Utah tops Washington, 85-61

The first four minutes of the game against Washington was pretty similar to the last three games Utah has played. It was a turnover fest, as Utah racked up six early turnovers to dig themselves an 18-10 hole to the Huskies. There were errant passes, attempts to do too much, and just bad basketball.

Fortunately, after that initial flurry of terrible hoops, the Utes rallied to go on an impressive 23-1 run to take control of the game. After the game, Coach K said that he “"karate chopped the ‘ol greaseboard, and dropped a few expletives” to help light some fire under the Utes. I'd say it worked to help ignite that massive run. From that point on, I don't want to say Utah cruised, because UW did make some mini runs, but the Utes kept a sizable lead the rest of the game.

After a terrible game from beyond the arc against Wazzu, the Utes went 11-of-23 from deep. Parker Van Dyke was one of the main reasons, as he 4-of-8 from deep and had a career high 16 points. Lorenzo Bonam also had one of his better days from deep, going 3-of-6 with 11 points. Devon Daniels also busted out of his slump with 16 points and was 2-of-3 from downtown as well, and pitched in 8 rebounds. David Collette had 14 of his own points and Kyle Kuzma notched another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Utah shot an impressive 55% for the game, and after the flurry of turnovers to open the game, Utah only had 9 more to finish with 15 total. Not a good number, but they still showed a much crisper style of play after that opening four minutes of play.

Next up for the Utes, who hopefully has regained some confidence, are the Ducks on Thursday. Coach K said he’s going to give the team some rest the next couple of days, as he alluded to the fact that they may have worn down a bit, especially since they didn’t have a Christmas break, like most other teams. Here’s hoping the Utes can go to Eugene and get the massive upset.