With the full realization that at the end of the day it won't do anything to bring justice, I have to say that being an absolutely trashy program like Penn State would be among the most satisfying victories of my Ute fanhood.
Hold your horses, Charlie. "Among the most satisfying victories of [your] Ute fanhood?" I'm as excited about the chance to be crowned CHAMPION as any red-blooded Ute fan, but this is the NIT. Unless you've been a Utefan for the past 2 years, I'd hope you can come up with a bunch of wins that far surpass this one (fingers crossed).
For me, a win would be better than making the NCAA tournament and maybe winning a game (MAYBE), but it does not compare with anything past the first weekend of the tourney. In the end, it really is a tournament for 65th best team (I know, I know, should by 67th) in the nation.
Am I wrong?
AJ,
I'd still take just playing in the NCAA Tournament over success in the NIT; but what a remarkable run. I thought that the final ten games of the season showed a team that had come together and was prepared for some tournament success. They've certainly demonstrated that. People have commented on how a tournament run helps returning players. I think it helps coaches as well - particularly getting better at game planning for opponents in a tournament setting.
I don't think there is much value in saying that we are the 60-whatever best team in the country because we won the NIT, or finished second. The bottom line is that there are very few teams still playing and we're one of them. In the past our teams have packed it in at this time of year, and this team has fought through and won four more games than we thought they would. That's not nothing. I think it gives the young guys a taste of tournament play, which can only help, as well as the coaches like Biq said. Hopefully it helps next year during the Wooden Legacy tournament and maybe beyond. To be the only Pac 12 team left standing, even in the NIT is pretty cool. Shoot, if you are gonna play, you might as well try to win it.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
σοφῷ ἀνδρὶ Ἑλλὰς πάντα.
-- Flavius Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 1.35.2.
The NIT ain’t what it used to be. I’m sure concerned and I agree about that much. When the Utes last played for the NIT championship in 1974, the NCAA tournament was 32 teams and the Utes had finished second in a close WAC finish to a very good Arizona State team that finished in AP/UPI the top 10 (but, if I recall, was upset early in the NCAA tournament). The Utes had two players who today would be early entry lottery picks—Mike Sojourner left after his sophomore year and excelled early with the Hawks before personal problems overtook him; and Ticky Burden left after his junior year and tore it up in the super talented late ABA, until he tore his knee up. The Utes lost to a very good Purdue team that finished second in the Big 10 and they had beaten in the regular season at home on Burden’s buzzer beater on New Year’s Day (I was on the first row right behind Ticky and watched his jump shot, his red tassels flying, and the ball spinning in a picture perfect arc and dropping cleanly through the rim and splashing net).
But an NIT championship would be a nice consolation for not making the NCAA tournament. Maybe almost as good as one and done in the NCAA tournament.
Last edited by SeattleUte; 03-28-2018 at 01:39 PM.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
“Children and dogs are as necessary to the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.” -- Harry S. Truman
"You never soar so high as when you stoop down to help a child or an animal." -- Jewish Proverb
"Three-time Pro Bowler Eric Weddle the most versatile, and maybe most intelligent, safety in the game." -- SI, 9/7/15, p. 107.
Larry K in an interview last night:
Q. Pat Chambers was asked this last night, a hypothetical: Would you rather be winning the NIT or going to the NCAA and losing in the first round?
HEAD COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: I'd rather be where we are. I've thought about that a lot. Some of it, it's easy to talk about in a hypothetical, because we sign up for this, No. 1, to compete and to play, and I've been on the other end of it where you lose the first round. And there's so much emotion built up into a season.
The goal is getting to the NCAA Tournament -- and you lose a first round game. You know, it's great, but that's really not the feeling you want to have, either. There's a lot of failure built into that. This is about experiences. This is about competing.
