Some more great Hoops Thoughts by… Colo Ute
Editors Note: This is another great piece by Colo Ute about what he’s looking for the rest of the season from the Ute Hoops team. It was originally written on Utefans, which I wish he would stop doing and post his stuff here, because he’s too good for that place. Also I didn’t think anyone just wanted to read a string of F-Words from me.
Larry in front of white board with a couple of basketball(ish) looking plays drawn up but it’s mostly doodles of Sonic the Hedgehog.
“OK, thanks to most of you for wearing the right color uniforms tonight….Dawson, you said your roommate’s found yours and on his way, right? OK, good.
Let’s start off for a second with a quick math problem. The Utah Utes’ team bus departs the Staples Center on March 7th following their first round loss in the conference tournament with 13 Scholarship players.
2 players – possibly only 1 player – graduates from that team. The devastatingly handsome Head Coach with an NCAA Tournament victory against Nevada – that’s right, bitches, look it up – has already signed 5 new players for the following year. The team bus for the first game next season will also only contain 13 scholarship players.
How many players from the first bus WON’T be on the 2nd bus?
No, Cedric, you can’t have extra scratch paper. It was an analogy. For those of you who don’t enjoy math, here’s the jist: The only person in this room who’s guaranteed to be on that team bus next year is me…(raises a quick eyebrow at assistant coaches)
So, here’s the deal. Every game from here on out is a tryout. You don’t like fighting through screens on defense? You don’t want to take that extra step to get a hand up on a 3 ball? You want to commit unforced turnovers? You want to shoot free-throws like you’re hucking up a bowling ball and clang it off the underside of the front of the rim….BTW, where did Javon go…Oh, his roommate got here…how tall is he?….never mind, where were we…..
Basically, what I’m saying is: for the remaining 23 games on the schedule, you show me heart, or I’m showing you how much it costs to go to college.
Oh, and just to make things a little more interesting, for every 100 points of losing margin I see this year, I’m going to sign another recruit for next year. See how fun this musical scholarship game can be? At least I’ll win at something this year. Anyone else want to join me?
Now let’s go out there and have some fun!”
Wonder if that’d work.
Couple of other thoughts:
– I’ll fight the next person who says we’re “rebuilding.” You watch a game and tell me that. We’re still firmly in “demolishing” mode.
– You want to know the true state of our basketball woes, watch warm-ups. With nobody guarding them, our guys still shoot < 30% for the post layup drill shots.
– Now, I never played organized basketball, but I did take a geometry class at one point. It seems to me that the only balls that come directly under the hoop are the ones that go through the hoop. As such, someone might want to tell Washburn and/or Dawson that directly beneath the hoop may not be the best place to begin staking out rebounding position when a shot goes up.
– Guys, guys guys….getting screened on a defensive possession doesn’t mean you’re “out.” You can actually continue to play defense…you can guard the guy who set the screen, you can even fight through it and get a hand up on the guy who you had before the screen was set. Oh, and when someone else gets caught on a screen, that doesn’t mean that the player who comes off the screen has automatically earned a free shot. Players can rotate off of other players. I know it’s a confusing rule. Maybe you could ask the coaches to explain it.
– Things I’m looking for the remainder of the year:
How many balls hit Javon Dawson in the head?
How many walk-ons will get more minutes than George Matthews?
If we can’t shoot 40% from 3, can we draw iron on 40% of our shots?
When’s that “more turnovers than points” game coming?
We suck, but I’m not turning my head away. This is like the Great Depression for me. I’m going to watch and remember….because it will make me appreciative for EVERYTHING we get in the future.