Sports in Utah in 2018 started with the Jazz trying to prove to everyone they really could ball and ended with the Jazz struggling to live up to the proof they had conjured. It saw Utah football do something the Utes never had done. BYU football climbed out of a hole. Utah State soared. A native son had one of the best showings of any on the PGA Tour. A 15-year-old kid won the State Am. An NBA player ripped the Jazz and their fans.
Names from the past reared their heads. Bronco Mendenhall made waves. Urban Meyer did stupid stuff. Jim Boylen got promoted and ripped. The Ute basketball team finished second in the second tournament. A BYU player got his school’s basketball program punished. And a female track athlete at Utah, who should be running and laughing and studying and living still, was shot dead, leaving the rest of us crying.
Whew.
It was a varied, emotional sports year, enough to make you stand and cheer, enough to make you sit and weep, enough to make you wonder what could have been done better, not just on the court or field.
The Jazz continued a slump in the first few weeks of 2018, and then … launched into the ionosphere, finishing their regular season on a ridiculous 29-6 run, surprising everyone but themselves — “Nobody thought they’d be any good this year,” Charles Barkley said — in qualifying for the playoffs and making it to the second round.
For guiding an unknown group to that end, Quin Snyder was a finalist for NBA coach of the year and should have won it. Instead, he got the same treatment Jazz legend Jerry Sloan perennially got, not receiving what he deserved.
Donovan Mitchell wound up second in the NBA’s rookie-of-the-year voting, but first in the hearts of Utah, carrying the Jazz’s offensive load, dunking the ball with fierceness, and inviting himself over to fans’ backyard barbecues. As his star rose, Mitchell was asked if all the attention would go to his head. He was asked: Will you become a jerk? His answer: “That’s not in my DNA. Not at all. My mom would kill me.”
After the Jazz surprised everyone by beating OKC in the postseason — and Russell Westbrook went off on Jazz fans, saying they were “disrespectful” and “vulgar” — and then getting eliminated by Houston, Mitchell promised the fan base that he and his teammates were not satisfied, that the team had intentions of being “great.”
“This is the start of something special,” he said.
Rudy Gobert, who was voted the league’s defensive player of the year, said in the aftermath that the Jazz could win an NBA title, that he wasn’t shying away from it, wasn’t looking to go somewhere else to win it, he was working for it right here, right now. “We want to be World Champions,” he said.
This fired up the fan base in a way that saw the Jazz note on shirts, hats, jackets, stickers all around the state, people filled with anticipation. Folks here were even excited about the drafting of Grayson Allen. And now, those fans are waiting on a team to be what it indicated it could be, what it intended to be, in a new season. They’re still waiting.
Trey Lyles, a former Jazz player who was used in a trade that ended up landing the club the pick that became Mitchell, openly complained about being drafted by the Jazz, having to live in Salt Lake City for a time, and suffering through Snyder’s three-hour practices. So, there was that.
College basketball in Utah was a dud, no team making the NCAA Tournament. The Utes did get invited to the NIT and darn-near won the thing, losing to Penn State in the final game at Madison Square Garden. And nobody cared. While coach Larry Krystkowiak said he would rather win the NIT than get invited to the Bigger Dance and lose early — “To me, that’s much more significant” — nobody believed him.
Salt Lake City got involved in Winter Olympics bidding, again, landing the candidacy from this country for the 2030 Games. It was fun in 2002. If the bid is successful, let’s hope we’re all alive to enjoy the experience one more time.
A man who led Utah Utes sports for just north of three decades retired. Chris Hill’s tenure included a lot of history-making, including a Final Four appearance, two unbeaten football seasons (and Fiesta and Sugar Bowl wins) and an invitation to join the Pac-12. It also included a swim team scandal and firing a bevy of coaches. He had some detractors, but Utah athletics was better for having had Hill at the helm.
Lehi resident and West High School alum Tony Finau, who grew up in modest environs, practicing golf as a kid by hitting balls into a mattress hung on the wall in his family’s garage, had a memorable year on the PGA Tour. He captured fans’ attention at the Masters, when he dislocated his ankle after hitting a great shot during the pre-tournament Par-3 round, snapping the joint back into place, and going on to play the entire Masters, finishing 10th. He finished fifth at the U.S. Open. All told, he had 11 top-10 finishes on tour, and was a captain’s pick on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. In October, he finished second via a playoff at the WBC-HSBC Champions event, making over a million dollars for the effort. He hits balls into mattresses hung in his garage no more, with career winnings of more than $13 million.
Tony Finau hits from the eighth tee during the first round of the Tour Championship golf tournament Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Amis)
Preston Summerhays, the latest in a great line of players from that well-known golfing family, won the Utah State Am, which ordinarily might not be that big a deal, except that Summerhays was 15 years old when he did it.
In the pantheon of star Utah gymnasts, Mykayla Skinner fit in snugly in 2018, winning an NCAA vault championship, finishing as runner-up in the NCAA all-around event, and garnering five top 10 NCAA combined semifinal finishes.
The Tour of Utah had another fine year, drawing many high-level cyclists to the state, all of whom powered through smoke from the wildfires burning around the western United States.
Real Salt Lake made the MLS playoffs, won a knockout game at LAFC and got bounced by longtime rival Sporting Kansas City in the conference semifinals. The club is young and showed promise for the future, but needs additional athleticism and a dominant goal-scorer. RSL legends Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman are hanging in, but need more help if the team is to earn another MLS Cup. Brooks Lennon, one of Real’s young stars, said 2018 was a setup for what comes next: “I think next year, I believe that we can go all the way.”
