Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
We'll see. Utah had only one senior this year, and he was little used. Its main players were sophomore's and freshmen. They have a freshman point guard from So. Cal. who was a top 100 prospect. It isn't uncommon for a team like this to come off of a losing season and win 25+. Majerus' first season after Archibald was fired is a case in point. He won 31 I think.
Another reason some people hypothesize this young Ute team has talent is that it is a good shooting team and has demonstrated the ability to light up the scoreboard, which most informed people agree takes athleticism and basketball skills.
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The reason Utah scores is they have a good player in the middle that commands a double team. Green would be worthless without Nevill. This year's Utah team had athleticsim on the level of BYU 1-26 team, as evidenced by allowing MWC opponents to shoot over 50% from the field on average.
While Utah is young, they have a big problem in that 2 of the primary building blocks, Green and Neville, are remarkably slow and unathletic. So unless the other 3 positions are played by players with exceptional athletic ability, the defense will be medicore to bad, and the wins won't go up much. I have no idea if Utah has athletic players coming in for next year, but I wouldn't count on any from this year's team.
Utah actually played decent offense this year, so I don't think you can expect much improvement on that side. Things will get a little sharper, but not enough to overcome bad defense.