I watched a fair amount of their game against Colorado hoping that CU could pull it off. Spoiler… they didn’t. Is it just me or is that OSU coach very hateable? She performed the same referee wrangling she did in SLC. Maybe an heir apparent to the Hurley dynasty.
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No kidding. Those players deserve a great send-off. The work they put in for the program are hard to quantify but the quality of work is easy to see. If indeed the recruits continue to stay committed to Petersen, the ground work that these Utes gave to the program will be measurable for a long time.
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I’ll be at the Hunty against TDS.
Any other UFNers will be there? Let’s get a group going. @LuckyUte – start driving after the WVA game. LOL
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The door into the top-4 seeding is ever so slightly ajar. Kansas State just got blown out at home by Baylor tonight. KSU is 1/2 game ahead of Utah and still has to play at Iowa State, which won’t be easy.
If – a big if – Utah can win at WVA and then take care of TDS at home, then it could be the 4th seed. This assumes ISU beats KSU, of course. Again, KSU has the head-to-head tie breaker.
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I watched about 1/4 of that game and Baylor was rolling. They have won 9 games in a row.
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Big game tonight vs WVA at 5 PM MT.
@LuckyUte have fun at the game and safe travels.
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Holy poop…Utah scored just 18 points in two quarters. Shooting 24% and just 19% from 3. Kneepkins has taken only 3 shots. 12 turnovers so far.
Talk about a horrible performance. If this goes on, we definitely do not deserve a top-4 seed in B12. What a melt down…but, we consistently do this against the top B12 teams. Maybe we are just that far below the top level competition.
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It was disheartening to see such a woeful shooting performance. I can tell you from being there, that no one is more frustrated than the team and players. They had many good looks, they just didn’t go. When Crispe missed a wide open layup on a 2-0 with not a soul around, I knew the team was cursed in that building.
I thought McQueen and Wilke did a nice job on JJQ in the first two quarters, but Viera took her in the third and though she could match Quinerly’s quicks, she just got shot over again and again, fadeaways, threes, running hooks and angled lay ups, everything was going in.
By the time we switched back to McQueen on JJQ the damage had been done.
If every team we see from now on doesn’t press the Utes full court, that would be coaching malpractice. If the Utes weres able to get even a few of those good looks to drop and JJQ isn’t a complete fireball, that game is a lot closer despite the turnovers. I mean WVU turned the ball over almost 20 times themselves.
It will be interesting to see whether Jekyll or Hyde shows up for WVU in Kansas City. JJQ took over that game, but by my semi-knowledgable basketball IQ, that WVU team does nothing unless JJQ is doing something, and it is likely easier to take her out of games on the road or neutral.
It was great to be one of about 10 Ute voices in the crowd and I was able to get a nice “way to play hard” clapping as the team exited the court. I had several fans greet me cordially and strike up conversations, WVU has a great fanbase.
Though a tough loss, it is always fun to see the Utes in person.
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Great report. Thank you.
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Thanks @justaute, I appreciate it.
I sat down on the court and as such, couldn’t see the live stat board on the scoreboard, so I reviewed the game stats just now.
Players in double figure points
Team A: 1
Team B: 1
Percent of team points by that 1 player
Team A: 50.7%
Team B: 26.1%
Assist to FG made percentage
Team A: 46.7%
Team B: 78.6%
Bench Points
Team A: 14
Team B: 10
Rebounds
Team A: 34
Team B: 37
Second chance points
Team A: 6
Team B: 7
So, who won this game just based on this? Hard to say, right, you might even say Team B based on how much one of the teams relied on a single player and how much better Team B shared the ball (meaning that one player for Team A was doing a lot of one-on-one work). Then how about these stats
Turnovers
Team A: 16
Team B: 28
Points off Turnovers
Team A: 35 (almost half the team’s total points)
Team B: 3
Fast Break Points
Team A: 20
Team B: 1
Total FG %
Team A: 48.4
Team B: 31.5
Those stats really tell the story. I wonder if Petersen had made two changes in coaching what would have been the difference (not to second guess the coach, just musing): (a) keep McQueen on JJQ the whole game; and (b) play Toure a bunch more than 25 minutes and feed the post much more.
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A very disappointing performance so far. If Utah can’t hit from outside, it’s done. Inside game is almost non-existent. The team is often so careless with the ball.
The every other or 1 out of 3 games of good shooting just isn’t going to carry the team anywhere.
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Gibb is an amazing player.
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Wow…Wilke!!