In their inaugural season, the Utah Royals did not make the NWSL playoffs, falling short with a 9-7-8 record. RSL and Royals general manager Craig Waibel was undeterred by that failure, saying: “We’ll challenge for a championship next season, for sure.”
For the first time since joining the Pac-12, Utah’s football team won the South division, winding up with a 6-3 league mark, 9-4 overall, heading into Monday’s Holiday Bowl. There, they will face Northwestern.
At the close of the regular season, Kyle Whittingham praised his team’s resiliency, noting that the Utes had high hopes before and during the season despite eventually suffering injuries to their starting quarterback — Tyler Huntley — and running back — Zack Moss.
Utah powered on, qualifying for the Pac-12 title game, reaching for a berth in the Rose Bowl. But the Utes lost the championship to Washington and are headed now to San Diego.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes running back Zack Moss (2) runs the ball as the University of Utah hosts Washington at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Saturday Sept. 15, 2018.
Before that game, receiver Britain Covey, who also was later injured, said: “We’re going to be writing history. Win or lose … people are going to talk about it for the next whoever-knows-how-many years.”
It was, in truth, a noteworthy season.
During it, the Utes lost Jack Tuttle, a highly recruited quarterback, who transferred to Indiana, and Troy Taylor, Utah’s ninth offensive coordinator in 11 years, who is leaving for Sacramento State. Both of those moves made headlines.
BYU bounced back from its 4-9 nadir of the previous season to finish 7-6, capped by the Cougars’ 49-18 Potato Bowl win against Western Michigan, a rousing explosion of offense that stoked optimism for the program in the seasons ahead. Zach Wilson emerged as a promising quarterback during a year that saw the Cougars beat Arizona and Wisconsin, but also saw them lose to NIU and Utah State. BYU lost to Utah for the eighth consecutive time.
Weber State made a strong run to the FCS playoffs, eventually losing to Maine after tying for the Big Sky title at 7-1. Jay Hill’s team finished 10-3 overall.
USU blasted through an impressive 11-2 season, led by quarterback Jordan Love. The Aggies were offensively dominant, falling at the end to Boise State, a loss that prevented them from making the Mountain West championship game.
After the season, coach Matt Wells bolted for a new job at Texas Tech. He was replaced by Gary Andersen, an assistant at Utah and former Aggie head coach, who also had stops at Wisconsin and Oregon State.
Other former head football coaches in Utah, Meyer at Utah and Mendenhall at BYU, made news during the year.
Meyer was roundly criticized and investigated and ultimately suspended for his lack of action at Ohio State in the case of assistant coach Zach Smith, who faced allegations of domestic violence. Meyer later announced that he would retire at the end of the season.
Mendenhall, now the coach at Virginia, caused a storm when he admitted that he did not want to schedule tough teams, that he wanted easy non-conference opponents to polish up his record. He also said he had just 27 ACC-caliber players on his roster. Those kinds of clunky remarks echoed in the ears of BYU fans, who remembered Mendenhall’s mix of honesty and awkwardness in Provo.
Nick Emery’s extra-benefits escapades at BYU caused the NCAA to punish the Cougars’ basketball program, hitting it, in addition to Emery’s being suspended for the first nine games of the 2018-19 season by the school, with a vacation of wins in which Emery previously played, totaling 47 games. The Cougars were also penalized with recruiting limitations and placed on two-years probation. Emery is now playing for BYU again.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brigham Young Cougars guard Nick Emery (4) as the BYU men's basketball team plays a scrimmage game known as the Cougar Tipoff, in Provo, Wednesday October 25, 2017.
Former Utah Utes basketball coach Boylen, who had been an assistant for the Chicago Bulls, was promoted to head coach and proceeded to turn into Genghis Khan, much to the dismay of some of his players.
The Jazz, as mentioned, started in on their new season in October with skyrocketing expectations, none of which have been met to this point. For most of the early going, the team has been under .500, trying to regain the defensive success they stirred last season.
There have been some highlights, though, two of them coming in victories over the Boston Celtics. Gordon Hayward made his delayed return to Vivint Arena, after leaving the Jazz in free agency prior to last season, which provided fans here the chance to boo and jeer the man they used to cheer. Hayward was less than spectacular in that return, and the Jazz won, much to the pleasure of those who had a message to send. It was all … well, most of it … in good fun.
A truly difficult moment that hit both the sports and the human scenes in Utah was the murder of Utah track athlete Lauren McCluskey. The impact of that tragedy, perpetrated on campus, struck the entire state, and beyond. McCluskey was memorialized, remembered for her goodness, before and during games of all kinds. Tributes poured in from other places, too.
But it was hard on everybody, especially those who knew and loved her. Youth, with all of its bright promise, snuffed out in the sound of a few gunshots. That could not, should not have happened. Yet, it did. Nobody wants to bury a child, a family member, a friend, a teammate.
Now, investigations have been concluded on the case. However, questions continue to be asked about what the university could and should have done to prevent it.
Sports can be a respite from real life, but sometimes what’s real pierces that bubble and puts what’s most important squarely into perspective. And we don’t just cheer and boo, and stand and yell our guts out. We mourn and we think and we cry. And we seek answers.
2018 caused us to do all of the above, as we remember it and move straight into whatever comes next in a new year.
(Photo courtesy of Jill McCluskey) In this undated photo, Lauren McCluskey makes the "U" with her hands.
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” with Jake Scott weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.
