For over a month, the Utah men’s basketball team didn’t taste defeat as the Runnin’ Utes won eight straight from the week after Thanksgiving through the end of the 2023 calendar year.
Last week, though, things got a bit off-kilter for the Utes on a typically difficult swing through Arizona, as Utah lost games at Arizona State and No. 10 Arizona.
To get things right this week, the Utes will need to beat a program, UCLA, that’s currently on a seven-game winning streak against Utah.
“We haven’t had much success against UCLA, but we got to get better, like our team has to get better,” Utah coach Craig Smith said. “We got exposed with some things this (past) weekend and we got to get them corrected in a hurry.”
This isn’t the Bruins of the last few years, though.
UCLA, which was picked to finish third in the league’s preseason media poll, is going through a youth movement — the Bruins have seven true freshmen, one redshirt freshman, three true sophomores and one redshirt sophomore on their roster.
They also sit at 6-9 on the season and 1-3 in Pac-12 play, after having lost seven of its past eight games.
While Utah is trying to get back to the level of play it had shown prior to last week’s road trip, UCLA is trying to work its way out of its worst stretch under fifth-year coach Mike Cronin.
That included a humbling 9-point loss to league doormat California last Saturday. That result caused Cronin to skip his usual postgame media responsibilities, instead staying in the locker room with his team to address what he perceived as an extreme lack of hustle against the Golden Bears.
“I didn’t think it was there,” Cronin said Tuesday, according to The Los Angeles Times. “That was alarming to me, so I felt I needed to address it immediately because your culture is the most important thing. … At that time, they needed to see that I wasn’t concerned about anything else but the situation.”
Defense could be the catalyst in Thursday’s matchup at the Huntsman Center (7 p.m. MST, ESPN2).
Utah coach Craig Smith called some of the Utes’ play against ASU and Arizona “glaringly bad.”
Over the past three games, Utah has seen one of its top post players pick up two early fouls — against Washington and Arizona, it was Lawson Lovering, and against Arizona State, it was Keba Keita.
That forced Utah to deal with tough stretches in each contest where the opposition set the physical tone inside, though against the Huskies, the Utes rallied in the second half.
“There’s a lot of things you’ve got to look at — how are you getting the fouls, and sometimes you’re overzealous with things. Sometimes you’re getting them because you’re out of position. Sometimes you lose discipline,” Smith said.
“We’ve got to look at those things, and then we as coaches have got to look at it. Are we not calling enough fouls in practice? Because we play a lot live in practice. Like, are we missing that? ... It’s got to be a coaching emphasis as well. But that hurts us, gets you on the defensive instead of playing super aggressive.”
In the Arizona game, that was compounded by Keita leaving with an injury after playing just four minutes — when he met with the media Tuesday, the coach wasn’t sure whether Keita would play against the Bruins, though “it’s gotten better every day.”
“I can’t say, ‘oh, he’s definitely going to play.’ I can’t say, he’s definitely not going to play. We’re going to find out a lot more as we go through practice today and tomorrow,” Smith said.
UCLA is coming into the game as one of the Pac-12’s worst offensive teams — the Bruins average a league-worst 65.6 points per game while shooting 41.6% from the field and 29% from 3-point range. Both of those percentages are last in the Pac-12.
Utah’s loss to ASU last week, though, served as a reminder to not get overconfident.
The Sun Devils, who now sit at 4-0 in league action, entered their game against Utah with one of the Pac-12’s worst scoring and shooting offenses, and Arizona State outperformed those offensive numbers, shooting 50% from the field while making 12 3-pointers, nearly double their 6.5 average.
Playing fundamental defense against UCLA will be a big factor for Utah.
That’s especially important, considering UCLA doesn’t give up a lot defensively.
The Bruins lead the Pac-12 in scoring defense (62.2 points per game) and field goal percentage defense (39.1%) and are second in 3-point percentage defense (31.8%).
“They have some young guys that just haven’t had a ton of playing experience, but you can see them getting better,” Smith said. “I expect them to be really ready to go, super hungry to compete.”
For Utah, a strong defensive effort has often led to offensive opportunities in transition, though that was mostly absent last week. ASU and Arizona combined to outscore Utah 38-13 in fast break points.
The Utes will need a better all-around effort against UCLA, particularly with the latest star big man they’ll face.
Bruins sophomore center Adem Bona anchors the team — the 6-foot-10 post player is averaging 12.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.
“He is unbelievable, what he can do on both ends of the floor. He’s a complete game-changer defensively,” Smith said of Bona.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I don’t ever recall seeing a guy with his size, his length and his strength that can move like he does and it just allows them to have elite rim protection.”
Freshman guard Sebastian Mack is averaging a team-best 14.3 points while 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game — he has twice been named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.
Utah, too, needs to avoid getting complacent, which seemed to strike them, particularly against Arizona State, last week in the their two losses.
“You’re always trying to keep your guys on edge and you’re always trying to keep your guys sharp,” Smith said.
“We had a great stretch there late November, December, winning eight in a row and sometime there becomes some slippage. And certainly we have to tighten some things up here.”