Scouting Utah with a little help from our friends

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — Today we introduce what we hope will be a regular — and informative — feature leading up to game days. It’s an interview with the beat writer who covers WSU’s next opponent. Read on.

…

We simply don’t have time for a morning post today — with an 8:30 a.m. flight out of Spokane, this entry was written last night and scheduled to post during my drive from Pullman to the airport — but what we do have is a question-and-answer session with Bill Oram, who covers Utah basketball for the Salt Lake Tribune. He was kind enough to provide us with some insight into what to expect from the Utes in tonight’s game. (The expectation in a nutshell: not a whole heck of a lot.)

You can read his blog here , and follow him on Twitter here .

On to the questions, to which Bill provided some very detailed and much-appreciated responses …

…

1. Most Pac-12 fans think of Utah and remember the glory days — Rick Majerus, Andre Miller, Keith Van Horn. How did this once-proud program wind up in such poor shape?

Oram: “Is that how most Pac-12 fans think of the Utes? That’s something I’ve wondered, because those days seem so long ago and so out of context for what we’re dealing with right now. Basically, the program has steadily declined since the end of the Majerus days. There are people who have been here longer than I that could point to specific examples of Majerus bringing in weaker recruits toward the end of his tenure. But things weren’t all bad post-Majerus. Ray Giacoletti replaced Majerus and got the Utes to a Sweet 16 with Andrew Bogut. Jim Boylen, who came on after Giacoletti was fired, went to the NCAAs his first year and was considered a top target of other major programs amid coaching searches. The one thing you can point to at Utah over the last decade is the lack of stability and coaches’ inability to really build a program. Giacoletti was hired in 2004 and lasted three seasons. Boylen came on, but was gone after four. I’m not sure how a program gets good as fast as perhaps administrators and others with oversight of power may have wanted. Giacoletti and Boylen both left here disgruntled, thinking they would have more time to build their programs. Now, as for how we got here this year it’s pretty simple: A bunch of guys who were loyal to Boylen took off when he got the axe. The Utes lost eight players to transfers between last season and this one, including leading scorer Will Clyburn (who’s at Iowa State). It left Larry Krystkowiak with almost an empty roster that needed filling — in April. The guys he found were borderline D1 players who, in all likelihood, would spend their first season elsewhere either redshirting or at the end of a bench. Instead, here they’re starters.”

2. Just because a team is in rebuilding mode doesn’t mean that it’s in dire straits. Has coach Larry Krystkowiak had a hard time getting guys to buy in, or has the slow start simply been a product of lack of talent and execution? Are the losses starting to wear on the players?

Oram: “Well, I would caution against saying the Utes are merely “rebuilding.” This is an all-time collapse for a program. You can really only find a few times in the history of big-time college basketball where a program has been this bad. Ken Pomeroy (kenpom.com) has said that these Utes could threaten to go down as the worst major-conference team in the history of basketball. Chew on that for a minute. I would generally lean toward lack of talent and execution, but there have been other issues. Krystkowiak suspended starting point guard Josh “Jiggy” Watkins in the preseason after a string of maturity issues (falling asleep in class, showing up late for practice, etc.) and the coach lit into his team after losing to Colorado for a number of players being late to various events on that road trip. Krystkowiak wants to hold his guys accountable, but you really have a group of guys who, it doesn’t seem, are adjusting well to the rigors and expectations of a major program. As for whether the losses are “wearing” on the players. Of course… These guys have lost to everyone they’ve played this season except Portland and Idaho State. Some of the guys are better about putting on good faces, but you really see the heart of it after a big loss, like at Colorado. But I don’t think it’s affecting the way they approach practices, if that makes sense. That, again, is something Krystkowiak wouldn’t tolerate.”

3. Utah has one of the worst offenses, statistically, in all of Division-1. What’s the problem been this season? Poor shooting? Turnovers? Failure to run the offense properly? All of the above?

Oram: “I think at various points this season you could say each one of those things has been at issue. Early it was turnovers, to be sure. But they really, really can not make shots. The Utes were 5-of-25 from the field in the first half against Colorado. I watched Javon Dawson air ball a jumper from four-feet out, Watkins hit the side of the backboard with a baseline shot and Dijon Farr rimcheck himself on the front iron. Utah shot 22.6 percent from the field against the Buffs. It was the second time the Utes have shot in the 20s this season.”

4. Is there anything the Utes do that might give WSU trouble?

Oram: “I think the Utes, actually, can be OK defensively. They held Colorado to 27 first-half points, 19 with about four-minutes left. That sounds like a win — except the Utes were so abysmal offensively. Ken Bone spoke about it this week, the Utes do an OK job of mixing up defenses. Problem is, they’ve been a disaster about closing out, and on the first play of the game in Boulder, Spencer Dinwiddie got an open 3 because Cedric Martin ran to the wrong side of the floor in the zone. Things like that want me to give you a one-word answer to that question: No.”

5. What player or aspect of WSU’s team do you think could be particularly problematic for Utah to deal with?

Oram: “This is probably an obvious answer, but Brock Motum. The Utes are incredibly thin in the post and starting center Jason Washburn isn’t especially tough to begin with. The one other time the Utes faced a really polished big man this season, BYU’s Noah Hartsock went off for 19 points and 7 boards (a performance that was pretty dominant in an ugly, 61-42 game). If Washburn’s not in the game, the Utes really have no way to defend a strong and agressive 6-10 player. A lot of threes have been playing four for the Utes, and freshman Blake WIlkinson (6-foot-6) has gone from a starter to rarely playing. Dawson is a guy who can throw his weight around, but he’s still only about 6-foot-5.”

Thanks again to Mr. Oram. We’ll check in from Salt Lake at some point before the game.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com . Twitter: @ChristianCaple