This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Palo Alto, Calif. - The Utes appeared to know how much they had lost on Saturday afternoon.
Their heads hung on the bench in the closing seconds of their 81-75 loss to Stanford, and their faces appeared grim in the postgame handshake. Whether they had recovered from the Cal defeat two nights before or not became irrelevant â€" this disappointment was fresh.
Throughout the game Saturday afternoon, the Runnin' Utes (15-8, 6-5) appeared at different times frustrated, sluggish and discouraged. There was a palpable sense that whatever big goals they had â€" a top-4 Pac-12 finish, an NCAA tournament berth â€" were now further away than ever.
Throughout the road trip, Utah was plagued by a lack of communication, a lack of trust and a lack of sound decision-making. While the Utes have shown that they can finish as well as anyone at the rim and are capable of playing good teams tough defensively, they've struggled with some of the details that could help them prevail in close games.
Larry Krystkowiak described these flaws as "little things" on Friday, and said after Saturday's game that the mistakes jumped to the forefront.
"We don't have that kind of team," he said. "We don't have a star on our team. When we move the basketball and play for each other, some good things happen."
In many ways, the Utes struggled to help each other, particularly in the second half against Stanford as the Cardinal shot over 64 percent.
After struggling with foul trouble on a pair of charges against David Collette in the first half, Reid Travis (26 points) found one-on-one matches that he exploited with ease in the second half. Utah's active double-teams in the post lost some steam, particularly as Marcus Allen and Dorien Pickens forced defenders to take them seriously by attacking in the second half.
Utah could have used the same threat from its own guards, but didn't get it. Lorenzo Bonam scored 7, Sedrick Barefield scored 7, Parker Van Dyke scored 6, and Devon Daniels and JoJo Zamora had a basket each. While Barefield had five assists and Daniels had four, others struggled to get involved in offense at all.
It wasn't all on the backcourt: There were times when Utah's bigs seemed determined to score through double teams â€" one of the factors that contributed to 17 turnovers and only 45.7 percent shooting on 2-point attempts.
For the week, Utah shot under 50 percent inside the arc in two games for the first time all season. For a team that typically shoots 58 percent on 2-point shots, it was a stunning reversal and out of character.
That word "trust" came up again as Tyler Rawson thought about what went wrong.
"We gotta play together, make that extra pass," he said. "If we're trying to make plays for teammates, that's what's going to help us get out of this offensive slump. If we trust one another, we'll be fine."
While Utah's players apparently bristled at being picked 8th in the Pac-12 this season, the week's road trip offered a reminder of why that was: A new team takes time to come together. Other results in the Pac-12 showed the benefit of having an experienced core, none moreso than Oregon's beatdown of Arizona in Eugene.
Utah's dozen newcomers have had moments of success, but two-thirds of the way through the season, they've had points of breaking down as well. A Big-Dance-or-bust approach to the year was probably unrealistic, and Krystkowiak never encouraged that line of thinking as he attempted to piece together a new group.
Now, with at-large hopes all but wiped out, the Utes will have to decide if what they have left to play for is worth trying to build that trust that was lacking over the weekend. If they can't find the desire, the promise that was so prevalent in the first half of Pac-12 play will continue to fade.
Twitter: @kylegoon