Loss Shows Utes Aren't There Yet
So, it's settled then.
The Utes are a modestly above-average team that's capable of winning against almost any team at home and bad-to-mediocre ones on the road, but not yet good enough to survive really good teams on the road. It's also a team that needs to be in control and feeling good down the stretch, because it's not going to make some valiant, heart-of-a-lion comeback surge in the final minutes to pull out a victory.
Right?
That's certainly what it looked like in the 75-65 loss to UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center today, when the Utes gave back a 12-point first-half lead and an eight-point halftime lead with an abysmal second half that made them look a lot like the rival Brigham Young Cougars, who lost to the Rebels almost the exact same way three days ago.
But at least the Utes suffered their loss on the road, not at home.
And however much the Utes have yet proven incapable of beating the best teams in their league on the road -- their three league road wins under coach Jim Boylen have come against lowly Colorado State and Air Force -- it's also true that they might not need to be quite that exceptional to reach the NCAA Tournament. Winning at home and taking road games from the bottom half of the league should be enough for the Utes to win 20 games, which would combine with their strong RPI ranking to force the tournament selection committee to give them a long, hard look.
They remain on pace for that.
Still, opportunities like the one they blew at UNLV also could come back to haunt them.
Had the Utes been able to hang on their lead and snap a five-game losing streak to the Rebels in Las Vegas, they would have had a quality win to add to their resume, never mind a tremendous confidence boost going into the BYU game on Tuesday. What's more, they would have proved to themselves that they could do it, rather than shrinking again from the one of the toughest challenges they can face.
"We just kind of gave in a bit," center Luke Nevill said. "We weren't mentally there."
Which is all the more inexplicable given the strong first half the Utes played. It wasn't like the game at San Diego State, when they seemed morose from the start. The Utes were great in the first half -- or at least until they allowed a three-pointer with two seconds left after listening to Boylen remind them again and again to not allow a three-pointer.
It was all downhill from there.
UNLV's Wink Adams revved it up to start the second half, teammate Mareceo Rutledge buried a couple of three-pointers, and the Rebels were suddenly rolling right over the Utes. And if the Utes can't keep control going down the stretch, it's not going to happen for them. They're 1-6 this season when trailing at halftime, and 0-6 when trailing with five minutes remaining.
"There's no shame losing on the road, in this league," Boylen said.
He's absolutely right, so long as you're not losing on the road to CSU, Wyoming and Air Force. And the Utes have held up fine on that account so far. But until they can prove they can beat the other teams in the top half of the league on the road, they're not going to be ready to seriously contend for the league championship.
The Utes are a modestly above-average team that's capable of winning against almost any team at home and bad-to-mediocre ones on the road, but not yet good enough to survive really good teams on the road. It's also a team that needs to be in control and feeling good down the stretch, because it's not going to make some valiant, heart-of-a-lion comeback surge in the final minutes to pull out a victory.
Right?
That's certainly what it looked like in the 75-65 loss to UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center today, when the Utes gave back a 12-point first-half lead and an eight-point halftime lead with an abysmal second half that made them look a lot like the rival Brigham Young Cougars, who lost to the Rebels almost the exact same way three days ago.
But at least the Utes suffered their loss on the road, not at home.
And however much the Utes have yet proven incapable of beating the best teams in their league on the road -- their three league road wins under coach Jim Boylen have come against lowly Colorado State and Air Force -- it's also true that they might not need to be quite that exceptional to reach the NCAA Tournament. Winning at home and taking road games from the bottom half of the league should be enough for the Utes to win 20 games, which would combine with their strong RPI ranking to force the tournament selection committee to give them a long, hard look.
They remain on pace for that.
Still, opportunities like the one they blew at UNLV also could come back to haunt them.
Had the Utes been able to hang on their lead and snap a five-game losing streak to the Rebels in Las Vegas, they would have had a quality win to add to their resume, never mind a tremendous confidence boost going into the BYU game on Tuesday. What's more, they would have proved to themselves that they could do it, rather than shrinking again from the one of the toughest challenges they can face.
"We just kind of gave in a bit," center Luke Nevill said. "We weren't mentally there."
Which is all the more inexplicable given the strong first half the Utes played. It wasn't like the game at San Diego State, when they seemed morose from the start. The Utes were great in the first half -- or at least until they allowed a three-pointer with two seconds left after listening to Boylen remind them again and again to not allow a three-pointer.
It was all downhill from there.
UNLV's Wink Adams revved it up to start the second half, teammate Mareceo Rutledge buried a couple of three-pointers, and the Rebels were suddenly rolling right over the Utes. And if the Utes can't keep control going down the stretch, it's not going to happen for them. They're 1-6 this season when trailing at halftime, and 0-6 when trailing with five minutes remaining.
"There's no shame losing on the road, in this league," Boylen said.
He's absolutely right, so long as you're not losing on the road to CSU, Wyoming and Air Force. And the Utes have held up fine on that account so far. But until they can prove they can beat the other teams in the top half of the league on the road, they're not going to be ready to seriously contend for the league championship.
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 6:58 PM |
1 Comments:
I feel like we have to split with BYU, UNLV, and SDSU to have any kind of decent chance. That means we need to now go 3-1 vs those guys. That will be tough.
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