Utes play hard and together, but need to play smarter says coach Larry Krystkowiak

Utah Utes head coach Larry Krystkowiak reacts to a referee as Utah and Oregon play in an NCAA basketball game at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020. Oregon won 69-64. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Inside the Utah basketball facility, large banners display the three tenets of Ute basketball, to play hard, play together and play smart.

Coach Larry Krystkowiak says his young team — the second youngest in Division I basketball — has no problem with the first two, but struggles with the third.

The Utes are off to a better-than-expected 10-4 record over the first two months of the season and a 1-1 record after the opening homestand of the Pac-12 season against two good opponents can be considered a positive.

The Utes knocked off a 10-2 Oregon State team by 12 points Thursday night, but didn’t quite have enough to defeat No. 4-ranked Oregon Saturday in falling by five points.

Krystkowiak feels his team could have upset the Ducks Saturday by playing a little smarter and following the game plan a little better.

“Nobody ever questions how hard we play and nobody’s going to question that we play together,” he said. “It’s the smart part. It takes all those components and I think our guys are going to wise up. It takes a little time to get smart. You’ve got to go through that process.”

Krystkowiak hasn’t harped on it this season, but he mentioned it Saturday, how his team has the second-youngest team in America with its 11 freshmen and four sophomores.

“A lot of these guys haven’t experienced anything like this,” he said. “The only way to gain experience is to go through experiences like that. I give them a lot of credit to be able to stay in the moment of the game.”

The Ute coach said basketball is a “game of mistakes,” and that the key is committing as few as possible. He could think of “10 or 12” mental errors his team made, whether it was leaving a 3-point shooter open or guarding a player on the wrong side or not fouling Oregon’s best player, Payton Pritchard, in the final seconds of the first half when the Utes had fouls to give. Instead Pritchard drove the length of the court for a layup.

“This isn’t a perfect game,” Krystkowiak said. “I make mistakes, players make mistakes, referees make mistakes. But instead of making 12 of them, how about if we make eight of them or six of them? We can’t have the volume we had today.”

One thing about Saturday’s game that Krystkowiak was thrilled about was the lack of turnovers. A year earlier against the Ducks, the Utes had 17 turnovers in a 78-72 home loss.

In Saturday’s game, the Utes finished with a season-low seven turnovers against the Ducks, who are known for their defensive pressure.

“Oregon’s always been a problem for us with turnovers and if you would have told me we’d only turn it over seven times, I would have definitely hit the ‘Deal’ button,” Krystkowiak said.

But the turnovers were offset by the poor field goal shooting (35.6%) and poor free throw shooting (65.0%) as well as a rebounding deficit of 41-36.

Krystkowiak also acknowledged that his team needs more scoring than from just sophomores Both Gach and Timmy Allen, who finished with 24 and 19, respectively, Saturday and are accounting for nearly half of Utah’s points per game this season (34 of 78).

“We can’t saddle up two guys and expect them ... there’s five guys out there, it’s the essence of the team,” said Krystkowiak. “You’ve got to have multiple guys play well, not two, We need more of a supporting cast.”

Starting forward Riley Battin went 0 for 5 Saturday and just 2 for 8 against Oregon State, while starting center Branden Carlson has scored just four points in the last four games combined. Freshman guard Rylan Jones is averaging 10.9 on the year, but only scored six on Saturday.

The Utes, who recently came off an 11-day break between their last nonconference game against San Diego State and the Oregon State game, will now have seven days until their next game at Colorado Sunday afternoon. They will have road games at Arizona and Arizona State before returning home to play Washington Jan. 23.

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