Posted By: New
York
Date: Tuesday, 19 February 2002, at 12:40 a.m.
Many, many excellent plays...from both teams. First, hats off to New Mexico for learning how to hang in there. A night and day improvement over that pathetic performance in Albuquerque. That team is close....not there but they do have something going on.
Chatfield is an incredible 3 point shooter and Ruben Douglas can also shoot the rock. I do not care what anyone says, Fran has taken a team that was down and folding up and taught them that they do have talent and they can play. Maybe not this year but there are many clutch juniors on that team.......However, they lost so who cares?...Because..
We Won and that was a good win. The play of the day and possibly one that made the difference in this 1 point game was the absolutely incredible hustle of Spivey to take away that gimme breakway almost dunk. I am impressed.
Britton is a total stud. To see him fight under the boards or hit a 3 or make a rebound is expected but he does it with a real gift. A great player. I really find it interesting how on inbounds plays, many times he is the player that they give it to to bring the ball up court. The amazing thing is that he looks like a guard when he does it. Also that pass underneath to Jeff really looked like a point guard pass. He is going to the NBA for sure. Teams must be drooling at the possibility.
To think we have him back for one more year is kind of scarey and it must be terrifying for the opposition....and he it free throws.Koford looks good and he looks like he has some endurance. Why does he play so sparingly?
Jeff, Caton, Nick and Travis all hit some big 3's.
Cullen was invisible for much of the game. I liked Osimani's clean steal. He could be a real sleeper when he gets some time.
This was a good win that we almost let get away. Chatfield, though he was doubled up had a pretty clean look. He worked hard for that look and it just did not drop.
Majerus coached a good game. Those 2 time outs at the end were excellent calls.NM was ready to rip and they had to reign it in 2 times.
Good crowd considering there were about three other places with 20,000 people in the valley at the same time. It was far from sold out but the crowd was really into it.
Go Utes!!!! Go USA!!!!
Oh yeah, thank you SDSU! I knew that Wyoming was not invincible at home and I am REALLY looking forward to the game in Larimie....looking forward to it with caution and not fear!
HOOPS: View from Row 4
Posted By: Wakara
Date: Tuesday, 19 February 2002, at 12:48 a.m.
This will be short as I've got to go to bed.
- Spivey plays big in big games. 2-2 from behind the arc and the best defensive hustle block of the year. We will miss you Travis next year. Needed a good game after mediocre effort against AF, and got one.
- We play better with Koford clogging the middle. The guy is a great post shooter and brings back the inside threat. Not a great passer like Burgess, but a threat nonetheless. Franny saw that and went small ball on us, limiting his time. I hope to see a lot of Cameron against the slow footed Cougar post players this week. He is a defensive presence.
- Britton played pretty good. He is the leader of the team now and the opponents are playing to stop him. A little weak mentally, but there's no one in the conference I'd take over him.
- Nick is turning into a fine defensive player, but his stroke is taking a holiday. From my perspective there is less arch on his shots which means he's aiming instead of shooting. They seem flatter than in the beginning of the year. Am I the only one who's noticed that?
- UNM wouldn't go away, or we can't put teams away. Whichever is right, it made for a thrilling game. I love to win on the last play. Great way to end the year.
- Thankfully UNM didn't try a little harder to get an open look on the last posession, as our defense looked a little confused the last 5 minutes. They decided to have their hottest player run down and throw up a shot. He didn't even look to pass. Thank you, Fran.
- UNM played one possession in a zone and it took all of ten seconds for NJ to bury a 3. Zone gone. We won't be seeing another zone for a while
- If Chris Burgess doesn't get another year, it will be a tragedy. A high character kid who works hard to overcome the many hurdles life has thrown at him.
- Good bye to the Seniors. We will miss JJ's aggressiveness. Phil has been our best shooter the last 3 or 4 games...and hustled on both ends. Seniors/experience win ball games, so let's not expect too much from our recruits for a while.
- It's been an interesting year at home, but an enjoyable one. To see majerus adapt his strategy after Burgess went down has been great. He needs to do a little more adapting now that teams have figured us out, but you can't argue with being in 1st place.
- It will be a tough game against the zoobs. We need the real Nicky J to return and get rid of the imposter.
Night All. It wasn't as short as I hoped. I'm going to be beat tomorrow.
HOOPS: Thank goodness -- no more Big Mondays
Posted By: Gilly
Date: Tuesday, 19 February 2002, at 8:01 a.m.
What a shame to have Senior Night on a Big Monday during the Olympics. The seniors deserved better than a early December-sized crowd and a mute Majerus.
Utah's defense was pretty good when Koford was in the game. He was challengin/changing every shot in the lane, so the Ute perimeter defenders could afford to crowd the three point shooters. When he was out, it was a different story -- the Lobos could drive, and so the Utes had to back off them a bit, and New Mexico could hit three's AND get to the rim.
Another defensive point -- Utah continues to defend the pick and roll by having the man defending the pick setter jump out on the ballhandler, eventually resulting in a double team when the on-the-ball defender recovers. It didn't work against CSU and Greene, it didn't work against WYO, and it didn't work last night agains Dennehy. Any team with a forward who can shoot could run the pick and roll all night against Utah. New Mexico doesn't even run it that well -- it takes forever for Chatfield of Carey to get that pass off -- but it doesn't matter. Dennehy had a field day.
I'm amazed that people still throw little slights into their compliments of Britton Johnsen. No one said "Spivey made a great block AFTER he gave the ball away when Nick Jacobson was wide open," and yet everyone feels the need to point out what Britton did wrong when saying he had a good game. Britton is playing harder and doing more things on the floor right now than any other Ute. Without him in the last two games, the Utes might have had ZERO points at the 10 minute mark in both games. Lighten up, people.
Jacobson played some good defense on Douglas, but I think the coaches should stop playing him so many minutes. He's exhausted by the end of the game and has trouble making normal plays.
New Mexico played pretty well. They ran some offense, and played some defense. Their shooters can hit from deep, so they stretch the defense way out there.
Utah needs to figure out the first 5 and the last 5 minutes of games before this roadie. they can't get away with no points to start and end the game on the road.
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