Utah’s head coach almost had to catch himself when he went down the litany of issues facing his basketball team these days.
Losers of six of its last nine, Utah’s three-point defense has plummeted of late. Its assist numbers are down. Its interior defense has caved in routinely. Craig Smith pointed all of that out in detail. Then he stopped.
“The world is not caving in,” Smith said, as if he was reminding himself. “But we have to be able to fine-tune and understand how we were in that [NCAA Tournament] conversation for a lot of the year and get back to that style of basketball.”
Utah has gone from firmly in the field to the outside looking in to start March. It doesn’t have an overly difficult schedule in the final four games of the year, but there is no more room for error.
Utah took a step in the right direction with a 90-68 win over Stanford Thursday. The Cardinal is 12-16. Still, any win at this point is needed.
“Obviously it is one game,” Smith said after the win. “... We have a lot to play for still. We are in position to really do some things.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes guard Deivon Smith (5) shoots a lay up as Stanford Cardinal forward James Keefe (22) defends at Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.
Earlier in the week, Smith partially blamed Utah’s struggles on the absence of senior guard Rollie Worster. He has missed the last 12 games with an ankle injury and might not come back.
Without him, Utah is losing nearly 10 points a game and a piece Smith can move around on offense.
“The reality is Rollie hasn’t played for quite some time and we miss him,” Smith said. “That is just the facts. Nobody wants to talk about it, but it is reality. So we have to figure that out from a leadership standpoint. From a toughness standpoint, connectivity standpoint. ... We have to do it.”
With Worster out, Smith has turned to Hunter Erickson off the bench. He has played Cole Bajema slightly out of position. Gabe Madsen took on a subtly different role too.
Erickson has the lowest offensive rating among contributing players and his turnover rate is the highest next to Lawson Lovering. Bajema has been up and down, but had 21 points against Stanford. Madsen has been the most steady in his third year at Utah.
“These guys have had to do some things that isn’t necessarily their deal,” Smith said. “... It takes some time. Somebody has to figure this thing out if we are going to do it. It takes sacrifice. It just does.”
Smith also pointed out that most of his team hasn’t navigated an end-of-season schedule under the pressure of making the tournament.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes center Lawson Lovering (34) prepares to dunk the ball against the Stanford Cardinal at Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.
Only Worster, Carlson and Erickson have been on teams that made the tournament. None of them were at Utah when they did it. Being on the bubble, Smith knows, can wear on teams.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. Some teams really handle that well in the thick of it. Some people can’t help but just stare at it every day. You know, [Joe] Lunardi and all this stuff,” Smith said. “And some can’t handle it. We have a lot of guys who haven’t been used to winning at the college level. And it is hard. It is really, really hard.”
A win over Stanford will not take Utah off the bubble. Even winning out in the final three games of the season might not be enough.
Smith understands that. He knows the only option left is for his team to finally show consistency. The Utes haven’t won three games in a row since December.
“At the end of the day, the last 11 games, we just haven’t been as good,” Smith said. “... What we can control is our attitude, effort, our toughness and our execution and then we will see where the chips fall. It is a bit cliche-ish.”
