Utah Utes Basketball- I Suppose I Could Pretend…

I could pretend Arizona St. is a great basketball team and that Utah is just oh so close.  Because that sure is the message that a whole lot of Ute fans (not to mention the staff) want to push.

The reality is, it just ain’t so.

So I’ve seen the Utes in person now, and I have front row seats for Saturday.  I have to just stare at you people claiming this team is just awesome and the development is so clear, and I wonder, what the hell are you talking about?

Where to start?

How about with this claim that Arizona St. is a good team.  Tony Jones (Salt Lake Tribune Utes Beat Writer) said something to the effect of Herb Sendek being the worst offensive coach he’s ever seen.  If you want rankings, lets go to Kenpom.com.  Arizona St. is rated 121 with a schedule of 341.  If you’re curious, that means there are only six schedules worse than Arizona St.  The Sun Devils are at 12 wins right now, they won’t get to 20 and Sendek will be out of a job.

As for Utah (Rank 147 SOS 304) for those of you explaining how things are getting better, can you tell me how?  We started the season blowing a double digit lead against Sac St.  We blew another one mid-season against BYU and a third a couple of weeks ago against Cal St. Northridge.  If you take out the Boise game as just some fluke (which lets face it, it was with Majerus passing we shot 75% and they were on their 3rd roadie in 8 days), then it’s hard to see where there has been any improvement at all.

And that doesn’t even begin to mention how bad Larry is at managing a close game down the stretch.  I mean he isn’t Herb Sendek bad (how about their shot to win at the end of regulation).  But then again Sendek did actually win the game.

So how about for improvement we actually point to something on the court that shows actual improvement.  Not some magical teaching blah blah blah that doesn’t show up anywhere but we’re sure Larry is doing just as well as Majerus.

Outside of a fantastic night by Jason Washburn, the Utes were bad, the Sun Devils were bad and the basketball that took place in the Wells Fargo Center was bad.  Is it possible just to admit that.