February was supposed to be the month that coach Craig Smith’s new and improved Runnin’ Utes put an exclamation mark on what already has to be considered a successful season.
Picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, the Utes rolled into the month in the top four of the league standings, without any damaging Quad 3 or Quad 4 losses, and with plenty of mojo.
“Gabe (Madsen) is a good player, but that is why you have a team. You gotta build a team, and guys gotta be ready, and it is a little bit different because a lot of the things that we do go through him. But that’s just part of sports.” — Utah coach Craig Smith
Then Thursday night happened at the Huntsman Center. The 78-72 loss to Stanford can easily be categorized as the Utes’ most damaging and disappointing setback of the regular season, which is roughly three-fourths over.
An hour or so before the game the athletic department announced in a rare, but refreshingly transparent news release, that second-leading scorer and top 3-point shooter Gabe Madsen (11.7 points per game) will be out 4-6 weeks with a lower leg injury.
Then the Utes added insult to injury, losing a game they were favored to win by eight points to an opponent with a NET ranking of 120.
“Gabe has been a very good player for us,” Smith said, noting how opponents focus their defensive game plans on two Utes — Madsen and leading scorer Branden Carlson, a likely first-team All-Pac-12 performer. “He does so many things for our team that helps make everybody better.”
The Utes played as poor of a first half as they have at home all season, for reasons Smith had a hard time explaining in his postgame session with reporters.
They turned the ball over on three of their first seven possessions, threw up ill-advised 3-point attempts, let Stanford’s best player, Spencer Jones, get going early and even fouled a 3-point shooter with .4 seconds remaining in the first half.
When the dust had cleared and a late-arriving crowd — 6 p.m. weeknight tips are killers — had finally settled in, Stanford had a 46-31 halftime lead and the Utes looked defeated.
Credit the Utes for never quitting and making things interesting in the second half, but what grew to a 17-point deficit and what Smith called “just a potpourri of everything” proved too much to overcome. Utah’s lack of depth was exposed, among other issues.
Senior guard Bostyn Holt (lower leg injury) was also unavailable, meaning Utah had only 10 scholarship players available because coaches sat on an open scholarship entering the season — for the second straight season. Food for thought: Did the coaching staff put too much stock into BYU transfer Gavin Baxter becoming a key part of the rotation?
Baxter retired from basketball on Dec. 8, citing lingering injuries that made it impossible to return to form.
Lazar Stefanovic started and played one of his better games as a Ute, scoring a career-high 26 points. Rollie Worster was again in triple-double range — 10 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. But Madsen’s absence was noticeable.
More food for thought: Why hasn’t the other transfer from Cincinnati — point guard Mike Saunders Jr. — been able to work his way into the rotation? Smith has hinted that Saunders hasn’t practiced well, and left it at that.
Also, Stefanovic, Madsen, Worster and freshman Wil Exacte have been solid, leaving few minutes for Saunders or freshman Tarlac, who had three fouls in 3:28 of action Thursday.
“I mean, (Madsen) is a really important key to our team. He spaces the floor great. He has a great shot. It is hard without him. We knew it was going to be hard. We knew the guys need to step up,” Stefanovic said. “It shouldn’t affect you emotionally really too much. You gotta get ready.
“Like, I don’t want to use that as an excuse for not coming out ready and being down 15 in the first half,” Stefanovic continued. “He is important for us. Hopefully he is going to be back soon. But it shouldn’t be an excuse for going down like that.”
When will Madsen return? The Cincinnati transfer had a protective boot on his right foot Thursday night. The Pac-12 tournament is roughly five weeks away, beginning March 8 in Las Vegas, so that seems like a reasonable goal.
“We didn’t know for sure until Wednesday that he wasn’t going to play … after he got his results, his follow-up results back,” Smith said. “But (teammates) knew. I think they had a pretty good idea that odds were he wasn’t going to play.”
Smith said injuries are part of sports — referencing the San Francisco 49ers having to use a fourth-string quarterback in the NFC championship game last Sunday.
“Gabe is a good player, but that is why you have a team. You gotta build a team, and guys gotta be ready, and it is a little bit different because a lot of the things that we do go through him. But that’s just part of sports,” Smith said. “You gotta be able to figure it out, and you gotta have enough depth to make up for that.”
The Utes have an extra day to rebound, because their next game is Sunday at 4 p.m. in the Huntsman Center against last-place California (2-9, 3-19).
Cal has lost six straight games since knocking off Stanford 92-70 in Berkeley on Jan. 6. One of those losses was 75-46 to the Cardinal last week.
While Utah was getting upset by Stanford on Thursday, Cal was losing 59-46 to Colorado in Boulder. Cal led 27-24 at halftime, but ran out of offense in the second half while the Buffs were scoring 35 points.
Six-foot-9 senior Kuany Kuany was the only Golden Bear in double figures, registering 10 points
The Bears played without leading scorer Devin Askew — out for the season with a sports hernia — and DeJuan Clayton, who was ill.
