Can't See the Forrest for the Trees....or the Bears: Utah vs. Stanford & Cal

[DrumNFeather]

With 8 to play, a huge home series awaits this week as Stanford and Cal come into the Huntsman Center.

Stanford is up first and sits at 7-4 in league play. They've won two conference road games this year (@Wash and @USC), and mostly recently dropped a home game to UCLA.

They are lead by Chasson Randal, who averages about 20 a game. It will be fun to see he and Delon get after it this week.

On Sunday, the Bears from Cal come to town. They've won 4 in a row, including a sweep on the road of the Washington schools and a home sweep of USC and UCLA. They sit at 5-6 in conference and could make some noise in the conference tourney. It'll be interesting to see what they do at CU in advance of coming to SLC on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Arizona heads to the Washington schools. I expect both the Cats and the Utes to finish the week 10-2 in league play.

[311ute]

According to utahutes.com, the Stanford game is sold out.

It would be the first official sell out since Bogut's last year (2/26/05 vs BYU).

[#1 Utefan]

According to utahutes.com, the Stanford game is sold out.

It would be the first official sell out since Bogut's last year (2/26/05 vs BYU).

I predict two 15+ point wins. Stanford and Cal are decent teams but Utah hasn't had difficulty with any conference team at home this year and I don't see that changing this week. Maybe Stanford will make it a game but I am just not that worried. The Oregon roadie next week is going to be a much bigger test.

[DrumNFeather]

According to utahutes.com, the Stanford game is sold out.

It would be the first official sell out since Bogut's last year (2/26/05 vs BYU).


They mentioned during the CU game that the rest of the games had very few tickets remaining (might have been a marketing ploy, who knows). It's nice to see the Huntsman Center filled again.

[Applejack]

I like our odds at home. These two teams are the best one two punch we'll see this year, but we are tough at the hunty.

[311ute]

They mentioned during the CU game that the rest of the games had very few tickets remaining (might have been a marketing ploy, who knows). It's nice to see the Huntsman Center filled again.

Just looked at the all remaining games on utahutes.com.... Arizona is completely sold out as well, and Cal and ASU only have single tickets remaining. So we should finish the year with 4 straight sell outs. Impressive.

[SoCalPat]

I predict two 15+ point wins. Stanford and Cal are decent teams but Utah hasn't had difficulty with any conference team at home this year and I don't see that changing this week. Maybe Stanford will make it a game but I am just not that worried. The Oregon roadie next week is going to be a much bigger test.

Certainly likely. Part of me says we don't run roughshod through everyone at home this year (Arizona notwithstanding). I wouldn't be surprised to see Stanford give us a game. I think it would be good for us to get a test of some kind before we jump into the deep end of the pool against the Cats.

[Old Standing ute]

Over/under for points by Chasson Randle??
Knowing Ute game planning he will be lucky to get 10.
Hard to read these 2 teams--UCLA on the road beats Stanford & loses to Cal.

P.S. love the title for this thread.

[SoCalPat]

Over/under for points by Chasson Randle??
Knowing Ute game planning he will be lucky to get 10.
Hard to read these 2 teams--UCLA on the road beats Stanford & loses to Cal.

P.S. love the title for this thread.

It would be something if we held Randle to under 10 points. The last time Randle failed to hit double figures in a league game was the opener last year vs. Washington State. He's only failed to hit double figures 9 times in league games in his career, and five came in his freshman year.

[311ute]

Opening line is -10 Utes.

Utes are 16-5 ATS, 9-3 ATS at home.

[Mormon Red Death]

Opening line is -10 Utes.

Utes are 16-5 ATS, 9-3 ATS at home.

vegasinsiders.com has them 18-4 ATS?

[311ute]

vegasinsiders.com has them 18-4 ATS?

I could be wrong, but to my knowledge the game vs Carroll College (non D-1) didn't have an official line. Games we didn't cover were Ball St, Wichita St, South Dakota St, Arizona and UCLA.

But again, I could be wrong.

