To think that I saw it at the Huntsman Center

Posted By: gilly
Date: Friday, 22 December 2000, at 10:19 p.m.

After the Utes opened up an 11-2 lead, allwas well with the world. Cullen and Jacobson had hit three pointers, theUtes were patiently attacking the zone, and the defense was giving SUU fits.

THen, the cloud fell in.

The Utes didn'tplay particularly well, but there were just some STRANGE things tonight.

--Phil Cullen went up for a shot in the second half, and the ball slipped out his hands, over his head, and out of bounds.
--Trace Caton threw a no-look pass -- to the photographers.
--Fred House got by his man at the top of the key, and waltzed down the lane and not one person bothered him the whole way.
---There was not one whistle for about5 minutes at the beginning of the game, and almost 8 minutes had gone bybefore a whistle got the FIRST TV timeout, and the Utes had 5 guys waitingto come in.
--After hitting a couple shotsearly, Jacobson threw one up that smashed long off the backboard and didn'teven come close to drawing iron.

Anyway,with the game tied late, the Utes came down and threw the ball away tryingto feed the post. SUU came down and missed, but one of their guys got theoffensive rebound, passed it underneath, and a guy scored and got fouled.Three point deficit. On the next three possessions, the Utes went turnover,shot, turnover. Unbelieveable. They had no idea what to do near the end ofthe game.

Other than Britton and Bradley,the Utes are not quick. They really have trouble guarding people man-to-man,and SUU did a great job of spreading the floor and getting isolations. SUUwas pretty physical, and the Utes had no answer for their tough picks. TheWeber loss was tough because it ended the streak, but this was tough becauseit was just ugly.

In my never-ending questfor positives, I thought Spivey played very tough on defense. The footballteam could use him as a pulling guard, as we went through a couple guys tryingto set picks on him like they were made of paper.
Bradley had a good shooting night.

That's about all I can come up with right now.

We just witnessed Utah's chance of going to the NCAA tournament go straight down the toilet!!!!!

Posted By: Kay Ute
Date: Friday, 22 December 2000, at 10:18 p.m.

With losses to Utah St, Weber St, and nowSUU, with our strength of schedule our chance of going to the tournamentas an at large team is squat!! Our ONLY chance is to win the conference tournamentand I seriously doubt that will ever happen with this team.

All I know is the Fat Man better have some major health problems going onother then his knee for him to up and leave this team in the middle of theseason. Why the hell didn't he rehab his knee properly after surgerys. TheU does not pay him more then 500k to sit in Vegas and rehab his knee duringthe season cause he does not have the self discipline to keep his body insome remotely decent shape. Granted the team has played like shit, but Majerushas got to take some of the blame for this pathetic team. New York, don'ttry to say "hey SUU is a good team yada, yada, yada..." We have no leadership,no heart, and no one with the onions to step up and take charge when thingsget tight.

Thank you I feel better now.

Before I get started, massive props to SUU.

Posted By: Jeromy in SLC < cyclopsjrg@aol.com>
Date: Saturday, 23 December 2000, at 12:27 a.m.

Those guys played their asses off. Theywanted the game more and they got it. It was tied at 68 all with 2:30 left.After that, Thunderbirds 9, Utes 2. This wasn't a case of one guy going off(see Boyette). Monaco, House, and Beus did major damage. They also committedonly 9 turnovers. The Utes had 10 in the second half.

Now to the post mordem. To me this lose is far more disappointing than theWeber loss, because the last two games the Utes played, I thought they showedmajor progress defensively, from the line, and with their poise. This oneprobably has shaken even the most optimistic of us (myself included).

The team hasn't figured out how to finishgames. The Weber and USU games are obvious, but they had also pulled to within3 against USC with about 1:30 left and had a chance against Georgia downthe stretch. The game tonight was tied with 2:30 left. Why is this so? Smooth segway to......

This team has no identity.There is no leadership. There is no lynchpin the team can pin its identityto. There are a lot of guys that show capability, flashes. Its Jeff and Kevinone game, and Chris and Nate another, then its Britton and Phil. Guys emerge,then withdraw to the background. The team takes two steps forward, then takestwo steps back. I don't know how much Majerus could help with this (noneof us know). My biggest concern this year was the loss of roles. None ofthe guys that came back were counted on to score or provide leadership. Natewas the leading returning scorer, and he was fifth last year.

Defensively, the rotations haven't picked up. Tonight, there was a lot ofdoubles that didn't have a corresponding roll over to the man that was left.Especially when the ball is in the paint, that man is the most dangerous.Previous versions of Utah basketball picked this guy up, leaving someon furtherout open allowing the defense more opportunity to pick him up. Which bringsme to.....

Rebounding. This is the worstfundamental rebounding Utah team that my short memory can remember. Majerus'steams have always been grounded in defense and rebounding, and they definitelygo hand in hand. What good is playing stellar defense when you give the oppositionanother chance to score again?

Offensively,this team cannot attack a zone. USU and SUU have beaten the Utes badly witha zone. There are no passes inside, no skip passes to cause the zone to overrotate,and the times that the ball gets inside, instead of making a move immediately,they hesitate allowing the defense to recover and collapse. One time allnight, there was an immediate move and shot by a big, and on that same possession,they dumped it in once to Burgess, he hesitated and was soon surrounded bythree men. Teams like BYU, CSU, and SDSU are probably salivating about whatthey could accomplish defensively with their zones.

There, I feel better now. I haven't given up hope on the team or the season.You see flashes of what could be, but the consistancy is sorely lacking.The team hasn't learned the lessons presented to them. That is the one placethat I think Majerus could make a difference, but will it be too late? Texaslooks far more daunting than they did two days ago.

The Dreaded Box...

Posted By: MeSoVanHorny < rickmajerus99@yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, 22 December 2000, at 11:47 p.m.

Don't gripe about Bradley, his attitude, or anything else about the guy for that matter. He's all we've got right now.

fg    ft rb
   min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
B Johnsen 20 0-3 4-4 3-4 5 2 4
Cullen    26 4-8 0-1 0-3 0 3 11
Burgess 23 1-1 0-1 1-7 0 1 2
Bradley 28 6-12 2-2 3-4 2 2 18
N Jacobson 22 3-6 0-0 0-1 3 5 8
Spivey    16 1-2 2-2 1-1 4 1 4
Caton 11 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 1 3
J Johnsen 23 3-6 2-2 1-1 4 1 9
Allred 3 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 2
Puzey    4 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 2
Althoff 24 2-2 3-5 0-1 0 4 7
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 23-43 13-17 9-23 18 22 70
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.535, FT-.765. 3-Point Goals:
11-21, .524 (Cullen 3-6, Bradley 4-8, N Jacobson
2-4, Caton 1-1, J Johnsen 1-2). Team rebounds: 2.
Blocked shots: 4 (Cullen 2, B Johnsen, Burgess).
Turnovers: 16 (Cullen 5, B Johnsen 3, N Jacobson
2, Puzey 2, Spivey 2, Bradley, Caton). Steals: 4
(J Johnsen 2, Spivey 2).