Thoughts from the game

Basketball
#1

Carslon had his best game this year by far thanks to Rylan Jones’ amazing passing.

Carlson was finally looking to actually take the ball to the basket when he got it instead of just settling for jump shots.

Despite having his best game, he still showed that he is INCREDIBLY weak with the ball in his hands. Every time he gets pressured down low with the ball in his hands, he brings it down low (a big time no no for big men) and gets the ball stripped. He needs to quit doing that ASAP.

It’s fun to watch these players play when they are clicking. When everyone is looking for their shot, and trying to find the open man, things go really well.

Even though we won by a ton, the team still showed bits of why they lost so many games in the second half. The other team cranks up the pressure, and we start turning the ball over. The coach then has us slow it waaaay down, and we don’t shoot until there is 0-5 left on the shot clock, usually resulting in a bad shot (and several passed up open ones). This type of coach LK ball is the worst. I hate it with a passion. You can’t sit on a lead in basketball.

#2

Despite having his best game, he still showed that he is INCREDIBLY weak with the ball in his hands. Every time he gets pressured down low with the ball in his hands, he brings it down low (a big time no no for big men) and gets the ball stripped. He needs to quit doing that ASAP…

Even though we won by a ton, the team still showed bits of why they lost so many games in the second half. The other team cranks up the pressure, and we start turning the ball over. The coach then has us slow it waaaay down, and we don’t shoot until there is 0-5 left on the shot clock, usually resulting in a bad shot (and several passed up open ones). This type of coach LK ball is the worst. I hate it with a passion. You can’t sit on a lead in basketball.

I don’t understand how a D1 big man still makes that high school mistake (bringing the ball down) or why the head coach, a former NBA big man with a reputation for developing college big men, tolerates it. Great example of why LK is such a frustrating, puzzling coach.

The inability to withstand late-game pressure or to make the other team pay for it is another example. Maybe we just don’t have athletes with the “quicks” necessary to avoid being embarrassed that way. That may also be the reason for the endless perimeter passing followed by a bad last-second shot. It’s hard to watch.

#3

Hate to rag on Carlson when he just had a great game and may be starting to become a great player. But I just don’t understand Carlson not developing his strength and body more than he has.

He served a mission and has a year under his belt in the program, so is not young body just out of high school. I’m sure the basketball team has as much access to diet programs and strength conditioning as the football team. It looks like he hasn’t gained a pound and his arms and shoulders have no definition at all! He would be an asset to the team if he was just a big bruiser who rebounded and protected the inside on defense. But he has the skills to be a great scorer and defender.
I think his talents are being wasted under coach K.

Rylan Jones is playing great ball. He is not the quickest or tallest player on the floor, but if all our players utilized their talents to the fullest like Jones, we would have a tough team to beat.

#4

Maybe he is lazy, or maybe basketball is not a high priority to him, but I think the likeliest explanation is that he just can’t gain weight. We’ve seen this with many seven-footers in basektball over the years.

Rylan had a great game last night, but I wouldn’t say he’s “playing great ball”. He really struggled in all of our recent losses.

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#5

  1. Carlson played a season high 34 minutes. Maybe his conditioning is finally improving? At times this season he’s seemed gassed after 4-5 minutes on the floor.

  2. Martinez didn’t play until garbage time. Brenchley got his minutes. I wonder what that is all about.

  3. It’s amazing how good a team looks when they shoot 40%+ from deep. Utes came into this game shooting 30%, dead last in the conference.

  4. Utes shot 100% from the ft line. That’s a pleasant surprise.

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#6

If Larry corrects a player, the player transfers. Kids these days can’t handle being yelled at by a 6’9” man, it’s too traumatizing for them.

I don’t understand what fans want of Larry. Is he too soft or too stern? Which is it?

#7

He doesn’t win enough games for far too long and for befuddling reasons, that is what is wrong with Larry.

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#8

Over the past five full seasons the Runnin’ Utes have 53 PAC 12 wins. That’s an average of 11-7 record every year over a 5 year span, including a down year last year.

How does that compare with our PAC 12 opponents?

