Starters: Bean, Jeff, Britt, Mike, Nate
Rim fillers: Nate, Britt, Nick, Bean.
Long-range bombers: Bean, Nick
Playmakers: *none*
Penetrators: Bean, Trav, Britt
Glass-eaters: Nate, Mike
Stoppers: *none*
Pine-riders: Lance, Marc
DNP: Jon, Cam

The game started out rather pleasantly. There were many entry passes to Nate, who made some strong moves for some low-post buckets. Britt was on fire. Nick's buttery shot was melting the net. Phil put it on the floor and found open spots for his jumpers. Mike and Nate (and to a lesser extent, Britt and Chris) were rippin' the boards. The Utes ran up a 15 point lead midway through the first half.

After that, it was all All-Stars. They slowly chipped away at the lead. There were no big spurts in the game, just trading baskets. EA Sports can shoot. They can hit the threes, their bigs can knock down the 3 ft. hooks all day against Nate, Lance or whomever. Most of their fast breaks ended with on-target mid-range jumpers, rather than challenge the defender for a foul. When they did get to the stripe (like at the end) they made those, too.

After the Utes came down from their high, it was rather sloppy. Many of the guys winced during the timeouts, as if it had been a very long, tiring day (a pre-game practice perhaps?)

Defensively, the team really couldn't come up with a definitive answer to stop the All-Stars. They created mismatches with their fast-paced attacking style. Utah's rotations were late or absent many times. Finally, Althoff could have used a bit of help because there wasn't much he could do alone to stop those hook shots from #12 and #14. Hmmm, maybe he should develop one for himself.... Burgess does have one, on the other hand. Unfortunately he only gets the ball in the paint once per game.

The one bright spot was that Utah didn't give up too many offensive rebounds. Everything else went South. Spivey and Bradley were having some success penetrating and getting good shots, but their passes were picked off prolifically. The whole team caught the bugaboo as the All-Stars filled every passing lane. Ill-advised passes, forced passes, lazy passes, you name it, it was there.

Shooting wasn't completely bad, in fact it was good, until crunch time anyways. Britt had a couple of air-balls, then he bricked the front end of a 1-and-1 as the All-Stars pulled ahead. Nick started missing badly during crunch time after a scintilating first half. It was Spivey, of all people, who made a trey to keep the Utes within striking distance in the waning moments. Yet Utah could not dig itself out without the All-Stars missing some FTs, which they would not do.

I guess we saw what we were truly expecting. A team with top 10 talent, but completely out of sync.

Well, after the first 5 minutes, I thought I would have to eat my words about waiting for the Utes to gel. But then things started unravelling.

I'm not sure if Majerus wanted to lose this game, but he put in a whacked lineup once he got the lead. Someone help me out -- wasn't it Jackson, Allred, Caton, Jacobson and somebody else out there when EA made the big run in the first half?

Anyway, here are some good things I saw:

Nicky Jake -- the first couple minutes he was out there, he had NO IDEA what to do on offense. Wow. But once he got into the flow, he was great. I like the pull-up rainbows from 10 feet even more than the three point bombs. He can shoot the rock. AND, he played some tough defense in the second half. He and Nate did a great job shutting down a little two-man game EA were running on the baseline. Majerus should just give him the green light. He was 5-6.

Nate yelled at his teammates -- nice guy Nate Althoff was the only one to challenge an EA player who went the length of the court, and after Nate hacked him he went after the other four guys on the court. That was nice to see. Nate's offense looked rusty, but his d and his rebounding looked pretty good.

Britton -- despite the airballs, and the getting beat in the second half, I thought Britton showed the kinds of plays we want from him. He hit a three, he drove in for a dunk, he blocked a shot, he made some nice passes. Majerus is right though -- he needs to stop leaving his feet. Any word on his tailbone? (for those who don't know, Britton fell hard on his tailbone and left the game for a while)

Jeff Johnsen -- Jeff looks good. He really hustles on defense and has a nose for the ball.

Bradley -- this guy can score. Plain and simple.

