The new-look Utah Utes have their first official game in the books.
Consider it a success overall, as the Runnin’ Utes ran away from visiting Alcorn State 100-59 on Monday night at the Huntsman Center in the season opener.
While the Braves weren’t expected to come in and steal a win in Salt Lake City, and Utah initially struggled to get some separation, the night ended with Utah showing a bit of chemistry that the program can build off of.
Here’s a few takeaways from the season-opening win:
The Madsen twins may be the most fun part of this team
Gabe Madsen has taken on the mantle as the Utes’ top player, and he delivered an effort that lived up to that expectation in the season opener.
He shot 8 of 12 from the field, including 6 of 10 from 3-point range, en route to scoring a game-high 27 points. That included 19 points before halftime, capped by a 3-pointer with two seconds left before the break off an assist from Mike Sharavjamts.
If there’s one part of his game that needed some work Monday, it was the fact Madsen turned the ball over four times.
Otherwise, it was a standout night for Madsen.
So, too, it was a night to remember for his twin brother, Mason Madsen.
The duo are playing together for the first time since the 2020-21 season when they were both at Cincinnati, and the whole twin telepathy thing was on display at times.
Mason Madsen, who transferred from Boston College this offseason, also had a solid night. He ended up with 15 points while shooting all nine of his field-goal attempts from 3-point range, making five.
“Those guys are weapons. You’ve really got to account for them,” Utah coach Craig Smith said of the twins.
Missing post men
Utah senior center Lawson Lovering wasn’t available for the season opener after injuring his ankle in the exhibition last week.
The Utes were also without fellow big men Zach Keller and Ibi Traore.
Instead, the Utes moved Jake Wahlin into the starting lineup and went with a starting five that included Miro Little, Gabe Madsen, Sharavjamts, Ezra Ausar and Wahlin.
Even true freshman Joul Karram played some minutes inside for Utah to help fill minutes in the post.
At least on this night, playing against an Alcorn State team that didn’t have anyone over 6-foot-8, the Utes were able to overcome the missing big men.
Will they be back any time soon? The first big challenge of the season comes on Nov. 17, when the Utes face Mississippi State in a neutral-site game. The Bulldogs were No. 32 in KenPom’s rankings coming into the season.
Smith gave a less-than-encouraging update on all three missing big men.
He called it a “wait and see” approach with Lovering: “We don’t know his timetable (for return).”
The coach also didn’t have an update on when Keller, a Wake Forest transfer, might be available.
For Traore, though, his season is over after he suffered a knee injury in practice last week.
“He’s just relentless with his mentality,” Smith said of Traore. “We’re going to miss him.”
Ausar, for his part, had a mostly solid night. He led all big men with 13 points, six rebounds and two steals, while also throwing down several impressive slam dunks. He continually showed he is going to be aggressive in getting to the hoop.
Part of that aggressiveness was reflected in his free-throw stat line. Ausar was a 65.3% free-throw shooter last year, and while he got to the line 12 times on Monday night, he only made seven of those. He airballed the back end of two free throws — both misses — late in the first half.
That was the weakest part of his otherwise solid night — Ausar started 1 of 6 at the free-throw line before hitting four straight to go 5 of 10 in the first half.
It did, unfortunately, hearken back to Utah’s struggles at the free-throw line last season. The Utes ended the night 17 of 25 from the free-throw line as a team.
There were A LOT of 3-point attempts from Utah
Utah relied heaving on its outside shooting in the win, making a school-record 19 on 38 attempts.
A lot of those attempts came over the first 15 minutes of the game, as 16 of the Utes’ first 17 shots came from beyond the arc. Utah made eight of those first 16 attempts.
Gabe Madsen was the obvious winner in the 3 department — making six — while Mason Madsen added five and Little, Sharavjamts and Keanu Dawes each had two.
“The synergy, obviously, of playing like, 10 years of basketball together, you can probably see it a little bit,” Gabe Madsen said, of playing alongside his brother again.
Spreading the love
Five Utes had three or more assists on the night and the team finished with 29 assists on 32 made field goals, to just 10 turnovers.
One of the prettiest plays of the evening came when Sharavjamts made a no-look pass to a cutting Gabe Madsen, and he put the slam down to give Utah a 61-35 lead early in the second half.
From Madsen to Ausar, and even Sharavjamts, there were several slams that showed off the athleticism this team has.
Utah’s winning defensive effort
The Utes held Alcorn State to 36.4% shooting on the evening, and that included a 35.7% effort in the second half.
Utah also had 10 steals and forced 14 turnovers, turning those into 16 points.
That helped the Utes pull away, beginning last in the first half and extending into the second half.
An area for improvement
Both Smith and Wahlin pointed to rebounding as a place where they thought the Utes could have done better.
Utah ended up outrebounding Alcorn State 36-30, though the visitors had a 14-12 edge on the offensive end.
The Utes had a narrow 19-16 advantage in second-chance points against a team they had a clear size advantage on.
“I think the biggest thing is rebounding, preventing them from getting on the offensive boards a little bit,” Wahlin said. “And like Coach Smith always says to us, gang rebounding everyone. It takes five guys to go and get that board. So rebounding, guarding the ball. You know, it’s a turf war. You gotta own your ground that you stand on.”
One final thought: There’s some talent on this roster … how will it all come together?
With so many new faces, it’s going to take some time for this to look more like a finished product. Not everything was perfect on Monday night, and it shouldn’t have been.
This team is still getting to know each other, and Craig Smith even talked before the season how the coaching staff has had to slow down the process as this team learns more about each other.
That being said, there were moments that should have Utah fans looking forward to seeing how this team can turn out, even in a season where the Utes are predicted to finish last in the Big 12.
The impact that Ausar, Sharavjamts and Mason Madsen are going to have on this team has already been talked about at length.
In addition to those three, Dawes had a few athletic moments, including an impressive blocked shot in the second half, while Little showed off excellent floor awareness while finishing with a team-high seven assists.
Time will tell if the Utes can build this collection of players into a group that can compete in the Big 12.
“There’s certainly a long way to grow with this group, but I thought we really settled in,” Smith said of the team’s first-game effort. “You know, when you have nine new guys it doesn’t always just happen as quick as you want it to happen.”