Along with Football, many other sports are starting to have news and schedules.
Women’s basketball has released their non-conference schedule for this year. This includes playing Syracuse and UConn in Connecticut for the Hall of Fame Classic. You may remember that Utah traveled to Connecticut and played South Carolina at this tournament a couple of years ago. This time they get two games at the Classic.
Utes have also recently received commitments from the two highest ranked players from Utah.
https://x.com/BartleKSLsports/status/1950043744180273483/photo/2
https://x.com/utladyprospects/status/1953081497021464627/photo/1
I am guessing that Satuala is the sister of the volleyball team Satuala? If so, nice pipeline to keep alive.
Also, finally a real center and some height for the team, for the first time in a few years.
Yep
Great video on current Utah women’s basketball team
Thanks for posting that. Completely outstanding. Did I notice Jenna in some of the workouts? If so, she must be helping the team this year somehow.
Edited to say, it will be a very interesting year with four freshman, Lani coming back, and the big Aussie ready to go.
Today is Kids day today at the Huntsman Center with the Utes playing the University of Sioux Falls (DII). Surprise, Elaine Elliott is doing the color on the broadcast. Great to see her!
Now that Wilke is not behind anybody on the depth chart, I hope she is aggressive looking for her shot this year (she was too passive last year).
I am excited to see the team and see the new players in action. Starters today are Ross, Otto, Walker, Wilke, and White.
Should be very interesting.
I attended in person. My ears are still ringing from the shrieks of a couple thousand elementary school kids, but its all good!
-Gavin treated this as another exhibition. More than once he swapped all five players on the court and gave a decent amount of playing time to 10 of 11 healthy players. All 11 players got at least 6 minutes and all 11 scored at least one bucket.
-It sounds like freshman wing Ella Todd will miss the year with an injury.
-Chyra Evans didnt suit up for this one. She played the other night in the exhibition, so hopefully it was precautionary.
-Two leading scorers tonight were both freshmen in Evelina Otto and Avery Hjelmstad. Otto started and was great throughout. 15 points on 5/7 shooting and 5/6 from the line. Also grabbed 9 boards. I dont know how much of this will carry forward and how much is taking advantage of an overmatched opponent, but they looked for her early and often down low. Thats something ill keep my eye on, as I think having a reliable low post scorer can really help the shooters get open.
-Hjelmstad caught fire late for most of her damage, but she has a really nice looking shot.
-Wilke was pretty aggressive looking for her shot, just didn’t fall as much as youd like to see today.
-Brooke Walker was solid as the starting point guard, 9 points 4 assists. The backup, 5 star freshman La Sneed had some moments too, but had trouble finishing near the rim and made some freshman plays. I think that position is gonna be ok for now and will keep getting better and better throughout the year.
Again, its one game against inferior competition, but if I had to base it off this one game, I think that in games against better competition, we will see the same starting 5 as today (Walker, Wilke, White, Ross, Otto) and will see Hjelmstad, Sneed, and 2 of whoever is doing the best among Evans/Crispe/Mafua get the bulk of the minutes with Potter mixed in as needed.
I noticed two players at the end of the bench that didn’t play and wondered about Todd and Evans. Bad news about Todd, but I also hope we can see Evans soon.
I wasn’t as high on Otto as you were, I thought her footwork was a bit slow and as such, defensively she will get called for a ton of fouls when we start conference play. A lot of freshman have that problem, but I see it coming for Otto. Also, I can see why Foster doesn’t play as much, she was not very good defensively yesterday, those USF players were going past her like she is a pylon.
I also thought that Sneed needs to get better finishing at the rim when she drives. A big part of the Utes offense is inside, outside, with drives mixed in, and she needs to learn to take contact and finish.
Evans is the only player over 6’2" on the team, and I think the team will desparately need her because of Otto’s inexperience and Crispe’s continuation of not really being a P4 level player.
Funny thing I noticed, other than Sneed, Foster, and Evans, the rest of the team is all between 6’ and 6’2".
Interesting to see Mafua take some threes. If she is any good at that (better than 35%) matchups against the Utes become difficult.
When watching I kept trying to project how we match up in the conference, the team was picked to finish 8th in the conference, and based on this extremely small sample size, that seems about right.
In the end, if this team can collectively shoot 3 pointers above 35% (last year they shot 37%), and we can get any contribution down low, this team can be really good.
90-53 win over Utah State up in logan.
Aggies are perennially one of the worst teams in the country. Outside of the second quarter where they hit a number of 3s, it was complete Utah domination.
No Otto tonight. Not sure whats up there. Chyra Evans started in her utes debut, going for 8 points, 7 boards, 3 assists and a block in 22 minutes. Lani White had 19, Hjelmstad added 15 where again she caught fire late.
We will see UVU in the JMHC on tuesday night and Washington comes to town next saturday afternoon in the second game of a home and home. We got them last year up in Seattle but ESPN has them winning with an 89% chance right now.
USU is not good. This game could have been significantly more lopsided had the Utes not committed so many unforced turnovers (20 for the game). This team can be good, but will be out athleted most nights in BIG 12. They don’t have an offensive player like Kneepkins or defensive players like Viera and the gal from Kamas (old age forgetting is a ■■■■■).
Agreed. The team does not “look” athletic, sans Snead, who’s just a freshman.
Her name is McQueen.
I was really looking forward to see Evans and I was underwhelmed. This didn’t look at all like the player that had the stats she did at Michigan. I know, just one game, but with Evans and Otto in the middle, I see lots of fouls called, and shots blocked.
I love how aggressive Hjelmstad is in looking to shoot. Almost the anti-Wilke.
Walker had another good game. It will be interesting to see her against increased competition. She has a nice little shot moving into the lane and popping off a 10 footer.
This week will be much more of a nice test for the team.
Just watched Kneepken’s UCLA highlights vs UCSB. She scored 20 and was 4/8 from 3. We’ll miss her.
I assume she has national championship aspirations. UCLA certainly has a chance.
Those of yoyu wondering where Otto was against USU, here is the answer. Pretty cool for her.
https://x.com/UTAHWBB/status/1987954456609313203?s=20
That is pretty neat. Looks like a big deal in Latvia.
After watching 1/2 of the game vs UVU, besides having national championship aspirations, I can see why Kneepken transferred. The team is young and has a limited amount of talent. Kneepkens would once again be the focal point and have to do a lot.
At UCLA, Kneepkens is just one of the stars who could shine on any given night. Against #8 in Oklahoma, she scored 20 pts and was 4/8 from the 3 – also scored in a number of different ways. At Utah, she would be very limited. When Pili was around (plus a few others like McQueen), that just created more opportunities.
P.s. Elaine Elliot is a terrific analyst.
Agreed 100%. After 3 games, we look like a team who may sneak in to the tournament for the fifth straight year but might not. Even with GK, we probably arent a threat to advance past the first weekend.
My only complaint is that when she gets drafted after this year (ESPN currently has her going 11 overall to the Mystics), theyll label her as being from UCLA instead of Utah. Always felt she was a better pro prospect than AP, even if Pili was the better college player.
Unless something changes with Otto/Evans, this is what I think as well. I said above that 8th in the conference (the preseason vote) sounded about right and if everything breaks their way, then great.
One thing I did see last night was that everybody but Blanck (we know that situation) and Mafua played. I do wonder why Mafua didn’t play. Anybody hear anything on that?
Oh, and ugh, all those turnovers (22)!!!
