Utah 72, EA Sports 67

EASports game

Posted By: Gilly
Date: Thursday, 1 November 2001, at 9:22 p.m.

Nice to see Tony Harvey back in the Hunty.
This was not as strong as team as the past couple years, but they were ok.

The Utes looked slow. Maybe because they practiced earlier in the day, or maybe because EA was quick. But Utah struggled in the halfcourt offense to get anyone open or to get any passes towards the basket. It was disappointing that against a short team they couldn't get more going inside.

Starters were Britton, Caton, Burgess, Spivey and Jacobson. Jacobson was cold early, but Caton was on fire. I don't know how many he ended up with, but I think he made his first four jumpers. He looked like a different player than last year. Britton got two quick fouls and hit the bench (and then got two more quick ones in the second half).

First subs were Cullen and Jeff, I think, and then Koford and Osimani.

Osimani looked great when he first came in -- he was playing tough defense and crashing the boards. Got a couple steals, handled the ball well. Then he threw the ball away three times in a row, and got yanked. He had similar problems in the second half. Some passes his teammates weren't ready for, some went straight to the other team. Still, I think Osimani is very good.

Osmondson and Allred got a couple of minutes in the first half, not much to make an assessment on. Chris Jackson didn't get to play at all, and Goettsche was in street clothes along with Frost.

Burgess hit two jumpers from about 15 feet. He was 1-4 from the foul line, had a couple good rebounds. He and Cullen went down in the second half, and it looked like Burgess was hurt badly, but he came back in an played a bunch more.

Cullen hit some jumpers, missed some jumpers, missed a lefthanded dunk along the baseline.

Koford looked pretty good, but he missed two point-blank layups. He's pretty quick on defense for a 7 footer and caused some problems for EA.

Jacobson found the range late in the second half and hit a few jumpers. He seemed to be more comfortable coming off picks and shooting on the move than spotting up tonight. He had a hard time shutting off the baseline when his man drove on him.

Britton had a small streak in the second half where he got a few boards in a row and looked pretty good, but then he fouled out. He was pretty frustrated.

SPivey played well down the stetch, and made his free throws when EA cut it to 1 and 2. He made a driving layup with under a minute to go when I think Utah wanted to hold the ball, but he finished the play and it put the game away.

Jeff Johnsen had a steal and layup early in the game, but I didn't notice him much after that. Maybe someone else can offer up his contributions.

Overall, the offense looked pretty bad. Again, it may be early or it may be exhaustion or it may be trying different things because it's an exhibition game.

Caton looked great. Koford looked good except for those blown layups. SPivey looked good down the stretch. I was disapointed Jackson didn't get to play. Majerus sure seemed to want to win -- arguing calls late in the game and coming on the court at least 10 feet in to holler at his team.

Can't think of anything else right now.

Utes and EA Sports - long...

Posted By: Utebiquitous <rpike67@hotmail.com>
Date: Thursday, 1 November 2001, at 11:35 p.m.

All right get ready for some meaningless analysis. My wife and son had to be elsewhere tonight so I took a notepad to the game to log our offensive possessions. It will probably be the only time I can be this anal all season but I admit it's fun to do occasionally.

I logged the second half because and old friend chatted my ears off the first half.

Before I get started let me explain that I'm defining a possession as the time it takes to either score or not before returning to play defense. The Utes managed several offensive rebounds in the 2nd half to continue a possession but I don't count each offensive rebound as another possession. Is that sufficiently unclear?

The Utes had 35 possessions in the 2nd half. They scored 18 times (18/35). That's not bad. EA played very hard the entire game. I don't know if they were as talented as the past few years but they worked hard and pushed the Utes to the final minute. Final score 72 to 67 Utah wins!

Let me provide a few specifics on the 17 possessions that were unsuccessful.

7 of them were turnovers - two being offensive fouls and 5 being awful and I mean awful passes. EA was very quick to the ball. The Utes would have done much better faking a pass occasionally or even looking first.

I counted 6 times where they missed good shots.
-Jacobson missed an open three.
-Spivey missed a layup after a nice drive.
-Spivey missed an open 15 footer.
-Osimani missed an open three.
-Koford missed a layup after an excellent move.
-J. Johnsen missed an open 12 footer although he took it early in the offense.
All of these were good looks. The Utes should take them every time.

I counted 3 awful shots - not bad - awful.
-Britton took an NBA three off a feed from Jacobson where he should have passed it right back. Majerus let him know if was an awful shot.
-Phil took a three guarded with plenty of time on the shot clock and missed badly.
-Burgess took an ill-advised (I retract awful on this one) 18 footer and missed.

