The Utah men’s basketball team showcased some of its talent Wednesday night in the Huntsman Center for its annual Night with the Runnin’ Utes.
The night’s events started off with a shooting competition between the men’s and women’s basketball team as players were paired with a young fan in the audience. Jordan Loveridge and his Ute fan ended up winning this competition.
The scrimmages then tipped off shortly after. The first one lasted 16 minutes, and the White team, which was heavily loaded with starters, jumped out to an early 18-2 lead and eventually beat the Red team 38-27. Score leaders for the White squad included newcomer Lorenzo Bonam with 10 points and Loveridge with 11 points. On the Red, Dakarai Tucker led the way with eight points.
The next scrimmage lasted only 12 minutes, and the teams were switched up a bit, but the White team still won 27-22. Bonam was on the Red team for this scrimmage and scored six more points to grab the attention of the fans while on the court.
Bonam comes into this Utah program as a junior transfer from Gillette College. This was his first opportunity to showcase some of his skills to the few fans who showed up, and he did not disappoint. Tommy Connor, associate head coach, thinks Bonam did a nice job in the scrimmage, though his defense could still be worked on.
“You can see he’s a talented guard,” Connor said. “His defense needs to continue to improve, and he’s come a long ways, but offensively he’s talented and we need him to make plays.”
Bonam is also aware he could be doing a better job on the defensive end of the floor. At Gillette, they did not really focus on his defense all that much, so he’s been trying to amp up his intensity every chance he gets.
Something else Bonam has been working on is his conditioning.
Despite a couple breakdowns he had, he played better than what Connor was expecting. Bonam said when he first came to Utah he was completely winded after a couple runs up and down the floor. Now he is working on fully committing himself to Utah basketball and knows this is where he is supposed to be.
“It’s a good environment, a good place for me to be successful and handle my business,” Bonam said. “We played well, but we got places we can improve at.”
Connor is looking forward to what Bonam, along with the rest of the newcomers, can bring to the season.
“It’s always interesting to see what the new guys in the program, how they respond when you get in here and there’s a few people in the arena,” Connor said.
Overall, Connor thinks it was a pretty standard scrimmage for the Utes after two weeks of practice, but the best part is getting to watch the film from tonight. The coaches will go through it and break it down to show the team what they need to correct, like fouls.
“It was fun to get out in front of the fans,” Connor said. “For the most part I thought our guys did some pretty good things.”
@kbrenneisen