Coaching hiccup costs Utes the game over Adams State
by JazzyUte on Nov 4, 2011 9:31 PM MDT
in Basketball
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PrintIt's not often you can point to one coaching mistake as the sole reason you lost the game. But Friday night, in Larry Krystkowiak's first college game since the 2006 NCAA Tournament, that's exactly what happened, when, tied and with little time remaining in the game, he called a timeout the Runnin' Utes did not have.
That was an automatic two-shot technical foul on Utah - where a Grizzly player connected on one of two.
Utah still had a chance with 11 seconds left, but threw away the in bounds pass after and the fate of Krystkowiak's first game was sealed: Utah fell to Adams State 61-60.
Though only an exhibition game, which means it won't count in the final standings, it shows just how far the program has to go to be competitive with the rest of the Pac-12. Adams State is a Division II program that plays in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, so they're presumably far worse than the talent Utah will see this season.
Even so, if there is hope to gleaned from this defeat, in '08, the Runnin' Utes fell to DII Southwest Baptist State in their regular season opener (a game that actually counted) and then went on to win a share of the Mountain West title.
I don't expect near that success, but a few wins along the way, as well as improvement, shouldn't be out of the question.
As is, though, this is going to be a long climb back to respectability.
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Losses always hurt....
But here’s why I’m okay with it. First and foremost, it doesn’t count. Larry K was tinkering with the line up all night. Foster only played 5 minutes. Don’t know if he’s hurt bad or hurt slightly then held out for precautionary reasons. The guys played hard and cared. The only glaring issue is the amount of offensive boards they gave up.
The time out was actually called by Storey, a true freshman, when he couldn’t inbound the ball right after a time out. But that’s still on the coaches 100%. That should have been the last thing that the players heard coming out of the time out was that there were no time outs left. Storey looked crushed when it happened. But the Runnin’ Utes never would’ve been in that game had it not been for Storey’s performance in the last 5 minutes of the game.
We still had a chance at the end but Martin’s last second jumper from the corner just missed. He fell to the ground looking devastated. He also had a good game, along with Dijon Farr (10 points) and Blake Wilkinson (11 boards).
I’ve always said I’ll be happy with the team as long as they play hard. The Runnin’ Utes did just that tonight until the final buzzer.
My concern...
We only scored 60, at home, against a DII team.
Tinkering or not, that’s a very low number that could pose some major trouble once Pac-12 play starts.
Of course, before I panic, I want to see how they do against San Diego Christian Academy (or whatever). A loss there and we might not win a game.
On the bright side...
What’s to panic about? They’re picked last and will probably perform horribly. The only place to go is up. Not worried about a thing because I have really low expectations. I’ll cheer them on as always, but won’t get a broken heart when they lose.
by Classless Ute on Nov 5, 2011 12:13 AM MDT via mobile up reply actions
very true.
[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 5, 2011 9:44 AM MDT up reply actions
I think I'd rather have it come in a FF game than against a DII team...
Yeah, the stakes are greater, but I’d love to be in that position again.
This could be a long year...
…as it is looking like an up year across the rest of the PAC.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
@chrislandon
well... I gotta say
Overall we looked pretty bad IMO. But the key now is to see Improvement over the course of the season. Boylens teams never seemed to get better as time went on. So we have a good idea where this team is now. Let’s see where they end up.
so there
by Steamboat Billy on Nov 5, 2011 9:50 AM MDT via iPhone app reply actions
agreed!
[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 5, 2011 10:19 AM MDT up reply actions
Agreed
A trademark of Boylen teams was that it seemed we would not improve through the course of the season despite statements made to the contrary. I need to see more games, before I come to the conclusion we are in for more of the same under new management.
Given the result of last night, I guess it is safe to assume, Krystkowiak won’t be pulling a Don Shula of taking a team from worst to first.
I hope Coach K quits tinkering around with lineups and starts playing people who can get some wins (and can shoot). Nothing like W(s) to get the confidence up in a team.
First order of business is to know how many timeouts are left and to quit turning the ball over so much (another Boylen promise that never came to fruition.)
by Utah-UCLA alum on Nov 5, 2011 10:28 AM MDT up reply actions
Yup...only once did Boylen's teams progress throughout the season and that was 2009, when he had an experienced team...
In fact, the other three years, you could make the case the team regressed by January. That was the case last year, as they started 7-3, with wins over Montana, Fresno, Bradley and Boise State.
They would go 6-15 the rest of the way.
Yikes.
Was anyone else at the game?
Washburn looked LOST.
I’ll be the first to concede that he made a couple of beautiful plays, but more often than not, he was out of position, not playing physical (not even going for rebounds and frequently getting out-boarded by guys 6 inches shorter than him) and unnecessarily fading away on his shots, which caused most of them to miss.
I hope he comes around, because I did see some glimpses of great play.
Also, I wouldn’t say that this loss was entirely on Coach K; we had 3 chances to win it. The first time, we called a timeout when we didn’t have any. Next, when we got the ball back, we threw it away. Then, we got it back AGAIN and killed the clock forcing Martin to take the shot with a man in his face.
In terms of those miscommunications, we can only improve once these guys get more time playing with each other.
washburn
did not try hard enough to establish position. He allowed himself to set up 12-15 feet from the basket way too often. He needs to get inside and go to work. I am with you all the way on this one, the kid is frustrating to watch at times.
[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 5, 2011 11:56 AM MDT up reply actions
Washburn looks pathetic.
I went to the game and couldn’t believe how many defensive assignments, how many failed box-outs by Washburn and Washburn alone allowed Adams St. to score at will.
He’s slow on offense. Bad on defense. Doesn’t box out.
In an exhibition game like this, I would have benched him out of principle.
4 chances to win
I agree with Mercury about those three chances to win, I would also add that we also had a chance to win by playing defense on there last 3 point attempt. We knew that they were down by three and were more than likely to take the three, however when the Adam’s State player took the three, the defender was at least 3-4 feet away. Why weren’t we guarding the line?
Washburn
I was also extremely frustrated with Washburn. I wasn’t counting but it seemed like he gave up a huge amount of offensive rebounds to Adam’s State. There were times he didn’t even jump.
I remember at the end of the game, he got two big defensive rebounds and I screamed in delight. We should get most of them anyway.
Inauspicious start
"Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football."--John Heisman
"I'm not upset about the U allegations," tweeted Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez, who pitched at Miami. "I'm mad we didn't win anything while we were cheating."
Boylens fault of course
always will be, right?
Not sure any good can be taken from a loss to a division 2 team
in which you only scored 60 points at home, and the coach doesn’t even know the game situation with timeouts.
The good news?
It wasn’t a football game.
"Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football."--John Heisman
"I'm not upset about the U allegations," tweeted Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez, who pitched at Miami. "I'm mad we didn't win anything while we were cheating."
Krystko didn't call the TO.
Kareem Storey did.
But I agree it was still Krystko’s fault for not drilling it into the players’ heads that ‘we have no timeouts left.’
Headline.... Ouch!!
Pretty condemning, attention grabbing headline considering the whole situation that played out in this game. There’s no doubt about it being a tough loss to swallow but to not mention the very unfortunate injuries and other contributing factors is evidently proof that K2 will be the target regardless…. at least with your posts.
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