The remaining possession of the 17 where we did not score happened with 1:00 left. Burgess went to the line and missed two free throws. While he missed he took them with confidence. Both were in and out. Burgess was one for two earlier in the 2nd half.

Enough numbers. Now some commentary.
The Positives
Although Burgess missed with a minute left he didn't hang his head. On the other end of the floor he dove for a loose ball and knocked it to a teammate. The resulting possession ended with Spivey going 2/2 from the line. The next time down the floor Burgess tipped the ball away from the center leading to Spivey going 1/2 from the line. Burgess was solid tonight. Good rebounding. A better outside shot. The Utes need to do a much better job of getting the ball to him in the post. That was a weakness tonight in my opinion.

The hype about Jacobson is going to continue to build. He was terrific tonight. Teams are going to have a hard time guarding him. Believe me, EA Sports was trying their darndest. Funny thing is he shoots better with just a little bit of space. I don't think he missed when someone was running at him. He missed a couple of wide open shots in the first half along with the aforementioned three in the 2nd half. Nick scored nine points in the second half. He was three for four (1 of 2 on threes), 2/2 from the line with one horrible turnover. He also had a couple of assists to Caton that were nice. The thing about Jacobson is his ability to shoot with just an ounce of space. He reminds of Ray Allen - not as athletic but his shot is that smooth. He still has some defensive shortcomings but he's playing hard.

Caton was outstanding in the first half. While I wasn't keeping stats he seemed to be the man. He started the second half with a nice jumper (off a feed from Jacobson) then the Utes went cold for five possessions (their longest drought of the half). Caton had six points in the second half. He set some terrific picks and defended like a mother. Hunsaker was a fool not playing this guy more last year. He and Jacobson play well together and I think have helped one another improve in the off season. At practice I've heard Majerus lament to Britton that he didn't spend the time Nick and Trace did in the gym.

Osimani is going to drive some opponents to madness. He over-passed a few times, he made a bone-headed turnover but he flat out defends and he has great confidence leading the team. Two highlights of the second half worth mentioning. About 6 or 7 minutes into the 2nd half, Osimani takes and missed a wide open three. No big deal. He goes down the court, hits the floor with both hands and defends the point guard right on the ball. He knocks the ball into the air, taps it ahead and Jeff Johnsen goes in for a layup. A few minutes later, Osimani had the ball on the wing and threw the only good entry pass into a big man of the second half in to Burgess who scored a reverse layup. Very nice pass.

There are plenty of positives in general. A few to mention. This team kept its head fairly well tonight. Majerus let them play through a lot of tough spells and I thought they responded. They pulled out a trapping defense fouline extended a couple of times tonight that resulted in steals. Most impressive in this wrinkle was the play of Koford who moves his body and feet very well for a 7-footer. Spivey deserves some mention. Travis' shot looks better. His defense was pretty solid tonight on Bernard Rock and others. Late in the game he took over. You heard me correct. With about two minutes left he drove for a layup. He went 2/2 from the line with :43 to put the Utes up by 4. He went 1/2 from the line with :27 to put the Utes up 5. Finally, he drove down with :18 and scored a driving layup picking up a blocking foul. Alas, he missed the free throw. That provided the final margin - Utes 72-67.

The bad
In a word - Britton Johnsen. I'm hard on Britton. The reason why is he's the difference between the Utes being a good team that may win a game or two in the NCAA tournament and a great team that is a threat to beat anyone. He has worked on his body and fitness. That's evident. But his shooting and mental game appears to be the same - that means average and below average. In the two practices I've attended, Majerus has complimented Britton for his physical effort but ripped him for not working on his shot and putting a greater effort thinking about situations on the court. Majerus knows what he's talking about (of course).

Let me give 4 examples from the second half. On Utah's second possession of the half, Britton committed an offensive foul - his fourth. It was a stupid foul where he cheated on a screen. Majerus is forced to bench him. He comes back in the game at about the 14:00 mark and promptly throws an awful pass - a turnover that leads to a dunk for EA. At about the 10:00 mark the Utes go on early offense. Britton tips a ball to Jacobson going down the wing. Jake passes it right back to Britton at the top of the key at NBA 3-point range. Britton launches a ball that carooms off the rim. Meanwhile, Jake is spotted up while his defender lunges at Britton while he shoots. Majerus is ripped! Finally, with 4:59 left, Britton is called for his 5th foul - a little wuss-job where he simply bats a forward's arm down as they confront each other in the post. Unnecessary but definitely a foul.

