Utes get thumped against UCLA 83-64

It was a rough night for the Utes as they went down to UCLA and got thumped against the Bruins. It was a buzzer to buzzer loss for the Utes as they never led, and UCLA hit the first 4 threes that they threw up, which put Utah in a big hole to open the game. It was a poor effort on both sides of the floor for the Utes, who was missing Donnie Tillman and Jayce Johnson. Let’s look at some of the takeaways from this game.

Defense optional?

UCLA shot 52% on the game, as well as 52% from the three point line. UCLA was 12 of 23 from deep, and Utah just didn’t put up much resistance on that end of the floor. If you’re going on the road, you need to get a stop, and that just didn’t happen tonight. Like I said against Arizona, Utah isn’t going to win many games in the 80s and 90s, they need to keep it in the 70s,

Someone hit a 3!!

Only shooting 7 of 26 from deep is not good enough. Bibbins was 4 of 8, which was where all of his field goals came from, but at times it looked like he was the only one wanting to compete. Rawson 0 of 5, yesh, they need more from him, especially with him only getting 6 points. Barefield going 0-3 from deep, with only 4 total points isn’t good enough.

Lost the battle of the boards again

They were only outrebounded by 3 without Johnson in the lineup, so not too bad. But this is a trend and one Utah needs to fix, they can’t keep getting outrebounded.

Where’s the aggression

The team was pretty lifeless for much of the game, and I think only shooting 11 free throws reflects that a bit. Utah wasn’t attacking the paint, which would open up the three point line. Collette only have 1 free throw attempt, with Bibbins and Rawson having 0 is a problem. It just shows the team was too passive and didn’t attack the defense at all. This needs to be better against USC.

Utah now rests for a few days until they go across town to take on USC, a game they need to win if they want to keep up hopes of another 1st round Pac-12 Tournament bye.