Friday night in the Huntsman Center, the Runnin’ Utes will take the floor for their official home opener against SUU.
After a win in its exhibition game against Cal State Monterey Bay, Utah is looking to clean some things up, but after six weeks of preparation, head coach Larry Krystkowiak is positive his team will start off on the right foot.
“We’re focusing on Southern Utah and whatever we can to win that game,” Krystkowiak said. “I think the big key that everybody needs to understand is that we’re going to need everybody.”
Krystkowiak has seen his players turn up the pressure in recent practices. He is not quite sure who will start prior to tip-off, but there have been plenty of battles, and he has faith in whoever will be on the court.
This is the first of five games in nine nights for Utah, and although this may be a challenge, it’s one the team welcomes. Brandon Taylor has no problem with the quick turnaround and is actually looking forward to it.
“Coach K told us about a week ago about our schedule, why not?” Taylor said. “We’ve been conditioning, we’ve been practicing.”
Although the San Diego State game is lurking around the corner, Taylor is focused on Friday night. After that, he will look to what lies ahead.
“I’m very excited for the regular season to get started,” Taylor said. “You never disrespect a game, and you never overlook an opponent. Southern Utah has our attention and nobody else.”
One thing Krystkowiak hopes his team doesn’t overlook is school itself. Earlier this week he found out that a couple of his guys skipped class, and he was not happy about it. He wouldn’t mention the specific players, but whoever they are, they were going to suffer some consequences because of it.
“We got some guys that decided they didn’t want to go to class recently, so there’s going to be a price to pay for that,” Krystkowiak said. “There’s the term student-athlete, and it starts with student. We got to realize there’s a lot more than just the basketball side of it.”
In the end, the team won’t be too affected by this, and Krystkowiak will count on his team to pick up the slack whenever necessary.
One thing fans can expect to see come Friday night is a higher-paced offense. With the new 30-second shot clock, the Utes have been working toward a faster speed. The team is also practicing on taking high-percentage shots.
In addition to all of that, there will be more attention on sophomore center Jakob Poeltl. Krystkowiak is somewhat catering the game plan more to Poeltl, who was viewed as a potential lottery pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, and his abilities when he’s near the basket.
“We’re going to try and push the tempo a little bit. We have a deep team with a lot of motivation, and we’re in decent shape,” Krystkowiak said. “We’re going to look to ride Jakob as much as we can. I don’t know how much we threw the ball to Jakob last year so I know we better do that more this year.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. in the Huntsman Center.
@kbrenneisen