Late-Night Look at the Upcoming Season
Since the Utes held their "Friday Night Hoops" season kickoff event far too late for us to get anything but a good photo in the newspaper in the morning -- and since it's just an abbreviated, co-ed practice with music, anyway -- we'll be covering the high points here, just to start the season off right.
So ... first things first.
The new scoreboard looks terrific -- it's just too bad it wasn't working yet. The Utes finished installing it just in time for coach Jim Boylen to unveil his team alongside the women's team, but the giant video screens clearly are not quite ready yet.
But Chris Grant is ready.
Interviewed at midcourt by women’s coach Elaine Elliott, the senior guard said the team's goal is to win the Mountain West Conference and reach the NCAA Tournament.
"We have to go to the tournament, hands down," he said.
Fellow senior Johnnie Bryant agreed, telling the couple thousand fans in attendance that "we're going to be cutting down the nets at the end of the year for you guys." That would be quite an accomplishment, considering the Utes were 11-19 last season.
Once the competition began, the Utes held a three-point shooting contest between Bryant and forwards Stephen Weigh and Shaun Green.
Bryant made 21 of 25 shots from five spots around the arc, but Weigh won the men's side of the event with 24 points, benefiting from extra points being awarded for making the final shot at each of the shooting locations. Green brought up the rear, burdened by an unsightly 0-for-5 from the right angle.
After that, the men held a short scrimmage -- two five-minute halves, with mostly running clock -- in which center Luke Nevill had six points and two rebounds, though freshman Morgan Grim stripped him of a rebound in the second half. Green had a strong performance, too, including a three-pointer just before the final buzzer, and guard Lawrence Borha heated up with back-to-back jumpers at the end of the first half, once freshman Carlon Brown had beaten him for a reverse lay-up.
"I don't know if the defense was really good or the offense was really bad," Boylen said.
Speaking of Brown, he seemed to be in the middle of the action quite a bit, though he missed a couple of wild shots pretty badly. He also just lost the dunk contest -- judged in part by former defensive end Luther Elliss -- to guard Curtis Eatmon, who threw down a dazzling 360-degree windmill number on his final attempt.
Among the other noteworthy items, Eatmon played the whole scrimmage either at shooting guard or small forward -- not point guard -- guard Luka Drca scored right off the opening tip and later stripped Nevill in the post in his first action after offseason shoulder surgery, and junior-college transfer Tyler Kepkay missed both shots he attempted after averaging 27.9 points per game at the College of Eastern Utah last season.
The only downside to the night?
The most agonizing introductions in basketball history.
Sure, it was a cool idea to introduce each player in a spotlight at the top of the darkened arena and have them jog down the steps to the floor amid cheers and high-fives. But by waiting for each player to reach the floor before introducing the next player, the process took seemingly forever. And frankly, I was worried that in the bad lighting, somebody was going to take a header and suffer a season-ending injury.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen -- though Brown did hit the floor.
The freshman already has a reputation as something of a showboat from high school, and he lived up to it by dancing his way down the steps and then doing “the worm” along the hardwood.
With that kind of start, it should be an interesting season.
So ... first things first.
The new scoreboard looks terrific -- it's just too bad it wasn't working yet. The Utes finished installing it just in time for coach Jim Boylen to unveil his team alongside the women's team, but the giant video screens clearly are not quite ready yet.
But Chris Grant is ready.
Interviewed at midcourt by women’s coach Elaine Elliott, the senior guard said the team's goal is to win the Mountain West Conference and reach the NCAA Tournament.
"We have to go to the tournament, hands down," he said.
Fellow senior Johnnie Bryant agreed, telling the couple thousand fans in attendance that "we're going to be cutting down the nets at the end of the year for you guys." That would be quite an accomplishment, considering the Utes were 11-19 last season.
Once the competition began, the Utes held a three-point shooting contest between Bryant and forwards Stephen Weigh and Shaun Green.
Bryant made 21 of 25 shots from five spots around the arc, but Weigh won the men's side of the event with 24 points, benefiting from extra points being awarded for making the final shot at each of the shooting locations. Green brought up the rear, burdened by an unsightly 0-for-5 from the right angle.
After that, the men held a short scrimmage -- two five-minute halves, with mostly running clock -- in which center Luke Nevill had six points and two rebounds, though freshman Morgan Grim stripped him of a rebound in the second half. Green had a strong performance, too, including a three-pointer just before the final buzzer, and guard Lawrence Borha heated up with back-to-back jumpers at the end of the first half, once freshman Carlon Brown had beaten him for a reverse lay-up.
"I don't know if the defense was really good or the offense was really bad," Boylen said.
Speaking of Brown, he seemed to be in the middle of the action quite a bit, though he missed a couple of wild shots pretty badly. He also just lost the dunk contest -- judged in part by former defensive end Luther Elliss -- to guard Curtis Eatmon, who threw down a dazzling 360-degree windmill number on his final attempt.
Among the other noteworthy items, Eatmon played the whole scrimmage either at shooting guard or small forward -- not point guard -- guard Luka Drca scored right off the opening tip and later stripped Nevill in the post in his first action after offseason shoulder surgery, and junior-college transfer Tyler Kepkay missed both shots he attempted after averaging 27.9 points per game at the College of Eastern Utah last season.
The only downside to the night?
The most agonizing introductions in basketball history.
Sure, it was a cool idea to introduce each player in a spotlight at the top of the darkened arena and have them jog down the steps to the floor amid cheers and high-fives. But by waiting for each player to reach the floor before introducing the next player, the process took seemingly forever. And frankly, I was worried that in the bad lighting, somebody was going to take a header and suffer a season-ending injury.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen -- though Brown did hit the floor.
The freshman already has a reputation as something of a showboat from high school, and he lived up to it by dancing his way down the steps and then doing “the worm” along the hardwood.
With that kind of start, it should be an interesting season.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 10:53 PM |
1 Comments:
Good review, and yes, the introductions were simply awful. They took far too long, it was awkward and the band never knew when to stop. It was still fun to see the team though.
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