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In the post game presser Gavin said that they recruited the heck out of Gibb.
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She would have been a huge get. We don’t have anyone like her, certainly not any young players.
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Finally able to watch the game today. The team must have had the same shooting shoes that they wore in Morgantown. That third quarter, pee-yew.
Second game in a row the Utes let another teams guard go off on us. Take away Gibb (who was 13-18 for 72%) and BYU is 14-51 for 27%. Yes, Gibb pretty much made half the teams field goals.
It seems that hole in our defense is Vieira. She guarded Gibb a lot of the game and McQueen was guarding Whiting, with Kneepkens on Congden. McQueen and Kneepkens held their players in check, but, again, Vieira can’t. I think she is more of a rover and not a heads up defender one-on-one. Should have switched McQueen and Vieira defensively.
Almost best that Vieira fouled out, because she would have had the ball at the end instead of Wilke. 10 times out of 10 I want Wilke trying a half court prayer over anybody else on the roster. I was getting ready for 2OT, and was stunned and simly fell off my couch and scared my neighbor with my mighty yelp.
You guys are so right, the team just doesn’t value having the ball and that must be fixed.
In the end, the team lost to the five teams in front of them in the conference standing, two of those at home.
Next week, conference tournament. Matchups not totally set as there are three games today, including the game for 1st place between TCU and Baylor. But, it does look like if we win the first game, we have Oklahoma St in the quarters and that home loss to them kept the Utes from 4th. Ugh.
Here is how it stands now…
1st Day
9 Colorado v 16 Houston
10 Cincinnati v 15 Arizona State
11 Kansas v 14 UCF
12 Texas Tech v 13 BYU
2nd Day
5 WVU v TT/BYU
6 Utah v KU/UCF
7 Iowa St v Cin/ASU
8 Arizona v Col/Hou
3rd Day (if all goes to seed)
TCU/Bay v Arizona
TCU/Bay v Iowa St
OSU v Utah
KSU v WVU
As always, Go Utes.
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Ugh, Kansas State got smoked by ISU. Had Utah not poop the bed against Oklahoma State, Utah would have gotten a top 4 seed in B12. Or, had Utah beaten just one of the top 5 B12 team. Sigh…guess we are what the record indicates we are.
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Here are the final brackets for the WBB tourney in Kansas City. BYU, despite the loss moved up one spot and now has a much easier game against UCF. If the Utes can beat the KU/TT winner, they are still lined up against OSU. The Utes owe them after OSU’s shenanigans at the Huntsman.
First Round - Wednesday, March 5
Game 1 - No. 12 BYU vs. No. 13 UCF - 11 a.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 2 - No. 9 Colorado vs. No. 16 Houston - 1:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 3 - No. 10 Cincinnati vs. No. 15 Arizona State - 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 4 - No. 11 Kansas vs. No. 14 Texas Tech - 8 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Second Round - Thursday, March 6
Game 5 - No. 5 K-State vs. BYU/UCF - 11 a.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 6 - No. 8 Arizona vs. Col/Hou - 1:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 7 - No. 7 Iowa State vs. Cin/ASU - 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 8 - No. 6 Utah vs. KU/TT - 8 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Quarterfinals - Friday, March 7
Game 9 - No. 4 West Virginia vs. Winner of Game 5 - 11 a.m. CT, ESPNU
Game 10 - No. 1 TCU vs. Winner of Game 6 - 1:30 p.m. CT, ESPNU
Game 11 - No. 2 Baylor vs. Winner of Game 7 - 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 12 - No. 3 Oklahoma State vs. Winner of Game 8 - 8 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Semifinals - Saturday, March 8
Game 13 - Winner of Game 9 vs. Winner of Game 10 - 3 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Game 14 - Winner of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 12 - 5:30 p.m. CT, ESPN+
Final - Sunday, March 9*
Game 15 - Winner of Game 13 vs. Winner of Game 14 - 4 p.m. CT, ESPN
Yes, pretty much. But, I would temper the discussion about losing to the top 5 by saying we had the three toughest teams on the road (TCU, Baylor, WVU) and played very close games against the top 2. Yes, they pooped the bed at home against OSU, but those close road games against TCU and Baylor (without McQueen, mind you) are better representation of the team than the blowout at WVU.
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Been going to games at the Huntsman Center for almost 30 years now and that ending against BYU just might be my all-time favorite. Way too soon to say, need to let the recency bias drop off some but man alive, that was fun. Shoutout to all the free throws made down the stretch and to Gianna for finding a way to get us to OT.
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