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On Monday, as Dakarai Tucker headed to the bench for good, the Huntsman Center fans applauded his exit.
He had earned the rest of the night off, after scoring 17 points, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out three assists in 21 minutes. At times the senior guard was the most dynamic player on the floor, finishing fast breaks, hitting 3-pointers and scrapping for rebounds.
Tucker started the season without getting many pats on the back: Through Utah's first nine games, he hadn't scored in double figures, and he had as many assists (3) as turnovers. For long stretches, Utah's only senior coming off the bench seemed invisible.
A lot has changed about the team in the current four-game win streak, but Tucker's evolution might be most stark: He averages 10 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 54 percent (up from 40.7 percent for the year). His 17-point night is the highest he has scored since January, and coach Larry Krystkowiak credits the transformation to Tucker's intense practice habits.
"When we start practice, he's the guy that's already warmed up and going full-speed when maybe some other guys are playing catch-up," he said after the 115-74 win over College of Idaho. "I think it's fitting for him to have a nice coming out game tonight."
In individual meetings, Krystkowiak said Tucker confessed that thoughts about his post-college future might be clouding his focus this season. In Krystkowiak's terms, he was "putting a little too much heat on himself."
In the past few weeks, Tucker has distinguished himself with his practice effort. "Re-grounding" back to basics and focusing on the present has helped his play improve and minutes increase.
"It was just a mindset thing," he said. "Getting back to it personally, getting back into the gym, just starting to shoot. Letting the game come to me, doing those simple plays."
What might be most encouraging to Utah is the way the Los Angeles native is shooting from deep: The career 38 percent shooter started the year shooting under 31 percent, but has been 9 for 17 (53 percent) in the past four games. The Utes were a top-10 long-range shooting team last year, and have improved to No. 95 nationally (36.6 percent) after starting the season sluggishly.
Subs for turnovers
In Utah practices, the team adopted the practice of hockey-style substitutions for committing turnovers, making the guilty party run the Huntsman Center stairs.
In games, that's not feasible. But turnovers are still punished, often with quick substitutions, as players such as Jakob Poeltl, Jordan Loveridge and Lorenzo Bonam learned on Monday.
Even in a 41-point victory, Utah's 17 turnovers stuck out uncomfortably. Krystkowiak said for many turnovers, he's still looking to find a way to "make it smart a little bit." So he's been leaning on an old Bo Ryan philosophy: You turn it over, you get yanked.
"I think playing time, some of those substitutions probably gets a person's attention more than anything," he said.
Poeltl is No. 1
What's seven feet tall and leads the nation in field goal percentage?
After shooting 6 for 6 with 15 points against the Yotes, sophomore Jakob Poeltl is the nation's leader in field goal percentage as of Wednesday afternoon (among qualifying shooters), hitting 71.2 percent of his shots.
The Austrian is also one of the conference's best in with 17.8 points (3rd), 2.23 blocks (5th) and 9.7 rebounds (4th) per game. Poeltl is tied for 10th nationally, with seven double-doubles this year.
Twitter: @kylegoon —
No. 21 Utah at Stanford
P Friday, 7 p.m.
TV • ESPNU