Burgess -- I've been bashing this guy, but once he got off the bench last night, he contributed. Hit three hoops -- a tip in, a spinning banker from the left wing, and a jump hook from the right block -- right away. After one ill-advised long jumper, he didn't take another bad shot. He was aggressive on the boards.
The one thing I didn't like was how he gave ground when defended the post. I'm not sure if he thinks he can just block everyone's shot or what, but he kept retreating.

Puzey -- as a fan near me said, he looks polished. He looks like one of the few guys who understands the offense. He also has a couple very simple, very effective post moves. Mostly, he goes all out all the time. He will pick up garbage hoops and charges and loose balls all year. I doubt he'll continue to start, but he will contribute. This team of 'stars' can really use a blue-collar guy like this.

The offense looked terrible. Open guys often didn't get the ball, and the guards tried to force the ball to guys who weren't open. Not sure how many turnovers Spivey had, but it seemed like alot.
Caton looked a little lost, and couldn't keep his man away from the offensive glass.
Cullen hit a couple long jumpers, but also threw the ball away about three times in the second half.

Majerus is promising to be an ass-kicker from now on. I feel bad for these guys.

First, the Utes did look VERY tired, starting with about 5 minutes left in the first half and for the entire second half. They simply had no energy over that stretch of time. The reasons: 1. They ALWAYS practice the day of these games. 2. They probably are as out of shape as Majerus has been saying.

The positives from this game:

1. When they did NOT look tired, this team looked VERY good. In the first 10 minutes of the game, they really looked good. Britton Johnsen made a nice three point shot and on the next trip down the floor, outran the other team for a nice transition dunk (the guy has some major hops). Britton also had a GREAT blocked shot in the first half. Althoff was aggressive offensively and made some nice post moves. Kevin Bradly can flat out score. This guy is an offensive stud. Ditto on Nick Jacobson. They guy has a VERY quick, smooth release and really looked nice on his 10 first half points. Burgess has an unstoppable jump hook from about 5 feet and in and also made some great offensive rebounds.

2. This team is deep. Although they appear to not be in that great of shape right now (I am still holding that they practiced yesterday and had a HARD practice the day before, which they won't do on the day before a game that counts), this team is really deep. The starting 5 on this night was Kevin Bradley, Jeff Johnsen, Britton Johnsen, Mike Puzey and Nate Althoff. They then substituted Trace Caton, Nick Jacobson, Phil Cullen, Chris Burgess, Travis Spivey and Lance Allred in and out and it was like they were interchangable cogs in a machine. When they all get in shape and more familiar with each other, they will be a good team.

3. This CA All Star Team is probably better than at least 4 teams Utah will face on it's pre-season schedule (Croatia, Idaho State, Cardinal Stritch and Concordia) and probably Air Force as well in the conference. They had some really good athletic players that have already played 4 years of college ball and some have been on this team for a year or 3. This Utah team is VERY young.

Overall...I was disapointed in their tiredness, but once again, I was encouraged by the overall talent level of the team.

Utes Rule

Three observations about last night’s game:

1: Passing: The Guards were trying to pass from about 3 feet too deep to a wing that was to close to the middle of the court making it easy to defend the passing lanes. The wings needed to break a little more to the ball rather than just to a spot, which if spacing was correct would have made for some excellent passes. Mr. Spivey and Bradley made some potentially great passes that the receiver wasn’t expecting. Time and acclamation will cure that.

2: Turnovers: Mr. Cullen had three or four passes after a good rebound or hustle play picked off from four to six feet away. A hard pass two feet above a guy’s head from close range or a semi-handoff from six feet doesn’t make it in d-1 ball. I can live with the errors of commission on passing but the didn’t take care of a simple pass turnover gets serious bench time from me.

3: Rebounding: Big guys appeared lazy, using height and speed rather than position and tenacity. If you have position, then nobody gets a board with the height and speed that these guys have. Spivey and Bradley looked like they could board a little for guards, a good sign. On the defensive side, we weren’t contested vary much, and again no position and blocking out on the offensive side.