[LA Ute]

Phil Cullen's e-mail for the Stanford game:


Stanford is currently ranked 3rd in the Pac-12 standings. They are led by one of the nation's leading scorers, Chasson Randle, at 22 ppg. Randle is a guard who can do everything extremely well. He is surrounded by great players including the shooting guard, Anthony Brown, 17 ppg and 7.6 rpg, 7-0 Stefan Nastic who averages 13 ppg and 7 rpg, and Rosco Allen who is a 3 that plays the 4.

Overall, Stanford is one of the best offensive teams in our conference. They have the ability to score the ball in so many ways so they do not have many weaknesses to exploit. Look for them to run a version of the triangle offense with spacing and lots of cutters. Playing personnel accordingly will be a big part of our game planning. We also must limit them to one shot.

Defensively they will play both man to man and zone defenses. They are extremely physical and are playing some of their best basketball of the season in recent games.
Tomorrow is our LDSSA Institute Night where we are excited to have the LDSSA Institute Choir sing our National Anthem. We are expecting a sell out so be sure to get in your seats early! Tip-off is at 7:00 pm. See you tomorrow at the Huntsman!

[311ute]

http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/uofusports/2167995-155/utah-basketball-notes-delon-wright-dealing

Anyone else a tad bit worried about Delon’s knee? Sounds like it’s no big deal and he’ll be good to go tomorrow, but just the thought of something being wrong with his knee and the damage that would to our post-season outlook makes me nervous.


Big game tomorrow night. I probably should be more nervous than I am, but our home domination this year has me expecting a double digit win. Randle is the kind of player that could give us fits, however (he’s twice the player Booker and Alford are). I’m sure Brandon will be matched up with him, but he has the ability to rise up and shoot over Brandon, and the size and ability to take it to the hoop and finish over/through him. We need to have excellent awareness in regard to help defense on him. If we hold him under 20 pts I’ll be very pleased. He’s a player that if he wants he’ll get his, but our goal should be to make him use a lot of shots to get his average.

Line that surprised me a bit was Colorado -9 over Cal… Cal has been playing some pretty good ball, but I guess at home with (presumably) Booker back in the lineup I think the Buffs rebound and take care of business.

Anyway… looking forward to the sell-out crowd tomorrow, should be a great atmosphere and hopefully the Utes capitalize and get a rare RPI top-50 win. We need it.

[Rocker Ute]

Side note, tickets are scarce to the remainder of the games. Great times. A game or two back I used the Flash Seats system used and endorsed by the U to transfer some tickets to someone. Quick, easy, free and pretty slick (even if their site looks like it was built the same time as UF.n). Went to buy some extras for AZ today so I naturally went back... 23% fee plus a $5 per seat charge. Makes payday lending seem reputable.

[SoCalPat]

I could be wrong, but to my knowledge the game vs Carroll College (non D-1) didn't have an official line. Games we didn't cover were Ball St, Wichita St, South Dakota St, Arizona and UCLA.

But again, I could be wrong.

There was also just enough line movement on the Wichita State game that you could label that game as a push or loss, but not a win.

[LA Ute]

Two good tickets to the Stanford game available. Face value. PM me if interested.

[LA Ute]

Two good tickets to the Stanford game available. Face value. PM me if interested.

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/052011/1304618376_tumbleweed-gif.gif

[Rocker Ute]

Feeling like we have a whole bunch of trap games ahead of us. Don't know if that is the right term, but while I think we should win out up to AZ, each one of these has a potential to be a loss. Particularly nervous about tonight.

On a side note, did anyone catch the Oregon v USC game last night? I caught the last 10 minutes and USC nearly pulled that one off. Walton was in rare form and made me want to claw my eyes out. USC had just clawed back from a 7-9 pt deficit, is down by 3 points with less than 30 seconds to go with the ball. Walton is blathering on dead-air or about something that has nothing to do with the game, the play-by-play guy sat in silence, couldn't call the game. Finally when USC throws up a horrible shot Bill Walton tunes into the game and says, "That was one of the 5 worst plays to ever happen at USC."

I hope he isn't calling any more of our games this season.

[Rocker Ute]

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/052011/1304618376_tumbleweed-gif.gif

Just FYI, I sold my tickets to the Cal game for over face value of flashseats.com (the U endorsed site for ticket exchanges). You might get some traction there.

