Towels, T-shirts and bags of chips tell the story of Utah’s historic 3-point shooting night

As the clock ticked under two minutes in the third quarter, Clemens Landau began to scramble.

For years, Landau had been coming to Utah women’s basketball games sitting right across the court from the bench. Religiously, he brought painted towels with him — hanging each one up on a string with his kids to record the number of 3-point shots coach Lynne Roberts’ group hit.

It was their equivalent to a strikeout counter in baseball.

But on Thursday, Landau had already run through 15 towels and the fourth quarter hadn’t begun. His son told him not to bring too many — not to jinx it. But as Utah guard Issy Palmer buried her seventh of the night, bringing Utah to 15, Landau knew he needed to do something to commemorate a historic evening.

In a 108-48 stomping of South Carolina State on Thursday night, the No. 5 Utes would finish with a school-record 21 triples.

Landau, meanwhile, bargained with the people around him to keep up with the count. He hung up loose chip bags, hats and T-Shirts in lieu of towels as the threes kept coming down. By the end, Landau had the entire row holding up a line of three-point towels and assorted items — a makeshift tally of a perfect night for Roberts’ offense.

“This was a lot of fun,” Landau said. “My kids are huge fans of the Utah women’s basketball program. We’ve been coming for years. ... It has been fun to watch the atmosphere [and team] grow.”

Landau’s backstory, and the story of the 3-point towels, runs deeper though. It mirrors the Utah basketball program’s story and the rise to a moment like Thursday.

Landau started coming to Utah games about seven years ago. He is from Germany and grew up as a goalie, never playing basketball. But his kids got into the sport and he started taking them to Utah games.

As he was getting used to a new game, so was Roberts in a different way.

She was just starting her rebuild of the program at the time. Utah had its ups and downs in those years, hovering around .500. Then the program dipped and hit 14-17 and 5-16.

Things got better from there. Landau and his kids bought tickets close to the floor. And then a little over a year ago, his kids wanted to do something fun.

They had a bunch of stencils lying around from when the family made shirts. It was his daughter, Aziza Landau, who suggested spray painting custom 3-point towels to hang up at games.

“Took just an evening,” Landau said. “Me in the garage with a couple cans of beer. The kids helped out a little bit.”

The final product was a red U and a large 3. And as the family started taking them to games, Roberts’ team started to get better behind a flurry of 3-pointers.

Last year, Roberts’ crew made a run to the Sweet 16. It did so while averaging over 80 points a game and hitting 265 3-pointers.

Fans in the section began to rely on Landau to bring the 3-point towels, as every night seemed to be a 3-point barrage (averaging over eight per game).

“When we don’t bring them, they give me a hard time,” Landau said.

Landau had gone from a fan trying to learn to the sport to having a community that relied on him at Utah games.

And right as he and the family found a group of friends, Roberts’ program also found its footing.

It’s all led to a night like Thursday. The Utah offense leaped to a new high; the Utes’ previous record for triples in a game was 19 (vs. Lipscomb on Nov. 10, 2021). Now 2-0 the Utes are also a good bet to move into the top four in the country (something Utah has never done).

The night was commemorated by a family that has been with them through it all — in the most 3-point way possible.