4: OK I know I said three but an observation was that coach was more interested in who could do what with who on the court rather than which combination would work best to win, just a thought on four.

I also understand that these allstars get a $70.00 Bonus for each game won!

First, the low points:

The Utes looked tired. I commented that maybe Rick had been practicing them too hard. After reading the article in this morning's trib, it turns out Rick hasn't been practicing them hard enough. He's been doing more teaching and less running. In the article, he promises that it's going to change this week.

Turnovers. The Utes had way too many. Lazy passes, people not going after passes, trying to do too much and forcing passes. You name it, they did it. Spivey had a couple of times where he looked a little out of control. Cullen had a series of 3 turnovers and a defensive lapse that drew Rick's ire. Bradley sometimes would try to do too much. I'm sure these things will get corrected.

Burgess. His D is soft. He was letting people work him down to within 3' of the hoop.

B. Johnson. The guy is amazing, but he's trying to do too much right now. If nothing else, you have to appreciate the fact that he's trying.

Now, on to the upside:

Depth. We just keep bringing guys off of the bench. Now serving #12.

Burgess. He worked the boards hard. His first 2 points as a Ute came off of an offensive board tip in. He had 2-3 offensive boards that impressed me.

Althoff. It looks like he's finally figured it out. He's the biggest guy on the block(s). As soon as he got the ball anywhere within 5' of the hoop, he was going straight at the hoop. I loved his aggressiveness. Plus, he was playing through the contact on his way there. Taking it strong. Plus, he was very solid on defense. He didn't give any ground and challenged every shot around him. On top of that, he was very aggressive in the rebounding department. Early on in the game, he comes flying across the lane to grab a rebound. Unfortunately, I did see him once, late in the game, appear to be bending over to stretch out his lower back. We'll have to keep an eye on that.

Allred. The guy is a warrior when he gets in. I love this guy's attitude. He doesn't let anyone push him around.

Bradley. Led the team in scoring and generally looked calm and composed on the floor. Sometimes tried to do too much, but overall played a very solid game. This guy was a real steal by the Utes (thanks Rebs!).

Jacobsen. This guy is the real deal. He finally played his first D1 game ever, and what does he do? He goes 5-7 from the field, including a buzzer beater 3 from corner NBA range (they had an NBA stripe on the floor for some reason) with a guy coming at him at the end of the first half on a penetrate-and-dish-to-the-corner by Bradley.

Caton. He just goes out there and gets the job done. Hustles after loose balls, takes smart shots, plays solid D.

Other comments:

It didn't really look like Rick was trying to win this game. He was mixing lineups on the floor to see what worked, and what didn't, even in critical times. I suspect he also used situations to call a time-out and use them as a teaching tool. There was a point where the Utes' lead had been cut to 4 and he called a timeout. The Utes seemed to run a set play with the starting 5 coming out of that timeout. It was a good situation to try it in. You need to get some momentum back when a team makes a run like that.

Starting 5:

PG - Bradley

SG - J. Johnson

SF - B. Johnson

PF - Puzey

C - Althoff

I don't remember seeing Godfread or Koford. Jackson only played like 30 seconds while Allred saw 2-5 minutes.

Overall, if this team buys into the system and starts clicking on all cylinders, they could be a top 10 team.

U-Ute

For the first ten minutes we looked great. After that it was slowly down hill.

I was able to sit on the floor across from our bench. I think I saw a few things that have not been discussed thus far that I have seen. I think that it was at the begining of the second half and we did not get back on defense again and Nate had to come over and take on one of the guards and fouled him on the shot. Right after Nate yelled, "Who the hell has that guy?" I think that this is a great sign that we are going to have a leader on the court. Now only if he lasts all season.

The guy from Kall radio that I was sitting buy was taking to one of the coaches, and he said that the team had already practiced for three hours in the afternoon, which would attribute to the team looking tired.

