Runnin’ Utes basketball: 3 things to know about Utah’s loss to Oregon

The University of Utah men’s basketball team’s struggles against Oregon continued on Saturday night. A 70-60 loss was Utah’s 22nd defeat against the Ducks in 24 tries as a member of the Pac-12. Here are the takeaways from the loss.

Bad bookends

Instead of a full account of the first handful of possessions, in which Utah looked discombobulated, if not unprepared for what Oregon presented, let’s send it to Utes head coach Craig Smith.

To preface this, Smith entered the postgame news conference faster than usual, clearly a little fired up, clearly not thrilled.

“I don’t think we were very good tonight,” Smith said. “Some of that was Oregon, some of that was certainly self-inflicted, and I just thought we looked like we were on our heels, which they can do to you with their length and athleticism, and some of their pressing. Obviously, we didn’t get off to a great start. I thought the first possession, we run a play, we knew the guy would be wide open, and we don’t deliver to him. He would have been open, no one within 10 feet of him for a layup. That was a microcosm of the start.”

Utah was in trouble from the outset. Oregon’s first four baskets were three layups and a dunk. On Utah’s second possession, the Ducks threw a helpside defender at Branden Carlson on the catch, and neither Carlson, nor his teammates looked ready to deal with that. Why more teams don’t throw an extra man at the All-Pac-12 center has been a mystery all season, but the Ducks did throughout and they benefited from it.

That was the beginning. Before the first media timeout, it was clear Utah was in some trouble against a desperate Oregon team, which got blown off the floor at Colorado on Thursday, and has losses this season to UC Irvine and Utah Valley.

If the beginning was bad, the end was arguably worse.

Utah hung around for most of the second half. With the Utes down five with 1:13 to play, Oregon big man N’Faly Dante missed two free throws, but on the second one, the Utes inexplicably didn’t box out, then stood around as Ducks point guard Will Richardson grabbed the loose-ball rebound. Out of a timeout, Quincy Guerrier’s 3-pointer from the right wing extended the lead to eight as most of the season-high Huntsman Center crowd of 8,235 headed for the exits.

There is a reason that Smith notably still coaches boxing out off free throws in practice. He doesn’t do it extensively, nor should he at this level, but he does it, and Saturday night was a prime reason why. Little things like that killed his team in a game it was probably supposed to win.

Little things like that, little things like the opening possession. Utah was a few little things away against Oregon, just like it was against TCU, just like it was against Mississippi State.

Smith has been yelling at anyone who will listen that, despite this team’s unexpected placement on the NCAA Tournament bubble, that it is a work in progress. No one ever said he was wrong, but it was never more evident than Saturday night.

A lack of offensive options

This has been a constant source of discussion, and it’s going to continue to be until something changes, which, frankly, doesn’t feel likely this season.

The Utes entered the night No. 3 nationally in field goal percentage defense, No. 6 in 3-point field goal percentage, and No. 17 in defensive efficiency. They are a high-level defensive outfit, and no matter what you’re doing down the other end, you will be in games most of the time. That said, to actually win those games instead of just being in them, Utah needs to be doing more offensively.

If Carlson is having a tough night (10 points, on six field goal attempts), and Gabe Madsen shoots 1-for-8, well, then what? Lazar Stefanovic shot 5-for-17, and while Marco Anthony posted his second straight double-double, his game is not suited to anchor an offense.

There is just so little room for error, so little room to allow guys to have off nights, because when someone that is counted on does have one, there isn’t a consistent-enough option to step in and carry the load, especially off the bench. The rotation on most nights is at a legitimate seven, with a potential eighth and ninth guy getting to double-digit minutes if the matchup dictates. That’s not a lot.

A tight rotation means there’s heavy minutes

Smith has rightfully offered a sense of confidence and optimism with his team, in good times and bad, but he admitted something important on Saturday night.

He needs more from his bench, which has everything to do with the number of minutes some of his starters are playing.

Anthony did not sit down in the second half and finished at 37 minutes. Rollie Worster topped out at 34, Stefanovic played 31 off the bench, and Carlson and Madsen each played 29.

Four of Smith’s five starters are averaging at least 27.9 minutes per game, but the concerning part is that Worster and Anthony are both over 30 per game. To boil that down even further, Worster is going to have to keep taking on a heavy burden because he is the only true point guard in the rotation. When he is off the floor, Stefanovic is generally the primary ballhandler.

Specifically with Worster, Smith has previously voiced some concern that he is riding the third-year sophomore too hard, but that’s probably going to keep being the case out of necessity.

Smith liked what Bostyn Holt did off the bench against Oregon, then noted that while Wil Exacte played well in the Bay Area last weekend, this latest home set against Oregon State and Oregon needed to be a little better. If Smith can start getting more out of those two, it would obviously be less of a burden for guys playing big minutes.

That would bode well if Utah wants to stay in the bubble mix.