And for us, you know, to get the additional five or six -- I think it's five games, and have an opportunity to win and continue to bond; I love this team and this team loves playing with each other, so I get it where a basketball purist junk key would say, gee, we should fire our coach is he says that because this is the consolation prize; how dare he say that.
Until you're in our shoes, coming to New York City and being in the Final Four in the NIT in a city with so much history and tradition -- look, I got an e-mail from Arnie Ferrin who played on Utah's team in 1947 when they won the NIT Championship, and there's still three living members on that team and we were all on a big thread.
When he says to me, "Coach, one more, man, bring home the trophy" and the pride in all of that, to me, that is much more significant than getting to the NCAA Tournament and losing your first game.
You know, if people want to run me out of town for that answer, I guess I'm going to live with it but they are not in our shoes and this has just been a great experience for us, and I don't think we'd trade it for anything in the world to be honest with you.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
There is nothing but good about this NIT run, and I would say while I would rather have been in the NCAA tournament, the experience they are having far outweighs a one and done in the Big Dance. Truth is, Larry and the whole team lacks tournament experience and how to manage a tournament run. This will go a long way to curing that. No matter what you say, to go and win that many games in a row with little prep is a notable achievement.
As much as I dislike them, Duke always seems to perform well in the tournament and often better than their seeding, and I believe it is because Coach K is up to his eyeballs in tournament play experience. Even their relative mediocre teams seem to know how to do some damage.
I hope this translates for the Utes next year, if and when they make the tournament. I will not be satisfied with a one and done.
I hope you are right, but because this team is so senior heavy, and we will have so many newcomers next fall, I am not sure how much this helps the players (as opposed to LK) going forward. Jayce as the starting center and Barefield as the starting pg, it both things happen, scares me to death.
I'd be surprised if Jones isn't the starting PG. I just hope he has enough "true PG" in him to effectively run the offense.
The disdain that the Utah fanbase has for Jayce is absurd. The guy is a very good player. If you project his stats as a full-time starter he would average a double-double with 2 blocks and a shooting percentage over 50%. He plays really good D as well; for having limited athleticism he usually plays really sound D and has good footwork; the number of shots he alters is really high. I've never seen this stat kept in college, but I would bet that opponent shooting percentage in the paint when Jayce is in the game would be pretty low.
If a JC transfer can start from day 1 (i.e., if he is as good as Delon, and play at an NCAA invite caliber), that will be great.
Jayce is completely ineffectual on offense, and the inside offense grinds to a halt when he is in the game. He showed that left semi-hook a game or two ago; maybe he can develop that. He also has to stay out of foul trouble as a starter, and he cant even do that as a back up. And next year we wont even have him as a back up. One of the freshmen will really have to play well.
Last edited by concerned; 03-28-2018 at 03:26 PM.
I disagree that he's as bad offensively as you say. He shoots for a good percentage and he has increased his offensive moves this year. He's never going to be the focal point of the offense, but he's an elite rebounder and does enough with his back to the basket to keep defenses honest. In fact, Jayce was second in the league at rebounds per minute, only (and just barely) behind a guy named DeAndre Ayton. And when you factor in possessions per game, I would bet that Jayce comes out ahead of Ayton.
Last edited by concerned; 03-28-2018 at 03:38 PM.
Vegas Ute Retweeted
I am a Utah Man, Sir @UtahMan1850 Mar 23More
OTD 3/23/1974, Mike Sojourner led Utah with 29 points and 19 rebounds as @UtahMBB beat Boston College 117-93 to reach the NIT Final. Sojourner would enter the NBA draft after the season and was the 10th overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
Dont tell me jayce isnt completely lost out there. Cant finish at the rim twice and turned around on d.
Maybe its his ankle. Maybe.
Last edited by concerned; 03-29-2018 at 05:34 PM.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I don’t understand why we keep leaving Penn State’s marksmen wide open for set-shot treys.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Last edited by sancho; 03-29-2018 at 05:52 PM.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
Feels like the outcome will rely on Barefield staying hot.