After Utah knocked off Colorado 73-62 on Saturday night at the Huntsman Center to move into third place in the Pac-12 standings, coach Craig Smith said star guard Gabe Madsen isn’t due back in the lineup any time soon.
Madsen suffered a high ankle sprain early in the Utes’ 68-56 loss to Oregon on Jan. 28, and had been wearing a protective boot on his right foot until last Thursday.
“I wouldn’t say (we are trying to) reinvent ourselves, but when you lose a guy like Madsen, things change, and you become a different team. We worked a lot on specifically some of the things we needed to do offensively, and then just getting back to who we are defensively.” — Utah coach Craig Smith.
The fact that the sophomore was not wearing the boot Saturday night on the sidelines gave some hope to Ute fans that he might be ahead of schedule on the 4-6 weeks timetable given by team doctors 11 days ago for his return, but Smith said there is no significant news to report in that regard.
“I just don’t know,” he said, after giving some comments that seemed to indicate Utah is not expecting Madsen back before March, at the earliest.
What Smith does know is that the Utes (17-9, 10-5) have recovered reasonably well from the loss of their second-leading scorer and are still on track to finish in the top four in the league race and earn a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament, even if that has meant partially reinventing themselves on the offensive end of the court.
That was evident Saturday in front of 6,133 in Salt Lake City, as Utah got more balanced scoring than usual to hold off the Buffaloes (14-12, 6-9).
Branden Carlson and Marco Anthony scored 17 points apiece, while Ben Carlson had 10, Lazar Stefanovic added nine and, perhaps more importantly, freshmen Wilguens Exacte and Keba Keita combined to score 13 off the bench.
“I wouldn’t say (we are trying to) reinvent ourselves, but when you lose a guy like Madsen, things change, and you become a different team,” Smith said.
“We worked a lot on specifically some of the things we needed to do offensively, and then just getting back to who we are defensively.”
The Utes have been good defensively all season, and might be a bit better in that category without Madsen in the lineup, although the 6-foot-6 guard has improved a lot in that regard this season as well.
Stefanovic (6-foot-7) and the 6-foot-6 Exacte are better on-ball defenders, and allow the Utes to do more defensively than when Madsen was in the lineup.
“We were able to really guard,” Smith said of the win in which Utah held Colorado’s two leading scorers — Tristan da Silva and KJ Simpson — to a combined 20 points on a combined 8 of 25 shooting. “
Anthony and point guard Rollie Worster, who has also improved defensively, got the credit from Smith for making life difficult for da Silva and Simpson Saturday night.
Ben Carlson is averaging under five points a game, so getting 10 from the Wisconsin transfer was also big for the Utes against the Buffs.
Carlson scored 7, 11 and 10 points in the three games in Utah’s homestand and seems to be finding his rhythm and confidence, particularly from 3-point range.
He was 7 of 11 from deep during the homestand.
“I think the biggest thing for Ben (recently) is honestly he made up his mind that he is going to be a player,” Smith said.
“What I mean by that is he went into the gym, and he has been working his you know what off, on his own, getting shots up, getting repetitions and getting in the gym.”
The 6-foot-9 junior has been a solid rebounder and defender all season, but his offense has been lacking — until recently.
“His teammates have always believed in him. He had a pretty good summer. But for whatever reason it is starting to click,” Smith said. “… Now he has logged a lot of minutes, he has got chemistry with his teammates, he is playing with a lot of confidence, and it shows.”
Their confidence restored after those back-to-back losses to Oregon and Stanford, the Utes head back out on the road again this week.
They play at No. 4 Arizona (22-4, 11-4) on Thursday in Tucson, then travel to Tempe for a showdown with Arizona State on Saturday.
Arizona will want revenge after losing 81-66 to the Utes in SLC on Dec. 1, and redemption after getting upset by Stanford on Saturday.
The surprise loss to the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion snapped the Wildcats’ seven-game winning streak.
All four of Arizona’s losses have been to unranked teams.
“We know how good Arizona is and how tough that road trip is going to be,” Anthony said, “but right now we are just in the moment of celebrating this win a little bit, then coming in on Monday and really locking into the Arizona road trip we are about to take on.”
Runnin’ Utes on the air
Utah (17-9, 10-5) at Arizona (22-4, 11-4)
Thursday, 8 p.m. MST
At McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona
TV: Pac-12 Networks
Radio: ESPN 700