Utah hosted its annual Night with the Runnin’ Utes last Wednesday, giving fans the first glimpse of the 2015-16 version of the Runnin’ Utes. With the 2015 Bob Cousy Award winner Delon Wright moving on to the NBA, these questions have surrounded head coach Larry Krystkowiak and his program.
Can Utah make up for the loss of Wright? Will Jakob Poeltl continue to improve? Is another Sweet Sixteen run out of the question?
Even after Wednesday’s scrimmage, none of these questions have been answered, but there is reason for optimism. Here are five reasons to be excited about the upcoming Utah basketball season.
1. Newcomer Lorenzo Bonam
Ever since Utah’s Sweet Sixteen run concluded last season, there’s been one question Ute fans want answered — who will replace now-graduated Delon Wright? While it would be unrealistic to expect someone to completely replace the production of one of the greatest players in Utah history, Gillette College transfer Lorenzo Bonam might help ease the transition. Fans weren’t sure what they were getting out of Bonam when he committed back in May, but the guard showed a ton of potential in Utah’s glorified scrimmage last Wednesday. Bonam made a number of plays with his athleticism on full display for the fans in attendance, slashing and cutting to the hoop on his way to 16 points, a team-high for the night. According to the coaching staff, Bonam’s offensive abilities are obvious, but he still needs to work on his defensive approach. He may not be Wright in that regard, but Bonam will be a welcome addition to a team that lost its focal point to the NBA.
2. Jordan Loveridge’s shooting
Look, I get it. We shouldn’t put too much stock into an intersquad scrimmage in which the main purpose was to put on a show for the fans rather than make the best basketball plays. In the first half of last Wednesday’s scrimmage, the senior (can you believe it?) finished as the high scorer with 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting, including a 3-for-4 effort from downtown. We’ve known that Loveridge can shoot, so this isn’t a surprise. But the 75 percent mark from three-point range is encouraging because it just means that he can potentially maintain his 43.5 percent clip from last season. There was even a good stretch where Loveridge was the three-point shooting leader in the Pac-12. The best part, however, is that one of the first recruits head coach Larry Krystkowiak was able to land looked comfortable and confident while shooting. Loveridge’s performance on Wednesday night may have been a precursor for what’s to come in the new season.
3. Team unity
We’ve seen it before and it ruins the best of the best teams. You can have the most talented, most potent, most athletic team in the world, but sometimes in basketball, if attitudes and personalities don’t mesh, it calls for trouble. But just as the case was last year, you won’t have to worry about that with your 2015-16 Runnin’ Utes because these guys just simply get along. Throughout the Night with the Runnin’ Utes, players on the team were seen joking, laughing and having fun with one another on the court, showing the camaraderie that Krystkowiak has built here in Salt Lake City ever since his hire back in 2011. It wasn’t just the close inner-circles on the roster that were seen conversing. Instead, you could see starters hanging out with benchwarmers and seniors talking with freshmen. This is a tight-knit group, and that will make Coach K’s job that much easier moving forward.
4. Maturation of second-year players
The sample that we have of the Runnin’ Utes thus far makes it very difficult to evaluate some of these players, but if Wednesday night was any indication, some of the second-year players on this team certainly have grown up. Players like Brekkott Chapman, Isaiah Wright, Kyle Kuzma and Jakob Poeltl not only looked more comfortable the second time around, but they even looked like leaders at times. While the leader responsibilities will mostly fall on the shoulders of seniors Loveridge, Brandon Taylor and Dakarai Tucker, look for some, if not all, of these sophomores — who all looked noticeably stronger — to take on bigger roles in the upcoming campaign, especially Poeltl, who many believe to be a potential lottery pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
5. New on-court projection
Okay, okay. This may be cheating, but seriously, did you see the new projection? It’s a huge upgrade. Last season, the projection was full of older players and older accomplishments by the Utah basketball program, but thanks to last year’s success, that’s no longer the case. With a mashed-up version of Seven Nation Army playing in the background, clips and images from the Ute Sweet Sixteen run last season flooded the court, as fans were able to relive the magic, all while getting pumped up for the new roster/season. Will this year’s version of the Runnin’ Utes be able to find similar success? Maybe, maybe not, but one area that the team — or the marketing team — easily improved on was the on-court projection.
@GriffDoug