If you were looking for a story telling you that the Runnin’ Utes are going to be in the NCAA Tournament this year, you’re in the wrong place. It’s especially difficult to come to this realization after how well the men’s hoops squad did last year — entering the tournament ranked No. 13 in the nation after a runner-up finish in the Pac-12 Tournament. While their time dancing was cut short by an experienced Gonzaga squad, things looked pretty good for the Utes.
With Jakob Poeltl inevitably going to the NBA the following season, the fans looked for a new scoring presence to take the reigns from the Austrian big man. The tournament gave us a glimpse of the future as the leading scorers in the two games Utah played in March were Lorenzo Bonam and Kyle Kuzma. These are now the leading scorers, ranking 11th and 26th, respectively, in the Pac-12 for points per game (PPG).
Was the expectation that these two players would take us to the big dance? Some thought so, but it was hard to tell at the beginning of the year. The Utes had created an offensive scheme for 2015-16 season predicated on the big man basketball of the early 2000s — dish it inside, let Poeltl work towards the basket or kick it to a back court player to slash or shoot. This approach doesn’t work for a few reasons this year.
First of all, Utah cannot shoot the three-point ball. This is why the UCLAs and Oregons of the world can have their way with this team. David Collette and Kuzma can put up 50 points in the paint, but it doesn’t matter when the team goes 13 percent from behind the arc, like they did Thursday night against the much lesser Washington State team. The Utes are eighth in three-point field goal percentage in the Pac-12, and their performances from deep haven’t gotten better as time has progressed this season.This team doesn’t look nearly as comfortable on the floor as the 2015-16 Utes did, and there are two team statistics that really point to the inexperience on this team.
The first is the turnover margin for the Utes. The men average an unfortunate 13.8 in this category every game, coming in a dismal 10th for the Pac-12. To go along with this, the ball movement just isn’t there on offense to subsidize these mistakes. The Utes turnover-to-assist ratio is almost one-for-one, and they rank eighth in that stat among Pac-12 squads. The other concerning number for this basketball team is its free throw percentage. This is slightly understandable because head coach Larry Krystkowiak’s strength in recruiting is finding front court players, himself being one back in the day.
With that being said though, the Utes went from shooting 72.1 percent from the free throw line in the 2015-16 season, to 68.1 percent this year. So with the lack of a three-point ball and the inability for this team to take advantage of three point plays in the lane, where do they turn?
As of right now, I’m not exactly sure. This team would have to win out the rest of their games (against five Pac-12 opponents, including Oregon) or get to the championship again in the conference tournament to get a bid for the dance. Neither option seems very likely at the moment but the Utes should get a pretty good seed in the NIT. There are definitely pieces of this team to look forward to in the future, but for the rest of the 2016-17 season, the Utes will likely be stuck in Pac-12 mediocrity.