The other glaring weakness was the inability to get the ball into the post. EA had a couple of beefy guys in there but Burgess, Koford and Britton (I guess he did a few things right) were getting position. I think the ball could have gone in many more times.

Yes it's a practice game but I'm optimistic about the season. As I said earlier, I think EA was a good test. Goettsche, Osmundsen and Jackson did not play in this one.

'biq

Utes 72 - EA All-Stars 67 (link)

Posted By: U-Ute
Date: Friday, 2 November 2001, at 8:53 a.m.

The Utes finally beat the All-Stars. I'm not sure it means that much though. Even though the All-Stars were a pretty athletic bunch, they really didn't have much cohesion. They just tried to play playground ball. Plus, the Utes looked very tired, especially in the second half and looked pretty sloppy at times. They ended up with 20 turnovers for the game. Still, they had enough toughness to sack it up and win a close game at the end. I liked that.

The one thing I noticed that was disturbing was that the Utes seemed to be weak inside. The majority of the Utes points came outside of the paint and our inside guys didn't do a thing all night. The Utes didn't seem to be able to get it inside. Even when Burgess and Britton seemed to have position, the Utes didn't seem to be looking inside to them which I thought was odd. Plus, I think they need to get stronger on the glass. They gave up a few offensive boards and didn't get many of their own. The Trib didn't print a full box-score.

In my mind, the bright spot was Osimani. If I were forced to make comparisons, he reminds me of a nice blend between Soto and Andre. He doesn't have Andre's length and strength, but he has the height, the aggressiveness, and the edge that Andre brought with the quickness that Soto had, as well as the seasoned poise and understanding of the game that both those guys had. Osimani already plays like he's played college ball for 1-2 years. Even though he had 5 assists to 6 turnovers, he played very hard on both ends. Most of his turnovers were turnovers of commission (to use a Rick-ism). He just tried to force a couple of passes where he couldn't against this athletic team. It reminded me a lot of how Andre was his first playing season at the U. Other than the turnovers, he hit the glass hard on both ends, played tough D, and was yelling at his teammates on both ends of the floor (there were so few people in the stands, I could hear what the players were saying on the floor from row 38). He even put an ankle-breaking move on Harvey that landed Harvey on his butt when he tried to pressure Osimani too much. My favorite play of the night was a lob pass he threw into Burgess when the D was fronting. It's a very difficult pass and he layed it in there perfectly. He's going to get a lot of minutes and may push Spivey for the starting spot by the end of the season.

Another bright spot was Jacobson. He's basically doing what everyone expected him to do: play solid basketball. He moved around on the offensive end and made the D pay when they gave him an inch. He shot the ball with great confidence and was able to get his shot off and play D against some very athletic players. He tied with Caton with a team high of 14 points.

Yet another bright spot was Caton. He played the most minutes of anyone and he did what everyone wants him to do: he played the hard nosed D, set tough screens, scrapped for the tough rebounds, and shot the ball well when he was open. He tied Jacobson with 14 points.

The last bright spot is Spivey. When the game was on the line, Spivey came through with some points. According the Tribune writeup, Spivey scored seven points in the final two minutes. I believe a large number of those from the foul line, although I do remember him hitting a 3.

Notice that the bright spots are all at the guard line. The interior game was non-existent.

Britton was a major disappointment. He got 2 fouls early in the game and sat the majority of the first half. In the second half, he was basically a non-entity. For the game: 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 turnovers, and 5 fouls in 16 minutes. That's a joke.

Burgess was also a non-factor. His stats weren't in the paper, but it seemed like he got maybe 4 points and 5 rebounds in probably 15-20 minutes of play. He didn't seem to be playing very hard. Yet another big disappointment.

Cullen and Jeff Johnson played a lot of minutes and were non-factors.

Koford at least played hard, but he didn't do much other than intimidate a few shots into going long.

Allred and Osmundson came in for a few minutes, but not enough to really make an impact. Jackson did not play. The Tribune article quotes Majerus as saying that he'll make a decision on whether or not to redshirt Jackson by the St. Francis game.

For the record, the starters were: Spivey, Jacobson, Caton, B. Johnson, Burgess.

The bench players that got significant time were Osimani, J. Johnson, Cullen, and Koford.

There were maybe 5,000 people there to see the game. I guess the World Series and the Lakers/Jazz were just too much for a Ute exhibition game... ;)

U-Ute

Tribune article

Re: Utes 72 - EA All-Stars 67 (link)