The Runnin’ Utes are traveling to Southern California and will take on the UCLA Bruins on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.
The Utes are currently riding a two-game winning streak, with their most recent win coming against Washington State, who they handily beat by 41 points. Although the team was in control of that game from start to finish, coaches and players know there are still plenty of things to work on.
Jordan Loveridge was dialed in every minute he was on the court Sunday afternoon, and he expects whoever is on the court this Thursday night to have the same mentality they did last week. They need to be prepared for anything UCLA might throw at them.
“We’re trying to play the best basketball at the end of the year that we can so we don’t want to take any steps back,” Loveridge said. “You can take steps back even if you beat a team by a bunch of points, so you just want to play hard and move toward playing the best basketball that you can.”
One thing the Utes have been continuously working on all season is how they can limit turnovers. The Utes turned the ball over eight times against the Cougars, but against Washington last Thursday night, they committed 17, the majority of which came in the first half.
Going up against UCLA, the Utes will need to continue to take better care of the ball if they stand a chance of grabbing another road win.
This is the first and only time all season when the two teams will meet up, but Utah has not always performed well when playing on UCLA’s home court. The last three times the Utes have visited the Bruins, they have come out on the losing end, and Loveridge is eager to change the result.
“It’s hard to go into someone else’s home and play as well as you want all the time,” Loveridge said. “It’s tough all around the Pac-12. They’ve had great teams since we’ve been in the Pac-12, like they do this year, so it’s always been a tough road trip.”
Lately, the team has been working more on its own gameplay, considering it was squaring up against teams it had already seen once before. Since that is not the case with the Bruins, head coach Larry Krystkowiak is focusing a little more effort on what the Utes need to look out for against them.
Krystkowiak thinks UCLA’s size and rebounding ability might pose problems for Utah, so he’s going to need his players to all be on the same page.
“A little bit more priority placed on some scouting and up until this point we made a nice job of adjustments in the second half of those games,” Krystkowiak said. “There will be a little bit more mental side to it, but do whatever we can against UCLA on Thursday.”
One player who is sure to be ready to go when his name is called is Brekkott Chapman. The sophomore saw more playing time against Washington State since Kyle Kuzma was in foul trouble, and Krystkowiak thought he gave the entire team a boost when he was on the court.
Chapman hopes to continue doing the same and keep having an impact for this Ute squad.
“Just keep up the intensity and keep working on being a great team,” Chapman said.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. PT.
@kbrenneisen