Arizona - 60. Average 12-6 record
ASU - 43. Average 9-9 record
CU - 46. Average 9-9 record
UCLA - 53. Average 11-7 record
USC - 40. Average 8-10 record
Cal - 24. Average 5-13 record
Stanford - 42. Average 8-10 record
Oregon - 63. Average 13-5
Oregon State - 34. Average 7-11 record
Washington - 41. Average 8-10 record
WAZZU - 21. Average 5-13 record

PAC 12 Teams Ranked

  1. Oregon

  2. Arizona

  3. Utah/UCLA

  4. CU
    6, ASU

  5. Stanford

  6. Washington

  7. USC

  8. Oregon State

  9. WAZZU

Oregon and Arizona cheat, they are dirty programs. We are tied with UCLA for most clean wins over the past five seasons.

Five is a nice round number, if you want to total the last 4 to 7 seasons you will get very similar results with us in the top third or top quarter.

Do we expect to finish ahead of Arizona and Oregon? Is that realistic given there is audio evidence of Arizona offering recruits six figure salaries?

I know the expectation is NCAA tourney almost every year. Majerus accomplished that. Archibald, Giac, and Boylen did not. The way I see it is hiring a new coach gives us about a 20% chance of improving over what Larry has accomplished, 20% chance of staying the same, 60% of ending up worse.

I’m in the same place with Kyle and Larry, feels like both have reached a ceiling. Kyle would get to a Rose Bowl if he’d focus more on the Oline. Larry would make the tourney regularly if he retained players.

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#9

There is something weird going on where I am typing “5” in front of CU since there is no 4 as there is a tie for third…it’s forcing a 4 and skipping 5 and showing 6 in front of ASU.

#10

Since Jakob/Delon, every two year period before the last has been progressively worse. The program is trending in the wrong direction. He’s had multiple years to return to a positive trajectory, and he hasn’t been able to do that.

The level of disinterest in Utah MBB isn’t going to get any worse than it is now. We may not be successful with the next hire, but we have to try. If you want to be successful you have to take risks.

I know you are a troll, but try not to be a stupid one please.

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#11

Yep.

#12

recruiting is the problem–it always has been & always will be.
Everyone from Pimm on (including Majerus) has had problems recruiting.
why would a bb player come to play for the Running Utes?
Tradition–not for an 18 year old.
Nice facilities—yes, but there are more & more nice facilities.

exciting place to live–wrong
good skiing—wrong season
coach who played in NBA 20 years ago–wrong
rah rah coach–like Pope --no
assistant they can relate to–like Sharrieff Shah----no Tommy Connor–same age as your grandfather.
we will pay you–oops Utes are not AZ or USC.

So how does next coach solve this problem—I have no idea.

Need a current NBA linked person who will get at least 2 assistants who are really up on the AAU circuit to at least have a fighting chance.

#13

You want to talk about stupidity, it’s punishing a coach for beating teams like Duke and putting players in the NBA because the seasons afterward were a downward trajectory. By your logic Majerus should have been fired too. Whittingham should have been fired a few times too.

Larry got us in the Top 10 nationally, naturally he went after the likes of Markkanen to get us to the next level but it failed because Arizona is paying players more than Unlv in the 90s and they’re in our conference recruiting directly against us.

How’d Rick Majerus do against UNLV? I believe it was a 30 point loss. Some of you don’t even remember the Majerus era correctly.

Nobody outside of Utah is seeing Larry K as a failure here.

The basketball isn’t fun to watch anymore but if you watch other games in our league, they look the same or worse. Larry’s probably on the right track recruiting kids from outside the country. The AAU scene has ruined high school ball players here, and the few who do look solid, like Loehner, you have to provide a salary to the parents.

#14

I admit that after the loss to Cal, it firmly planted me into the “time for change” camp. And that does not feel good. I get completely what some of the “we support K3” guys are saying. So I’m feeling serious conflict here.

The program has had issues with recruits, while the current team is a lot better on paper than from a few years ago when the rooster appeared to be stacked with “panic pickups”. Don’t understand this even as I know Chris Hill was leery of the AAU connections. But the team had too many bad apples and in recent years astonishing turnover. That is expensive and has to be on coach.

No idea about the coaches rapport with players. At times it does not look great.

Then there is the harder for me to explain game performance, from a seasoned NBA coach. But what do I know?

I just want to see the program claw it’s way out of the hole it appears to be in. How that happens is above my pay grade. But it does not look like it’s underway.

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