Utah Hoops Preview 2013-14 Style…

Is this tiny man the key to Utah's hoop future?

Ok what do you people want me to talk about?  Utah has Jon Hays at QB.  At best we’re going to the ABQ or Vegas for a bowl.  At worst we lose to CSU.  I could preview next year but that would be a lot of work and I’m not really emotionally prepared to even deal with football.  So lets look to the future in hoops.

2013-14 should be the first year we can expect something from Larry Ball.  First a look at the possible roster.

Dawson 6-6 SR
Dean 5-10 SR
Dotson 6-4 SR
Matthews 6-5 JR
Odunsi 6-3 JR
Storey 5-10 JR
Olsen 7-0 JR
Loveridge 6-6 SO
Hearilhy 6-6 SO
Seymour 6-3 SO

OK, the first thing you’ll notice is that we have 10 guys with scholarships committed for this season.  The second is that 9 of them are 6-6 or smaller.  So the first key for some success in Larry Ball version 3.0 is to recruit some height.  Now right before you people tell me to eff off for discussing hoops, you swear we have some of the finest big men in the nation being recruited to Utah.  That would be sweet.

This team will be led by Dotson and Dean.  Now I know I’m going to take crap for this because those, “close to the program” say these two could go to Duke right now and start, but I have my concerns.  Yes, I know Dotson was a big deal out of high school.  But he only averaged 7 PPG last year on an LSU team where he had opportunity.

Dean is my second concern.  And while I know the, “close to the program” folks (CTTP), say he’s going to be a two time Wooden award winner, I’m not so sure.  And unlike the CTTP, I’ve seen Glen Dean play in actual basketball games, probably 10 times over the last couple years.  And he’s a very good Big Sky guard.  If we were in the Big Sky that would be a good thing.  But we’re not.  In fact Dean was headed back to Eastern Washington till Larry made some very BIG promises to the kid (not to mention really pissing off the new Eastern staff).

It should be a red flag that Dotson and Dean are from Seattle and no Pac-12 school even sniffed at their transfers.  Plus Gonzaga went with a JC kid over Dotson.

But now for the good news.  If Loveridge and Matthews are players, it goes a long way to curing other problems.  Look at what one Jimmer does for BYU.

The keys for 2013-14 and hopefully a light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t a train, getting some bigs in here and some of the wings we have developing.

So I’m saying there’s a chance.