Heading into a tough road environment in Eugene, Ore. this Thursday night, head coach Larry Krystkowiak is looking at what he can tweak leading up to the matchup with the Oregon Ducks.
This past week Krystkowiak implemented a change into the starting lineup, and Parker Van Dyke got to start in place of JoJo Zamora. This wasn’t to say that Zamora was playing poorly, or that he necessarily lost his starting role, but Krystkowiak appreciated the efforts Van Dyke was putting forth in practice, and that hard work translated to his play on the floor. Krystkowiak felt that Van Dyke then earned that starting job, and Van Dyke even had a career high in scoring with 16 points against Washington this past Saturday.
Focusing on this week’s slate of games, Krystkowiak anticipates another change to the starting lineup. Although Van Dyke ended up having a solid night against UW, the starting core of players for the Utes failed to come to the game prepared. As a result, the Huskies scored three straight transition layups off of three Utah turnovers — ones that were pretty mindless according to the team.
As Washington worked its way to an 18-10 lead, Krystkowiak called a timeout, and he said he broke the “old grease board” because of how frustrated he was with his team’s poor mindset. Krystkowiak doesn’t want to have to resort to doing something like that again, but he will do so if the situation calls for it.
“As a coach, you want to have as much self-control as possible, but that was definitely a time and a place to blow a gasket to try and wake some guys up, and I’m happy with the way they responded,” Krystkowiak said. “If I have to do that in order to get those kind of spurts I can do it.”
Van Dyke wants to continue to step up his game, and he knows that something that goes along with that is starting off the game on the right foot.
Often times in basketball coaches harp on the fact that the players need to be in an athletic stance while playing defense. As of late, the Utah offense has been a bit lackadaisical, a bit too casual according to Van Dyke, and he knows that type of stance shouldn’t just be limited to one side of the court. They can’t be just standing around waiting for someone to hopefully score— they have to be the ones to facilitate a play and get things rolling.
“We always talk about being in a stance defensively, being ready to move your feet, ready to guard your guy,” Van Dyke said. “But we also need to be in an athletic stance on offense as well — got to be prepared to catch, shoot, pass, dribble, make plays.”
Since the starting lineup could very well look different in this week’s slate of games, Krystkowiak hopes there isn’t any change of demeanor in practice regarding his players’ attitudes. They need to come ready to play regardless of what’s going on with starting jobs, and this is not the time of year to let emotions take over.
“It’s not touchy-feely time where we’re worried about hurting people’s feelings,” Krystkowiak said. “It’s hoops. It’s survival of the fittest time of year. I’m ready to go, and I’m going to [play] the five guys who I think are going to give us our best chance.”
@kbrenneisen