Bradley looked very good in his first game, and I was pretty disappointed with Spivey. He had way too many turnovers, he just didn't look very comfortable out there yet. If Jacobson can shoot like that every game he could be a very big part of the team. Jackson just looked like he didn't know what he was doing out there. His defense was horrible, for the minute that he was in his guy had about three different wide open shots in a row. Burgess is going to be tough on the boards.

Our defense all around was not up to snuff yet. Who ever was covering their big men would let them back them down to within a few feet and take an easy jumper. We were just not rotating like we should.

If we play like we did for the first ten minutes we are going to be tough to beat. I think that we will be a very good team by seasons end.

Overall, I was impressed with the talent level that Utah has. They have a lot of players who can contribute and have a lot of potential.

Last night, EA Sports stepped up the defense after Utah got the big lead and Utah ran out of gas and got kind of tentative on offense. They seemed to hestitate and the split second allowed EA Sports to get in the passing lanes and make some steals. An example of this was when Cullen threw the outlet pass over Spivey's head right to the opponent. Spivey was coming back to the ball, but Cullen hesitated because there was a defender close to Spivey, even though it was an easy pass. He should have just confidently zipped the pass but he got flustered and turned it over. This was a good lesson for Utah because they need to be more aggressive when the other team makes a run.

Defensively, Utah had some breakdowns, but EA Sports also hit some tough shots. Kris Johnson plays in the CBA and he showed he can fill it up. One of their big guys also showed a nice little baseline jumper that you can't do too much about. Overall, I think you have to give some credit to EA Sports, although Utah needs to improve their communication on defense.

Individual player comments:

Britton Johnsen -- gives you both extremes. He makes incredible plays and then makes horrible plays. He showed some nice offensive moves, but he also threw up some really ugly shots. He had a nice rejection on defense, but also got lost a few times giving his man some easy looks. He also needs to work on his free throws. Overall, he has tremendous talent but needs to learn to play in control and stay focused.

Jeff Johnsen -- a solid role player. He hustles and is more in control compared to last year, but don't expect much offense from him. He needs to play tough defense and rebound for playing time. Any scoring he does will be garbage baskets.

Nate Althoff -- looks to continue to be a solid post presence. He is just a big body with nice hands. Don't expect him to make anything outside of five feet, but if he stays healthy, they'll be able to feed him in the post and open up the outside for the shooters. I felt like he worked pretty hard last night.

Mike Puzey -- he'll continue to get playing time because he works hard, but I don't think he has suddenly grown talent. He won't be anything more than a role player and I think Burgess should get the nod at the power forward spot.

Chris Burgess -- I think he is going to be a solid player. He showed a nice touch around the basket and goes hard to the boards. I think he definitely has the ability to score. He needs to toughen up on defense, but he certainly didn't look like a slacker.

Kevin Bradley -- I really like this guy. He has a knack for scoring and handles the ball well. As long as he works hard, he is going to be one of our top players. One thing for sure is I don't think we will have many problems with teams that press. Both Bradley and Spivey handle the ball very well.

Travis Spivey -- Don't look for him to score many points, but he handles the ball well and really sees the court well. His court vision will create some open shots for his teammates (Jacobson was a beneficiary last night). Spivey and Bradley give me a lot of optimism about our offense this year.

Nick Jacobson -- what can I say, the kid is money. He has a beautiful, quick release and the ability to create as well. He is the best shooter on the team, with Bradley a nice second. He also seemed like the guy to step up and take the clutch shot under pressure. There were a few times when Nick was the guy last night to hit the big shot to end a drought and stave off an EA Sports run (at least temporarily). I realize this was just one game, but by the time he graduates, I think he will have scored a lot of points as a Ute. Give him the ball!

Trace Caton and Phil Cullen -- both are role players who can shoot the ball a little bit. They'll both contribute, but don't look for anything huge from them.

Lance Allred -- the guy battles but he has a long way to go. I would be very surprised if he contributed much of anything this year, except for a big body to bang when we need to pound on somebody or give the other guys a break.

