CHOKE! Utes upset by Arizona in ugly, turnover plagued performance
by JazzyUte on Mar 20, 2009 7:37 PM MDT
in Basketball
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PrintI don't know what to say. Honestly, I really didn't believe the media bullshit about Utah being upset in the first round by an Arizona team that obviously didn't belong and you know what? They were right, I was wrong. Arizona not only beat Utah, but they showed neither team really deserved to be in this year's tournament, as the Wildcats advanced with an ugly 84-71 victory over the embarrassed and lifeless Utes.
That's all I really want to say right now. Congrats to the Wildcats, who clearly outplayed and outcoached the Utes. They had a gameplan to press the Utes and create turnovers and Utah could not figure the damn thing out. Unfortunately, when the Utes eventually got back into the game, they spent all their energy and had nothing left. So is the life. One and done, it sucks, it hurts and it's not what we expected, but we were fooling ourselves if we actually thought this team was capable of any type of tournament run. Of course, I was one of those fools who felt it possible to make it to the second round. How dumb do I look now?
What gets me the most is that now every media hack who picked against the Utes will be vindicated. All week we heard Arizona didn't belong -- but they're still going to beat Utah. That's like the ugliest, fattest and easiest chick in high school -- you know the one who's been in more beds than a Serta Mattress -- turning you down. Ouch. And wasn't Boylen supposed to use that as motivation? Weren't we supposed to be playing with a chip on our shoulder? It sure didn't look like it, as Arizona dictated the pace from start to finish and Utah couldn't do squat.
Oh well. When does football start?
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Wow
I hate to say it but you guys were completely out-coached and out-played by an interim head coach and a uninspired Arizona team that didn’t even belong in the tournament. Ouch. You may not agree but I think you guys were also out-coached in the MWC Final but the Aztecs weren’t a good enough shooting team to take advantage of it.
I have no idea how the HELL Boylen lets the guards get away with taking the first three shot they can instead of being patient and getting the ball inside to Sloth. This is the second straight game that has happened. In the first half of the Aztec-Ute game Utah was something like 1-12 from beyond the arc in the first half because they were perfectly happy to just shoot the ball the second they got it over the equator. Same thing tonight Utah started the game like 0-10 from the field and Sloth barely touched the ball in the first half. Also turnovers. Gotta give the fault to the coach for the incredible lack of discipline the Utes showed tonight. Oh well. BYU and Utah one and done. There goes the MWCs credibility.
Well, SDSU slaughtered Big 12 rival Kansas St. 70-52 tonight at least. We are the last men standing in the MWC. We will play the winner of the Davidson St Mary’s game which is Monday. Our game will be at 6pm PST on Wednesday at Cox Arena on ESPN. So you guys can root for us if you want. Three wins away from NIT Champs!
I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Philip Rivers fan.
by Sam (sdsuaztec4) on Mar 20, 2009 10:32 PM MDT reply actions
I can't say about the championship game because I didn't see it.
What I do know is that for all he’s been able to do at Utah, Boylen still has been out coached in a ton of games. That’s fine, he’s still a young coach, but to lose in a tournament game to a guy who’s not even going to have a head job next year stings. It stings because I’ve never seen a game where a team runs the goddamn press nearly the entire time and succeeds!
I know a lot of Ute fans are content with the season, but I’m not. I didn’t come all this way to get bounced by Arizona, not after watching Cleveland Fucking State beat Wake Forest, opening a perfect path for Utah to the Sweet Sixteen. Now we get to watch a 12-seeded Arizona team walk its way to the Sweet Sixteen and face a Louisville team that’s very vulnerable. Ugh.
Really, I should have known the Utes were doomed when I saw Shaun Green on the local news saying he had no expectations, that he was just glad to be there. Well that mindset works for BYU, but not Utah. We shouldn’t be just happy to be there. We should want to win more than the other team. But instead of doing that, they now proved every negative point about Utah and the Mountain West. Good luck trying to get a decent seed again from the selection committee after this pathetic performance.
Utah let the MWC down.
What's the NIT?
I wish you luck SDSU fan. It will be a tremendous accomplishment to become the 65th best team in the country.
