Good Luck Deciding How to Take Loss to Huskies
Well, that was certainly a maddening performance.
Do you get encouraged that the Utes could rally so well against the Washington Huskies in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament, or frustrated that they wasted a spectacular start and ultimately lost 83-77 at the Bank of America Arena?
Do you get excited that they were about one possession from stealing a huge road win despite missing seven free throws, committing 18 turnovers, getting absolutely blasted on the boards and nearly falling apart at the end of the first half -- or angry that they did all of that in the first place?
Coach Jim Boylen sounded like he was all of the above.
"We hung in there pretty damn good," he said. "But we have to get better. We have to get tougher and we have to get better."
Having faced its first big test of the season, though, Boylen said he's convinced that the Utes are much better on defense -- even though Washington's Jon Brockman ravaged the Utes for 31 points and 18 rebounds. Much of that damage was done against center Luke Nevill, who had a six-inch height advantage but could hardly keep up with the quicker, tougher Brockman.
"Our defense is good," Boylen said. "Our defense is solid. To hold them to 43.3 [percent shooting] on their home floor" on the second night of back-to-back games "I think is pretty damn good. I'm proud of my guys. But we have to make plays. We have to be tougher. I thought a lot of our turnovers were wimpy, soft turnovers. And we can't do that."
The Utes committed 18 turnovers in all, some of them remarkably bad -- like forward Stephen Weigh throwing the ball out of bounds across the corner of the court on an inbounds pass, or guard Lawrence Borha not paying attention to an oncoming pass on the fast break and missing it entirely.
Curiously, too, Nevill blamed turnovers for the loss -- he committed a team-high five of those -- while Boylen, Bryant and fellow guard Tyler Kepkay all cited the rebounding discrepancy as the most damaging shortcoming. Aside from Nevill, only forward Shaun Green had more than two rebounds ... and he had only three.
"They were getting tip-ins and second and third chances," Bryant said. "And that gave them more shot opportunities and more shots to win the game."
Of course, the Utes had their shots, too. They missed four straight three-pointers in the final two minutes or so, which would have been painful enough had they not been 8-for-15 from beyond the arc until then.
"You have to make plays at the end of games," Boylen said.
Among other tidbits worth mentioning:
-- Spectacularly stupid fifth foul by Nevill, who threw down a Washington player after teammate Luka Drca made a basket to give the Utes a 70-69 lead with 4:49 remaining. "I've never seen anything like that," Boylen said.
-- Forward Kim Tillie did not enjoy nearly as strong a game as he did against High Point, fouling out in nine minutes of trying to guard Brockman, having scored just two points and grabbed two rebounds.
-- Within that rebounding disaster, the Utes grabbed only two offensive rebounds, but only partly because they shot 54.7 percent. The Huskies hauled in 14 offensive boards, six of them by Brockman.
Do you get encouraged that the Utes could rally so well against the Washington Huskies in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament, or frustrated that they wasted a spectacular start and ultimately lost 83-77 at the Bank of America Arena?
Do you get excited that they were about one possession from stealing a huge road win despite missing seven free throws, committing 18 turnovers, getting absolutely blasted on the boards and nearly falling apart at the end of the first half -- or angry that they did all of that in the first place?
Coach Jim Boylen sounded like he was all of the above.
"We hung in there pretty damn good," he said. "But we have to get better. We have to get tougher and we have to get better."
Having faced its first big test of the season, though, Boylen said he's convinced that the Utes are much better on defense -- even though Washington's Jon Brockman ravaged the Utes for 31 points and 18 rebounds. Much of that damage was done against center Luke Nevill, who had a six-inch height advantage but could hardly keep up with the quicker, tougher Brockman.
"Our defense is good," Boylen said. "Our defense is solid. To hold them to 43.3 [percent shooting] on their home floor" on the second night of back-to-back games "I think is pretty damn good. I'm proud of my guys. But we have to make plays. We have to be tougher. I thought a lot of our turnovers were wimpy, soft turnovers. And we can't do that."
The Utes committed 18 turnovers in all, some of them remarkably bad -- like forward Stephen Weigh throwing the ball out of bounds across the corner of the court on an inbounds pass, or guard Lawrence Borha not paying attention to an oncoming pass on the fast break and missing it entirely.
Curiously, too, Nevill blamed turnovers for the loss -- he committed a team-high five of those -- while Boylen, Bryant and fellow guard Tyler Kepkay all cited the rebounding discrepancy as the most damaging shortcoming. Aside from Nevill, only forward Shaun Green had more than two rebounds ... and he had only three.
"They were getting tip-ins and second and third chances," Bryant said. "And that gave them more shot opportunities and more shots to win the game."
Of course, the Utes had their shots, too. They missed four straight three-pointers in the final two minutes or so, which would have been painful enough had they not been 8-for-15 from beyond the arc until then.
"You have to make plays at the end of games," Boylen said.
Among other tidbits worth mentioning:
-- Spectacularly stupid fifth foul by Nevill, who threw down a Washington player after teammate Luka Drca made a basket to give the Utes a 70-69 lead with 4:49 remaining. "I've never seen anything like that," Boylen said.
-- Forward Kim Tillie did not enjoy nearly as strong a game as he did against High Point, fouling out in nine minutes of trying to guard Brockman, having scored just two points and grabbed two rebounds.
-- Within that rebounding disaster, the Utes grabbed only two offensive rebounds, but only partly because they shot 54.7 percent. The Huskies hauled in 14 offensive boards, six of them by Brockman.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 12:38 AM |
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