Jackson and Koford -- not much playing time for these guys this year, although from what little I've seen, neither player would make me cringe when he comes in the ballgame (unlike some former Utes who shall remain nameless).

Sorry about the length.

FWIW, I like posts that are long and insightful and there have been several like that over the past week.

First off, I love our talent. This isn't directed so much at our fans, but a lot of people are talking about this game as a big deal or about Majerus's comments as a big deal. They aren't. Here's why:

It is a freakin' exhibition game. We can judge individual talents off of this. You can see who is in shape and who isn't. You can see the nice strokes from the outside (like Jacobsen and Bradley) and you can see some slightly out of control play too. That can tell you something.

But I do not believe for one second that winning was Majerus' number 1 goal for this game. He was looking at lineups that could work this year. He is looking at smarts of his players. He is looking at team play. At times the substituting was whack and Majerus still did it because he is looking for other things than a win.

We can learn a lot about our players by watching these games, but we cannot learn a lot about our in thinking that they will struggle 'cause they lose an exhibition game. Our big guys were all pretty solid last night like Jacobsen, Burgess and Bradley...Britton was tough too but slightly off. This game gave me a lot of hope for our players and the team will come along with more practice and experience together. I seriously believe that the Utes would have won this game if Majerus was only focusing on that aspect...he wasn't. We may struggle a little in the beginning (I think we will still be tough) and then things will even out more as the players get comfortable with the system and each other. I cannot for the first games to count though this year I am especially happy for the exhibitions to clean up some of our "off" play. Go Utes!

Well, let me say first of all that we didn't look very good last night for the most part and there is always reason to be disappointed when you lose. That said, there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our team this year.

1). As has been pointed out, Majerus was not really looking for a W as much as he was looking for combinations that worked and individuals that were ready to play--last night should have showed him a lot.

2). Normally, Utah's strengths are defense, rebounding and playing smart on offense. Last night we were doomed by bad defense and turnovers. You have to believe that as long as Majerus is here that is not going to be an ongoing problem. It will take some time, but I look for us to get progressively better in those areas.

3). One of Majerus' strengths is scouting and preparation for an opponent. I can't say for sure, but I can almost guarantee that he did not watch film on the All-Stars and prepare anything specifically for this game.

4). Going along with #3, give the All-Stars credit. These are good athletes that played a lot of college ball in major places like UCLA, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pepperdine, etc. Everybody in the west wanted Kris Johnson coming out of high school. They are better than many of the teams we'll play this year and could probably finish in the upper half of the MWC.

5). The main thing I learned about our team is that we have more weapons than we've had before. Early in the game, players kept shuttling in and hitting shots. We won't have to worry much about scoring points this year. I think Kevin Bradley will be a nice go-to guy--he can create a bucket if we really need one. If we're down by one with fifteen seconds left, I say get the ball to Bradley and he'll either score or set someone else up with a shot.

After all, we've all been saying all along that we'd start slow, but that once we got going we'd be very tough. Now that we've had a slow start, are we surprised? We shouldn't be. We need patience and as Ancient Ute said we need moderate expectations. We'll be pretty good by the end of this year, but we should be great next year.

Go Utes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree that the Utes have a lot of room for improvement. I also agree that, even though I'm sure Majerus would have liked a win, his coaching and rotation would have been different if this had been a league or tournament game. It was obvious he was trying out different combinations.

I agree that Utah was not playing up to its standard on the defensive end, however, one thing that makes me optimistic is that usually at the beginning of the season Majerus' teams look horrible on the offensive end. How many seasons have we had where we watch the first few games and wonder where the team is going to find any scoring? Usually it takes several games for the offense to look like it is in sync at all. Last night was probably the most offensive firepower I have seen in a Majerus team this early in the season.

If the defense can achieve the Majerus standard with this offensive potential, they could be great. A lot of defense is related to intensity and communication. Hopefully, Majerus will be able to sufficiently "motivate" these guys to bust their butts on defense and achieve that standard.

Usually, we know we'll get tough defense, but wonder about the offense. This year I think it is the other way around.

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