Utah
I think it was inexperience more than anything. These guys were playing in their first NCAA tournament game and they played the part of a team that to be honest looked a bit nervous on the big stage…Arizona has been there and they’ve learned from their recent tourney failures. It’s a learning experience that’s what our younger players will get out of it. Unfortunately it was Luke’s last game and it’s a shame it had to end that way, but for our returning players for next season I see this as a wake up call.
Maybe, but it's hard to accept that...
When a team like Cleveland State dominates Wake Forest.
Cleveland State only got in through their conference tournament and last made the NCAAs in 1984!
:/
Frustrated!!!
Glad to have been to the dance…hate ….. HATE!!! going one and done. I’m still not sure about Boylen…..constant turnovers (throughout the year), inability to block out and get the f*****g rebounds while AZ comes right in and slams an offensive rebound home for a dunk and finally….having numbers and giving up a sure 2 for an unsure 3…which basically led to AZ’s final run to put the Utes out if it.
Also, could not believe that Morgan Grimm was not in the game to at least “give some fouls” when Luke neutered with 4 fouls (he was totally ineffective when having 4 fouls on him). I hope to hell we’ve got a real point guard next year so we can learn to break the press. What a crappy game to watch!
AZ was motivated and it showed…Utah was lackluster and dazed from the get go. YES…the Utes were outcoached all night tonight! No two way about it.
by MississippiUte on Mar 20, 2009 11:37 PM MDT reply actions
This has been bugging me.
All week we heard about how fired up the Utes were over the disrespect they were receiving from the members of the media and they did nothing but validate that bullshit.
Boylen should sit down and talk with Kyle Whittingham, because he’s a master of coming out and kicking ass when everyone is doubting his team.
I’m not going to turn on Boylen, but I’ve very disappointed with his coaching in this game. I thought he was slow to make any adjustments and just looked totally lost. Hopefully he’s still learning, but ouch.
Boylen
Let’s face it if it was Majerus he would be having a fit over each turnover. That’s a problem I have with Boylen is I don’t think he is hard enough on the players for making dumb mistakes..Maybe it’s a bit unfair to criticize because he’s pretty new to the head coaching scene, and Boylen wasn’t the one out there bricking three pointers. But I hope he can learn from his coaching mistakes for next season.
He wasn't out there bricking 3s
BUT he was perfectly happy to watch them brick 3s over and over again with 33 seconds left on the shot clock. This is the second straight game that has happened. These were mostly seniors out there, he needed to calm them down and tell them to be patient and get the ball inside to their playmaker. Instead they were throwing the ball around all over the place.
I want to thank the good Lord for making me a Philip Rivers fan.
by Sam (sdsuaztec4) on Mar 21, 2009 12:39 AM MDT up reply actions
That's just it.
It was as if he was content letting them try and shoot out of their slump. But this is the NCAA Tournament and one of the first rules is that teams who live by the three during spurts of their games will eventually die by it in the tournament.
What happened? Utah missed and missed and missed and no adjustments were made.
How many touches did Nevill get in this game? How many times did Kepkay or another player pass up a mid-range shot, just to go inside and kick it out for…another three?
I felt like we were the Golden State Warriors out there.
And not the 2007 Warriors, but the 2009 Warriors!
Not all is lost.
The fact that Utah made it to the NCAA Tournament at all this season is a success itself. The talent-level gap in Friday’s game was very evident to see. Of course, that cannot be blamed on the current head coach. Other than Carlon Brown, every single Utah recruit who played a major role this season was recruited by either Ray Giacoletti or Rick Majerus (Nevill). It takes more than one year to build a great program. Personally, I think that Jim Boylen is doing a great job at restoring this program to the place it once was and I think that Mr. Boylen has the ability to take it to a level that many of us can only imagine. Great programs are built through great recruiting. This was not happening before Boylen arrived at Utah. Let’s wait until Jim has an entire team that is made up of his recruits before we throw him and Utah under the buss. He can only coach the players so much when they lack the talent to compete at the highest levels. Utah has to have a string of consistent recruiting years and winning seasons in a row to truly revive itself from the downward spiral that it was falling into Majerus’s last few years and the ultimate low point that it reached under Giacoletti’s watch. I know that Jim Boylen is the man to do it and I have full confidence in him that he will get the job done. GO UTAH!!!!!!
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