During Utah’s exhibition victory over Saint Martin’s last Friday, one clear weakness stood out. The Runnin’ Utes went to the free throw line 45 times but only converted 24 of those chances. The following day, the team was back in the gym working to correct the problem. Each player shot 100 free throws, and the team averaged 87 percent in those attempts.
“From a coaching perspective, I am not as concerned about free throws,” Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak said. “Our team was first in the Pac-12 last year shooting free throws. I know we have good shooters.”
Krystkowiak believes the poor foul-shooting display was a case of it being his team’s first game and getting the “butterflies out” of the system. He mentioned freshman Kenneth Ogbe’s 1-for-8 performance specifically, saying that the crowd at the Huntsman Center was probably the biggest the young German has ever played in front of.
“I saw him shoot the first one, and he was about a foot long on it, and I saw him shoot the second one, and he backed off the free throw line a foot, like that was going to solve the problem, and he was short,” Krystkowiak said. “That kind of shows you the mental side of what some of these guys are going through, and it got a bit contagious.”
 
New initiative
The new “no hand check” initiative has been the talk of the college basketball world, and everyone seems to have an opinion whether or not it is good or bad for the game. Last Friday’s exhibition resulted in a combined 76 fouls being called, and it wasn’t just in Salt Lake City that the foul number was higher than normal. Throughout the country, fouls were up in teams’ first scrimmages and exhibitions. On Tuesday, Krystkowiak shared his thoughts on the new initiative.
“People other than ourselves put in the rules, and it’s important for us to learn how to adapt to those rules,” he said. “It means learning how to guard with far less contact then we’ve been used to.”
Krsytkowiak said players will go through growing pains, and fans should get used to seeing a lot of free throws while the players adapt, but in time the game should open up.
“Players are going to wise up,” Krystkowiak said. “They don’t want to sit in foul trouble, so they are going to learn to guard without using their hands or bodies or they are not going to be interested in playing defense, and the game will open up and find some more flow to it. It’s not anything worth complaining about. It is what it is.”
 
Rotation and redshirts
Krystkowiak said his rotation currently goes nine or 10 players deep. He wants to eventually get that down to eight or nine.
“Some of [the rotation] is yet to be determined with these perimeter guys, the freshmen in particular,” Krystkowiak said. “There comes a time when you don’t want three kids battling it out, and no one really knows where they stand.”
The coaching staff has yet to decide if it will redshirt a player, but the possibility is there with the team’s depth on the perimeter.
“When a coach redshirts a kid, it’s a commitment to the future,” Krystkowiak said. “With our numbers this year, we probably will have a perimeter player that redshirts.”