I took a look at Bracketology and as of tuesday, we were looking at a 7 seed. The ESPN blurb (which doesnt say much) even took time to say we are a noticeably lesser team without KM. 7 is about right for now. That loss to Northwestern is going to be an anchor on our season, unfortunately, but hopefully KM gets better soon and we can finish strong.
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I can use all the brain cells you can spare.
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Doom scrolling CooterboardâŚjust wow.
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From your keyboard to godâs ear.
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Utah beat TDS 81 - 76 in Happy Valley. Looks like McQueen played a few minutes. Will watch the game later.
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Tough battle throughout. BYU has some good young players.
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Great basketball game at BYU, Utah by 5!!!
We knew that BYU, with their disappointing season, was going to leave it all on the floor, and they did. This game was their âbowl gameâ. In the end, Utahâs starting five are just better than BYUâs, especially upfront.
That Delany Gibb is an extremely good player and is only a freshman. She is advanced offensively (she already is expert at the sneaky arm bar push off when driving), but is not there yet on defense and for this game had 8(!) turnovers. The Utes have their hands full dealing with her over the next few years. Otherwise, BYU, shot over 50% from three land and that is what kept them in the game. A normal shooting game for them, especially from Whiting, the Utes beat 'em by much more. BTW, as in fine BYU tradition, and I am sure Whiting family tradition, Jr. never stopped jawing at the refs on almost every call. Quite hateable.
As for the Utes, it was great to see McQueen get some minutes in the 1st half. She got 11 minutes and was on the floor for the Utes come back from 10 down to lead at half. Her impact on the Utes game cannot be understated.
I thought Wilke had a terrible game, she did hit an important 3 in the 4th quarter, but she also gave up 6 straight points to Gibb that got BYU back in the game when Utah was pulling away in the second half.
I have run out of superlatives to describe Kneepkens. She missed only one 3 pointer and that was a shot at the end of the clock that was deep. Wow, 32 points and 8 rebounds, quieting the Y crowd.
Johnson had another good game, her second in a row. Not shown in the box score but she did her job. Another mea culpa from me about Toure and her game. She was very good last night scoring 21 in only 23 minutes. Ross played a decent game, but was well guarded by BYU.
Frosh update: Walker was the only one that played and during her short time, she was on Gibb and let her score twice, but, at least she did a good job on a scramble and gave a trapped Vieira somewhere to look for an easy lay-up.
In the end, the Utes played a team desperate for a win, at home, against their rival, and from the early 2nd quarter outplayed the Y. Hopefully, McQueen can increase her minutes as we go on.
Only one game next week against Arizona on Friday, January 31. It is wear pink night and the game is on national TV on FS1. It would be great to see a big crowd supporting this team after a great win.
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Not sure what to think about our freshman class. Certainly would like to see more meaningful plays from them given a couple of them are 4* recruits.
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Halfway through the conference schedule and the Utes are 6-3 in conference play and a 26 NET ranking.
Remaining schedule (current NET Ranking)
Arizona (57)
@ Texas Tech (81)
UCF (147)
Colorado (61)
@ Arizona State (131)
Oklahoma State (27)
@ Cincinnati (70)
@ West Virginia (13)
BYU (85)
I think thats a fairly manageable schedule down the stretch. Some tough road games that will probably determine where our seed ends up. I think we have an outside shot of hosting in the tournament if things bounce our way and we can make a run in the conference tourney.
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The Utes get the luck of the draw getting Oklahoma State at home. The game that I think will be the hardest to win is the game in Morgantown against WVU. Other than WVU, the toughest games in order are at Texas Tech and at Cincinnati.
I predict a 7-2 close to the season and a 13-5 finish for conference record. The two losses are WVU and one of either Cincinnati or Texas Tech. We will see what seed that gives us for the conference tourney.
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Next yearâs backcourt competition will be interesting.
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Wow, that is pretty exciting. We have a new #2 and #22!
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We now need a competent big for next year.
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Why is it that I think not all three will make it here?
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What do you mean by ââŚmake it hereâ?
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On the team next fall. This just sounds so different from what recruiting/transfer has been recently.
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Definitely less of an issue with WBB and other non-money sports.
The one WBB player comes to mind when it comes to transfer portal is Hailey Van Lith, whoâs at her 3rd program in TCU.
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It certainly is possible that this spot will be filled from the portal. I watched the Oregon St v Washington St game the other day and both of these teams have three bigs (of varying ability). There are going to be portal bigs that arenât happy with their current playing time or some other factor that is not NIL, which is really for just the more famous, or to specific schools like Van Lith to TCU, Beers to Oklahoma, and the UCLA and USC players that transfered (Irifian et al).
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Big game tonight vs Arizona. Although we beat the kitties down there by double digits, Arizona is on a bit of a winning streak, with an upset over #16 WVA as its latest win.
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I take comfort in that the AZ win againt WVU was at home, where any menâs or womenâs team wins a lot. Also remembering that we beat AZ pretty handily in Tucson just this year.
That said, I do agree, the team must be focused or AZ can certainly win.