Friday Morning Hoop Thoughts…
Is there anything happening with this hoops team this season that would surprise anyone anymore? (other than a road win, BOOM and for the record I stole that joke)
Last night at halftime, I made a joke that Utah was shooting around 70% for much of the first half but could actually go scoreless in the 2nd. It seems they took me seriously around the 15 minute mark. At this point if Storey was going in for a layup and literally burst into flames, would anyone be shocked?
So people began chatting last night about who might stay and who might go. I thinking that you can’t be a total dick all the time and said that you couldn’t run Washburn and Hines because they’d have no way to transfer having redshirted and all. Then I learn that the new staff has pushed Washburn and Hines to graduate so they can in fact transfer without sitting out or needing a redshirt year. So we hear this bullshit story about how Larry kept Hines because Hines was the only one to come by and talk to Larry and Larry has plans to flush him anyway. Thanks for playing, we have some nice parting gifts.
Which brings me to Kareem Storey. He seems by all accounts to be a diamond in the rough. Except Larry is working his ass off trying not to keep him. He’s actually recruiting 3 PG’s for next year. With coaches like Larry who needs enemies.
Speaking of recruiting, its clear that its just not going to quite come together for Jason Washburn, and many use this to demonize Boylen. But it always reminds me of a tale from Rick Majerus. In the early 90’s Utah had a guard from Wisconsin named Terry Preston. Preston faded away when some guy named Andre Miller showed up. In fact, Preston gave up hoops altogether. When, Majerus was recruiting that scholarship came down to two guards, Preston and some guy from Canada named Steve Nash. I saw Rick speak about this and he said that he made the right choice based on the info he had. Hindsight is a lovely thing.
If you want to see the Utes win again, take a peak at the Oregon St. game. Larry has shown a real knack for beating coaches about to be fired and that describes President Obama’s brother-in-law. Provided of course, Storey doesn’t simply explode.
In other hoop news…
Gonzaga played the worst single half I’ve ever seen since I started watching them in 2002 last night. 14 turnovers in a half and 2-20 or so from 3 will not win in the Marriott Center, unless their coach is Tony Ingle.
Majerus’ SLU team is 17-5, 5-3 in conference with an RPI of 39. They’ll need to be very good down the stretch to make the dance.
UCSB a team I’ve been following is 7-2 in the Big West but doesn’t have much chance at catching Long Beach State. Great season for Dan Monson.
Wyoming, who didn’t need a culture change despite being worse than Utah, is 17-5 and has an outside shot at the dance. But they need a win over SDSU or UNLV and no more losses to teams like TCU. They have UNLV at home this weekend.
Colorado St. has an RPI of 20. How did we not take a look at that guy?