Runnin’ Utes get throttled by Colorado

Well, that went very poorly for the young Utah basketball team. Coming into the season, I kind of figured that the Utes may have showings like the one they had against Colorado, but the strong start to the season put some doubt into that thinking. I was brought down to earth with Utahs 91-52 loss to Colorado in Boulder on Sunday.

The game was basically over before it started, as the Buffs opened the game on a 16-2 run, and built a 25 point lead just before the half. Utah trailed 44-22 at the half, and really there was no point to continue playing the game, as it was a TKO.

The second half was saw no improvement, as evidence by the almost 40 point loss. Utah just couldn’t get stops, with CU shooting a crazy 64% from the field, while the Utes couldn’t make a bucket, shooting just 35%. Utah was out rebounded on the game 42-24, which does tend to happen when you can’t make a shot and you can’t get a stop. Utah had a solid number of turnovers, with just 13, but it just came down to not making shots. The Utes had nobody in double figures, with Riley Battin leading the charge with just eight points.

It was a total team loss, and one that you just hope doesn’t carry over for the Utes, as the now travel the Arizona schools this week, first with Arizona on Thursday. Hopefully this group is too young and inexperienced to let this hang over their heads for too long.

Here’s Coach K’s thought on the game:

On having games like this with a young team…

“I think you know there’s some deficiencies in our game right now that we got a cleanup, but I’m not going to say that there’s going to be nights like this. I just think that is the nature of sports. There’s going to be a winner and a loser in every game. If you have a choice to lose a game by three or to lose a game by 40, which ones better? The result is it’s a loss and the key for us is that we need to stay together. Our group needs to stay together. Keep growing up. I sense that we will. We got a good group of guys but sometimes it’s humbling to have it and I hope it doesn’t happen but it is going to happen.”