This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Denver

Early in Utah's first-round NCAA Tournament game here, two things became obvious: First, the uglier the action got, the more it favored Fresno State, and, second, that's exactly the way the Bulldogs wanted and planned and executed it.

To them, chaos is good.

Helter-skelter is good.

Ugly is good.

Oooooooogly is better.

Flat hideous is best.

All for a single sound reason — they aren't as talented as the Utes. The Bulldogs knew it, the Utes knew it, everybody knew it. Classic basketball on Thursday night for Fresno meant defeat. If the Bulldogs could get Utah all tangled up in their mayhem, they might have a chance. If Utah played stupid basketball, Fresno State had a chance.

The Utes, at least part of the night, played too sloppy for their own good. Turnovers plagued them, again and again, rising to a total of 20. In the past two games, Utah has gagged up the ball 40 times. That's entirely out of hand, and the Utes know that, too.

"We talked about it all week," Jordan Loveridge said afterward. "They get out in passing lanes. They are great athletes, and once they get going, you saw it, they took the lead."

Said Brandon Taylor: "We have to clean it up. To be an elite team, we have to take care of the ball, get back in transition and dial in defensively."

Larry Krystkowiak termed much of his team's trouble "self-inflicted."

It's the darnedest thing, though, that the Bulldogs have a knack for making even good teams — Utah's not the first — look bad: Those hurried passes transforming into fumbles and stumbles and bumbles — and points at the other end.

As the game wore on, the chaos swelled, and then subsided. After building a double-digit lead, Utah allowed itself to lose that margin, midway through the second half, and then regain it, firing off on a lopsided run that made the thing semi-comfortable. At the end, the numbers on the board covered some of the truth: Utah 80, Fresno State 69.

Funny thing is, like Loveridge said, coming in, the Utes knew what was coming at them. They knew Fresno was going to try to scare the mud off a shovel in this game, and that the only way to combat that was to be deliberate and hit some open shots in the scramble. Periodically, they had to be reminded.

Playing wacko-ball magnifies what the Bulldogs do best: get the thing into the hands of quick perimeter players — like guard Marvelle Harris, who scored 24 points on 8-for-16 shooting — and let them hit the throttle. Utah's best interests, especially in an unforgiving tournament, are to treat each possession like a tender nanny watching the kids. To keep calm and flourish.

Central to that was and is senior point guard Taylor, who attempted to slalom through the Bulldog resistance and get the Utes into their half-court sets. At times, he was clutch. He wound up with six assists, scored 16 points and had four steals.

Krystkowiak complimented Taylor's play, saying it was key to the victory. He also praised Loveridge, who went for 16, saying the seniors weren't perfect, but they rose up enough to gain a decent reward — playing again here on Saturday and extending their college careers.

Jakob Poeltl was somewhat erratic, but brilliant, too. He characterized his first half as a "wake-up call." Fresno tried, just the way coach Rodney Terry said it would, and succeeded here and there, to jangle Poeltl "by committee," running assorted defensive combinations at him, building fences around him, rushing him.

But he scored 16 points and ripped down 18 rebounds. He also had four assists.

All told, Utah made a stellar 54 percent of its shots, and dominated the boards, under the lead of Poeltl, by the ridiculous count of 38 to 15.

"It's nice when you can play defense and Jakob can get the rebounds and we can get going," Loveridge said.

"We did a good job knocking down our shots," said Taylor.

The reason for the Utes' ultimate success?

"Poise," Taylor said. "… It's the NCAA Tournament, we just passed the first round. We can only gain more confidence from surviving. I mean, we won the game."

Not a beauty pageant.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson. —

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