed to be called on Nevada and I thought they were bad calls.
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Free throw shooting is a bit of a concern (but we made most of them in the closing few minutes). Hopefully more of the treys will start falling (with the longer shot this year).
A bit concerned we let Larry Drew’s son go off for 30 (seems career highs by opposing players has been a problem for us in recent years).
But pleased with our ability to penetrate and score or draw fouls as well as controlling the rebounds.
Very happy that a few times when they were making runs and had the crowd yelling for a knock out blow we kept our cool and calmly came back each time.
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Many Ute teams have struggled against opponents who have a good free throw defense. 
I know this is a low bar to clear, but they didn’t look hapless out there. That’s something, given their youth.
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Fair point, maybe young isn’t the right word, inexperienced is probably better given they are JC transfers etc. Essentially they were only returning two players, one of whom didn’t play and the other was not even a starter.
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