Boulder, Colo. • No matter how bullish anyone may be on this radically young University of Utah men’s basketball team, and there is certainly reason to be at the midway point of the season, there were going to be games like this.
No. 25 Colorado is the second-oldest team in the Pac-12. It ranks No. 1 in continuity on authoritative stats-driven website KenPom.com, which means no roster in the country has played together more than the Buffaloes. Both factors were on full display Sunday afternoon.
Colorado ripped off 14 of the first 16 points, while intent on not giving up anything down the other end. Utah looked young, flat, and unable to answer that initial Buffaloes hurricane, ultimately falling 91-52 at the CU Events Center.
This is the kind of game it was for the Utes. Both Gach, one of their primary ball handlers and scorers, got an early hook from Larry Krystkowiak before the second media timeout of the first half. Marc Reininger, suiting up for the first time this season after dealing with a foot injury, saw first-half minutes starting at the 10:48 mark. Krystkowiak then went deeper into his bench, calling on seldom-used freshman guard Eli Ballstaedt with 8:58 left before halftime.
No combination of players, no message Krystkowiak tried to send worked. All-Pac-12 junior point guard McKinley Wright spearheaded things for Colorado (13-3, 2-1 Pac-12), finishing with a game-high 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and seven assists.
Utah’s lack of a significant post presence was magnified by the fact the Buffaloes have two legit forwards in junior Tyler Bey and bruising freshman Evan Battey. Bey, tied for Pac-12 lead in rebounding entering the day, finished with 11 points and 13 boards for his seventh double-double of the season, while Battey had 17 points and 10 boards. The Buffaloes, with a plus-7.3 rebounding margin for the season, finished Sunday plus-20 on the glass.
Utah (10-5, 1-2 Pac-12) had 11 days between then-No. 13 San Diego State and Oregon State, then eight days between then-No. 4 Oregon and Sunday. Such preparation windows will mostly be a thing of the past. The Utes head to the desert Thursday to face No. 24 Arizona, then Arizona State on Saturday.
From this point forward, the largest layoff between regular-season games for Utah will be five days. The lone is exception will be seven days between Cal on Feb. 29 and Colorado on March 7. The second meeting with the Buffaloes will close the regular season, with the Pac-12 Tournament slated to start four days later at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Tribune will update this story.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/2tOIBmx
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