[sancho]

"That was one of the 5 worst plays to ever happen at USC."


He was right. It was an awful play.

The only remaining games that do not make me nervous are ASU and @UW. Hope I didn't just jinx us.

Stanford - Randle is very good, and their Eurotrash is more experienced than ours.
Cal - They are finally playing well again after taking the month of January off.
Arizona - duh
Oregon St - We get to hand them their first Pac-12 home loss?
Oregon - fighting for a tournament birth
WSU - Pullman

[DrumNFeather]

Just FYI, I sold my tickets to the Cal game for over face value of flashseats.com (the U endorsed site for ticket exchanges). You might get some traction there.

I sent him a boardmail to which he has yet to respond...so this pity party he is having for himself is OVER!

[sancho]

I sent him a boardmail to which he has yet to respond...so this pity party he is having for himself is OVER!

I wish I could go tonight. You know I'd love to see Stanford go down. But I have a meeting with my stake president (a Stanford alum)....and I live in Colorado. I'm wondering if the wi-fi in the stake center is strong enough to follow the score on my Kindle during the meeting.

[Devildog]

Side note, tickets are scarce to the remainder of the games. Great times. A game or two back I used the Flash Seats system used and endorsed by the U to transfer some tickets to someone. Quick, easy, free and pretty slick (even if their site looks like it was built the same time as UF.n). Went to buy some extras for AZ today so I naturally went back... 23% fee plus a $5 per seat charge. Makes payday lending seem reputable.

Those are some great seats you have too.

[DrumNFeather]

Well, it hasn't been a great first half, and we're still up by 6 at the half.

[DrumNFeather]

Man I love this team!

[LA Ute]

We are pretty awesome in the 2nd half.

[Mormon Red Death]

Does Nastic have a stiff neck or is he always like that?

[DrumNFeather]

Does Nastic have a stiff neck or is he always like that?
Dude, I was going to post the same thing. I think he's like that all the time.

[DrumNFeather]

Well, that was a nice win. I wish they'd mic up Larry so we could know what he said to Dawkins. Probably something like: "that was a 3, no shot clock violation."

[Old Standing ute]

Dude, I was going to post the same thing. I think he's like that all the time.

He is a strange looking person. Kind of a thin Herman Munster.

[Old Standing ute]

It would be something if we held Randle to under 10 points. The last time Randle failed to hit double figures in a league game was the opener last year vs. Washington State. He's only failed to hit double figures 9 times in league games in his career, and five came in his freshman year.

Boom. Randle scoreless at half time & finally with some help from the refs makes his 10.
Muss was riding him all night---best was chanting 0 for 7.

Ute D was outstanding.
Nice to see Ogbe get some minutes---he is a quality defender/player. Big plus if he gets it going due to his size.

[#1 Utefan]

He is a strange looking person. Kind of a thin Herman Munster.


Nastic and that Cartwright kid that came in at the end were odd ducks. There seemed to be something off with both of them.

[LA Ute]

PAC-12 recap of the game:

http://pac-12.com/videos/recap-utah-mens-basketball-takes-care-stanford

[EutawStUtesFan]

Taylor did an outstanding job on Randle, 10pts on 2-11 shooting, 3 assists, 3 TO. Impressive.

[DrumNFeather]

So Cal won @ Colorado last night to improve to .500 in league play. I think this game is a little sneaky and I could see us come out flat early and kind of ho-hum our way through the first half with like a 2-6 point lead at half, and then do exactly what we did last night and come out hot in the second half.

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

Taylor did an outstanding job on Randle, 10pts on 2-11 shooting, 3 assists, 3 TO. Impressive.

Especially since the first of those two makes was a clear push off by Randle and shouldn't have counted.

[UBlender]

The fact that Utah was without a field goal from both Taylor and Tucker and still soundly beat a good team is a very good sign. When Utah had four points at half from the trio of Taylor, Tucker and Loveridge I knew they would win relatively easily because at least one of those would start getting some shots to go (it was Loveridge).

[U-Ute]

All of our conference games to date have been very extreme: we either win big or lose big. It was nice to see us win one where we had to work at it a little bit. The final score didn't reflect that the game was pretty close for 25-30 minutes. I feel like we still need to learn how to win a game by less than 10 points. Without looking at the schedule, I think only the Wichita State game falls into that category right now.

