From shooting woes to defensive lapses to turnover issues, it’s been a rough start to Big 12 play for the Utah men’s basketball team.
The Runnin’ Utes’ inconsistencies have them sitting at 0-3 in conference action and losing by a league-high average of 25.3 points per game.
That puts Utah in a precarious position as one of three still-winless teams in conference action heading into its matchup Saturday against Oklahoma State (5 p.m. MST, ESPN+) at the Huntsman Center.
While each of Utah’s first three Big 12 opponents are in the top 25 of the NCAA’s NET rankings, Oklahoma State (9-5, 1-2 Big 12) is No. 106.
The Utes, by comparison, are No. 84.
This would classify as a Quad 3 win for Utah, but stopping a four-game losing streak that extends back to the Utes’ nonconference finale against Iowa is more of a priority for Utah (8-6, 0-3 Big 12).
What Utah coach Craig Smith is looking for is consistency across the board from his team, something that’s eluded the Utes when they’ve played Quad 1 or Quad 2 opponents.
Utah is 0-6 in games against teams that currently classify as Quad 1 or Quad 2 opponents, while it is 8-0 against Quad 4 teams.
To finally start having some success in their first season in the Big 12, the Utes will need to start performing better — whether in terms of improved efficiency on offense and defense or finding personnel groupings that work well together — to make an impact in league play.
“That’s all I think about right now. You’re always, ‘How can you make your team better?’ I think about personnel all the time and typically I do that as a head coach — who should be playing more, who maybe should be playing less, who brings this to the table? We need more consistency up and down our roster, quite frankly,” Smith said.
“... And so, just trying to get consistency to know who exactly we should be playing the bulk of these minutes, and it can be tough. You’ve got to demonstrate time and time again competitive greatness, and so we’ve got to see that.”
Smith said he liked the physicality he saw out of his team in its most recent outing — Tuesday’s loss to No. 3 Iowa State — even if the Cyclones wore down the Utes over the final 10-plus minutes and won by 23.
That came after a disheartening 28-point loss to Texas Tech in Utah’s Big 12 home opener.
“I thought we displayed a ton of physicality and aggression. I love how we got to the offensive glass. You get those because you go consistently, and our effort was really, really good that way,” said Smith, whose team had 16 offensive rebounds go for nine second-chance points against Iowa State.
“I thought it was the best game that we’ve had guarding what we call guarding personnel — this guy does this really well, this guy does that really well, and then we try to guard those guys accordingly, and I thought we did a really good job with that.”
One of the major struggles for Utah early in Big 12 play has been turnovers. The Utes had 17 in their conference opener at Baylor, then 18 in the loss at Iowa State.
Oklahoma State, like the Bears and Cyclones, is a top 40 team in turnovers forced — the Cowboys are 29th nationally in turnovers forced, averaging 15.71 per game.
In Oklahoma State’s 79-66 win over Kansas State on Tuesday, the Cowboys forced 19 turnovers and turned those into 31 points, nearly 40% of their points.
For Utah, those 18 turnovers against Iowa State turned into 25 points for the Cyclones.
“Obviously, at the end of the day, the biggest thing was, it was turnovers and a little bit of our shot selection with a couple guys, but the turnovers were the biggest thing. I think our turnovers led to 25 points, direct points for them. Really, the main way they scored was off of our turnovers,” Smith said.
Oklahoma State, in its first season under coach Steve Lutz, is one of the lowest-scoring teams in the Big 12. The Cowboys are averaging 74.6 points per game and just 58.7 in league play.
Defensively, Oklahoma State is giving up 72.6 points per contest.
Fifth-year forward Abou Ousmane, who stands 6-foot-10, is the team’s leading scorer. He is averaging 12.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game while shooting 54.7% from the field.
Forward Marchelus Avery, who is 6-foot-8 and comes off the bench, also averages double-figures at 12.6 while adding 5.3 rebounds per game.
Avery leads the Cowboys with 27 made 3-pointers, and he shoots 37.5% from beyond the arc.
“Frenetic. They fly around,” Smith said of what he sees in Oklahoma State. “They play 10 guys. They are constantly subbing guys in. They play really, really hard. They’re physical. They create a lot of turnovers.”
After appearing a bit forlorn following Utah’s loss to Texas Tech last weekend, Smith added this week, “I liked the growth that we had from Texas Tech to the Iowa State game, and now we’ve got to keep pushing that forward.”
Can Utah build off that and earn its first Big 12 win?
Both ESPN and KenPom metrics are giving Utah their best odds for a Big 12 Conference victory this season in Saturday’s matchup. ESPN’s Analytics gives the Utes a 79.4% chance of winning, while KenPom’s odds come in at 72%.
Turnovers, especially, will be something the Utes need to keep a handle on Saturday when Oklahoma State comes to town.
“What’s becoming crystal clear in the Big 12 is this league is different than the Pac-12, no doubt about it, especially the first three teams that we’ve seen,” Smith said.
“It’s very athletic on the perimeter and teams really get into you and we’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the ball and valuing the ball. We’ve had three Big 12 games. Now, we did a good job against Texas Tech — they also create a lot of turnovers — but two to three games we have not and so we have to clean that up.”
Smith, even with the inconsistencies that he’s seeing right now, commended his roster for having “enough of those guys” being willing to show a competitive fight and willingness to improve their mental fortitude.
“The beauty of this thing is you get 20 games in 10 weeks with zero breaks, so you really don’t have a choice. Like, there is no choice, right?” Smith said. “And as a coach, if you see guys that are whatever mindset they are, obviously you’ve got to coach them up and try to make them better.
“But at the same time, there’s certain guys that are fighters. There’s naturally fighters, and they’re going to compete no matter what, when the chips are down or when you’re ahead, and we definitely have enough of those guys on this roster.”