The 2020-21 men’s basketball season is quickly becoming one of blown opportunities for the Utah Utes, and no player on coach Larry Krystkowiak’s squad is more aware of that than junior forward Timmy Allen.
Eight days ago, Utah was 1-2 in Pac-12 play and looking at a chance to jump back into the contention in the league race with four straight home games, all winnable considering the league doesn’t have any truly outstanding teams. After walloping Washington in early December, the Utes played reasonably well in road losses at UCLA and USC.
It figured that they could make some hay at home, even if they were playing four games in a week.
Didn’t happen, and now questions are again popping up about the program’s progress in Krystkowiak’s 10th season. Some things never seem to change.
“We can’t take anything lightly. We can’t get complacent, and we can’t get comfortable. We are not good enough to afford to do that, and it really shows.” — Utah forward Timmy Allen.
Going 1-3 against the likes of Oregon, Colorado, Stanford and Cal, especially when they had halftime leads of nine points or more in all four games is inexcusable, Allen said Saturday night after the Utes lost 72-63 to easily the weakest team of the four, Cal.
“We can’t take anything lightly,” Allen said after scoring 26 points but committing seven turnovers. “We can’t get complacent, and we can’t get comfortable. We are not good enough to afford to do that, and it really shows.”
Allen and Krystkowiak both said the Utes (5-6, 2-5 Pac-12) didn’t take a step backward, and Krystkowiak took umbrage when he was asked if that’s what the loss to a Cal team that was No. 159 in KenPom.com before the game (No. 146 after) could be labeled.
“I am not taking anything away from Cal, but let’s be realistic about what we are talking about. Talking about taking steps back? And energy of our guys? I am going to step up and stand up for them, because it is not normal (playing four games in a week),” Krystkowiak said via Zoom after the loss, his voice rising. “We know — I already mentioned to start with — what we need to work on, what we need to fix.”
What everybody can agree on is that the to-do list is lengthy.
Utah, now in ninth place in the Pac-12 standings, turns its attention to the Washington road trip knowing it has little margin for error, regardless of the caliber of its competition. The Utes play at eighth-place Washington State (9-4, 2-4) on Thursday and last-place Washington (1-11, 0-7) on Saturday.
As most Ute fans know by now, Utah hasn’t won a conference game on the road since Feb. 23, 2019, at Washington State.
Beside the need to clean up turnovers, which hasn’t been a problem outside the Oregon and Cal games, Allen pointed to rebounding as Utah’s biggest Achilles’ heel.
“Offensive and defensive (rebounding),” he said. “And we need to play without fouling. I think (the Bears) were into the bonus halfway through the second half. We just gotta be better as a team. We can’t be on a string. We can’t be stagnant.”
Against Cal, the Utes found another way to lose — lackluster defense in the second half. Freshman guard Pelle Larsson said when the turnovers and “a couple bad plays” on offense happened, the Utes let it affect their defense.
“I think that is a big part of why we came out flat in the second half,” he said.
The sad news for the Utes is that with a break here or there, they could have gone 4-0 on the homestand and been 5-2 in league play. Instead, they are facing questions about consistency and progress.
And it is apparent their coach is growing tired of answering them.
“It is not an indictment on anybody, whether they had enough energy or played hard enough, or made steps forward or backwards,” Krystkowiak said, continuing his theme of defending his worn-out team. “ It is college basketball right now. … There are all those lessons. We just learned a bunch of lessons. And that’s what we need to keep working on as a team.”
So it will stop squandering its limited number of opportunities.