One thing about this team that reminds me of the 98 team: It seems like the total is greater than the sum of its parts. A trademark of a true team.

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

All of our conference games to date have been very extreme: we either win big or lose big. It was nice to see us win one where we had to work at it a little bit. The final score didn't reflect that the game was pretty close for 25-30 minutes. I feel like we still need to learn how to win a game by less than 10 points. Without looking at the schedule, I think only the Wichita State game falls into that category right now.

One thing about this team that reminds me of the 98 team: It seems like the total is greater than the sum of its parts. A trademark of a true team.

BYU was close as well. Three points, if I remember. I like how the difficulty of these games slowly ratchets up.

Cal is on a roll and has some swagger. The Oregon schools will present more challenge being on the road. And then Arizona. Hopefully the team meets every challenge blow for blow.

One of the pieces from last night that got me excited was watching Loveridge being aggressive to the basket and actually finishing.

[LA Ute]

Phil Cullen's latest:


One thing we like to do in our program is connect with those in our community. A group we would like to recognize are the men and women who have served our country. We are excited to have our Salute America game on Sunday and have the chance to thank all of those who have made great sacrifices to protect the country we live in. Sunday we host the Cal Bears with tip-off at 6:30 pm.

The Cal Bears come into Salt Lake City on a five game win streak. First year Head Coach Cuonzo Martin inherited a team with a lot of talent. Jordan Matthews is a 6’3” shooting guard who can score the ball. He is averaging a team high 17.5 ppg and is shooting 45% from 3. At small forward, Tyrone Wallace is lefty averaging 15.4 ppg. David Kravish a 6’10” power forward is averaging 11 ppg and leads the team in rebounding at almost 8 per game.

Offensively they are best in transition and will run when the opportunity is there. They are averaging almost 74 ppg during their win streak and we will have to do a great job of getting back in defensive transition and guarding their sets and personnel.

Defensively they will primarily show man to man defense but we are always prepared for anything they can throw at us.

Thank you for all of your support and we will see you on Sunday!

[LA Ute]

Anybody want to buy up to 4 Cal seats, Section N, Row 17? I can send them to you by e-mail. I can throw in a good parking pass too but you would have to arrange to pick it up somehow. Face for the tix is $26.00 each. (I'll eat the Crimson Club donation.)

[Old Standing ute]

utes by 10.
If Cal can keep it to 10 they will be better than any team except Wichita St that has visited.

Not likely.

[#1 Utefan]

utes by 10.
If Cal can keep it to 10 they will be better than any team except Wichita St that has visited.

Not likely.

I don't see Cal keeping it that close. They are playing better but I think Stanford, UCLA, and Washington (with Upshaw) were better teams. None of those teams kept it closer than 16 here. Utah by 18.

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

Utah beats the spread (-17) by a few buckets. 24 points. Poeltl has a big game.

[DrumNFeather]

Cal has been game so far. This #3 is really good.

[DrumNFeather]

Another poor first half with a strong finish.

[DrumNFeather]

Ah crap, Delon got rolled up on, heading to the locker room.

[DrumNFeather]

Ah crap, Delon got rolled up on, heading to the locker room.
And he's back, a regular Willis Reed.

[DrumNFeather]

Very nice win. I love the way Poeltel played in this game. Cal is a decent team, I think and could certainly make noise in the conference tournament.

On to the Northwest.

[Old Standing ute]

Cal is well coached--played hard.
Utes shut down Wallace finally towards end of 1st half.
Loveridge got worked on D--sat.

Reyes played well--tough rebounder.

Nice win.

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

Poeltl has a big game.

Bump.

[U-Ute]

Bump.

Good call. I thought about this prediction about 5 minutes into the game when it became obvious that Cal didn't have an answer for Poeltl.

For once Poeltl was the bully.

[LA Ute]

Loveridge played only 18 minutes, with 3 points, 3 rebounds and 3 TOs. His defense looked awful too. I wonder if he got yanked because of how he was playing, or because he was sick or had something else wrong?