The Utah men’s basketball team opened its season Thursday night with a 124-70 win over Cal State Monterey Bay. Though it was just an exhibition, head coach Larry Krystkowiak thinks this game was a first step toward the actual season, which tips off next Friday.
“We kept it pretty vanilla with what we were running,” Krystkowiak said. “I was happy with the fact that we were aggressive, trying to get to the basket and get to the foul line. Guys are unselfish and looking out for each other.”
Brandon Taylor led the way with 20 points and was 3-of-6 on three-pointers, and although he was pleased with the offensive efforts, he wants the defense to be the focal point. He knows this requires getting after every single ball.
“We’re going to get back to really running, being the Runnin’ Utes,” Taylor said.
Fellow senior Jordan Loveridge helped Taylor out with 17 points of his own and was 2-of-4 from three-point range. Overall, the Utes finished 12-of-27 from behind the arc.
Kyle Kuzma finished with a double-double, 14 points and 10 rebounds, and felt good playing a game where he could not cheat any plays. Later down the road, he’ll rely on his entire team to help the Utes get a win.
“We’re going to need everyone this year to contribute at one point in time,” Kuzma said.
Jakob Poeltl recorded the first points of the game and after a somewhat slow start to the game, the Runnin’ Utes got rolling. About midway into the first half, they led 28-12. Following the first timeout, Utah went on a 10-0 run. The Utes led by as many as 21 points early on and were in control of the game from beginning to end.
Taylor then had a sloppy turnover that was returned for an easy lay-up, but he made up for it scoring a three on Utah’s next possession. It was this three that really seemed to get that three-point shot going for the Utes. At the beginning of the game, Utah made just 1-of-8 attempts from deep, but after finding its rhythm, scored three straight three-pointers in a row and was 40 percent from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. At the half, the Utes led the Otters 63-39.
In the second half, Utah came out ready to run up the score. The Utes scored 15 points just four minutes in and were able to hold the Otters scoreless during that time. The starters — Taylor, Poeltl, Loveridge, Lorenzo Bonam and Brekkott Chapman — were subbed out of the game with about 13 minutes left to play and seemed like they would sit out the rest of the time. However, the bench players failed to keep the momentum going, and CSUMB started to hit a few shots, forcing Krystkowiak to put a few starters back in the mix.
That seemed to put Utah back on track, as it cracked the century mark with about eight minutes left to play after two Gabe Bealer free throws put the Utes up 101-50.
Looking ahead to next week’s game against SUU, Krystkowiak is looking for the Utes to clean up some of their sloppy play.
“Execution-wise we have to dial in,” Krystkowiak said. “We need to continue making progress with defense. I saw a number of clips tonight live action, from a defensive point of view that we’re going to get our butts kicked if we don’t have some of the fundamentals of our defense down.”
@kbrenneisen