Runnin' Utes win, but so much work left to be done
by JazzyUte on Nov 14, 2011 9:15 PM MST
in Basketball
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PrintUtah basketball isn't very good right now. That was evident in their 58-55 victory over San Diego Christian College.
But I'm not going to get too down right now. A victory is a victory. Utah is 1-0. It's possible, unfortunately, there are only a handful, maybe less, of those left on the remaining schedule. So enjoy this one and hope for progress. Hope this team becomes more competitive and consistent and is playing at a much different level in January than they did tonight.
This game didn't inspire much confidence, but it's a win and right now, I'll take it.
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Utes performance tonight
There were a few things I saw tonight that were disappointing and things I feel this team can build upon. While we may be far far away from the 90’s days, you have to start somewhere to get back to the glory days.
1. Our free throw percentage was low at 69.7% (23-33). For our team, we need to have a high free throw percentage. We still don’t have great chemistry and we don’t have superior talent that can pull us though. So we need to capitalize on our easy chances. If we can bump this to a consistent 80%, I feel we can be much harder to beat. The silver lining here is that was got to the charity stripe 33 times. That is great!! Our ability to get there will help us in grind games and can help us stay competitive with better teams. Without getting to the line tonight we would have lost badly.
2. Our turnovers are still our worst enemy. We luckily had only 14 TO, (an improvement over adams), but we could have easily had many more. Our turnovers really stopped us from gaining momentum and really killed any chance we had to get in a rhythm offensively. I think this is the main reason that when we were up 5 or 6 points that we couldn’t push the lead to double digits. When you put up shots, and some start to fall, you gain confidence and you play better. You make better decisions and overall everyone is happy. If we can cut our TO to under 10, I think our scoring identity will find itself and we will have a better shooting percentage.
3. Our PG are strong, we can drive and move the ball in transition and both had positive assist to turnover ratios. They can improve the passing and lazy play that sometimes plagues the entire team. But I think we are strong at our PG position.
I hope we improve, I think we really can. But only time will tell and I hope our community comes out and supports the players who are trying hard to rebuild this entire program and restore its reputation.
GO UTES!
Scratch one thing
Kareem Storey didn’t have a positive assist to turnover ratio. He had 0 assists and 2 TO. But still played decently
We miss David Foster
I expect the turnover issues to improve as the season goes along, even though the competition will be more fierce. Its sad that we are at this stage right now, but I firmly believe that Larry K is the man to get us back to respectability.
[shameless self promotion] You are always welcome to visit my blog @ bigbenstechnicalfoul.blogspot.com, I always try to make it fun and enjoyable. I most often talk teams in Utah, but I also like to talk national stuff. [/shameless self promotion]
by BigBenSportsGuy on Nov 15, 2011 8:47 AM MST reply actions
Here is my player-by-player breakdown.......
Dijon Farr-virtually invisible. Contributed next to nothing.
Blake Wilkinson-also fairly invisible.
Cedric Martin-four points, two boards, two assists in 35 minutes of play. Maybe I am going out on a limb here, but if we are going to have success, we need a little more from our starting two guard. He had a SWEET play to break up that fastbreak though. Anyone else catch that?
Jason Washburn-a little more aggressive tonight, and that’s a good thing. He is a talented offensive player. We need him to AVERAGE what he got tonight.
Josh Watkins-was the team tonight. 23 points, 4 boards, 5 assists. Sadly, we will need him to do this almost every night to compete.
Anthony Odunsi-I like the kid. I like how he gets to the line. struggled with his shot, but he is going to be a nice two guard for us.
Kareem Storey-the kid is a gamer. He played hard and though he made a lot of rookie mistakes, he competed. He got to the line and delivered.
Kyle Perkins-he checked into the game. Grabbed an offensive rebound.
Javon Dawson- I anticipate that he will get more time as he gets back into shape off of his injuries. I loved his ability to rebound. He is a load down there and reminds me of Sean Daniels from Utah State (that’s going back a decade or so).
George Matthews-came in, picked up two fouls, sat the bench. Jury is very much still out.
This team needs reliable outside shooting and better team chemistry.
[shameless self promotion] You are always welcome to visit my blog @ bigbenstechnicalfoul.blogspot.com, I always try to make it fun and enjoyable. I most often talk teams in Utah, but I also like to talk national stuff. [/shameless self promotion]
by BigBenSportsGuy on Nov 15, 2011 10:03 AM MST reply actions
Odunsi and Storey are very promising.
Farr and Washburn need to step it up to be at all competitive.
Farr’s head is not in the game, and he makes dumb, lazy passes that get picked off. He is probably the best pure shooter on the team, so he needs to move around and get open, because he should be sinking 3-4 threes every game.
Washburn is in a tough spot without Foster. He’s going to get in foul trouble a lot, and I don’t see a decent replacement for him. He’s not even a great player, he just happens to be all we got in the ballpark of a center.
Watkins is awesome. Hopefully he can train up Odunsi and Storey into a good backcourt for years to come.
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