Utah basketball, Larry Krystkowiak hoping for some ‘May Madness’

Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak celebrates after the teams victory over California during an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) | AP

SALT LAKE CITY — Although the University of Utah college football season has officially been canceled this fall by the Pac-12 Conference, the Utah men’s basketball team is hopeful that it can get a season in with perhaps a little “May Madness” at the end.

Ute coach Larry Krystkowiak talked extensively about how his team is handling the coronavirus and the possibilities for a season that could run from January to May in an interview on ESPN 700 Friday afternoon.

“Maybe it’s May Madness,” said Krystkowiak, who cited a statement NCAA president Mark Emmert made Thursday about the possibility of playing a 32-team NCAA basketball tournament in a “bubble.”

“Maybe we’ll start in January and finish in May and all conference play gets moved back. We’re one of the first ones to make a decision of this magnitude as a league and we’ll see what happens with the rest of the country. That’s our hope that maybe we can get whole season in and just back it up a couple of months.”

Krystkowiak has been one of two Pac-12 coaches on a 35-person committee of mostly medical professionals who have been meeting to discuss various scenarios for playing later this year.

“Our medical team in the Pac-12 has been unbelievable — they would win any championship you could create,” he said. “Their projections are that these numbers are supposed to diminish by November. So instead of making a mistake (by starting the season in November), we’re going to have six to eight weeks of practice to really get dialed in and be ready to tee it up when hopefully the worst of this is behind us on Jan. 1.”

Krystkowiak, whose team was the second-youngest among 353 Division I squads last season, said he has most of his group back in Salt Lake City for workouts. They were together for 90 minutes Friday and he’s pleased with what he’s been seeing.

“I like where we are. I’m looking at a lot of guys I’m very familiar with, unlike a year ago,” he said. “We’re in a pretty positive situation with a strong nucleus of our guys.”

The only two that are missing are Mikael Jantunen, the 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Finland, and Pelle Larsson, a 6-foot-5 freshman, who is coming from Sweden.

Jantunen is due to arrive Sunday, while Larsson won’t be able to get to Utah until the first week of September because of visa difficulties.

As for his returning players, Krystkowiak said Timmy Allen “has worked as hard as anybody” during the offseason and that Rylan Jones has put on 15 pounds and “looks like a different person.”

He said center Branden Carlson “still needs to put meat on,” backup center Lahat Thioune is “is close to 240 pounds” and appears “what a five-man should look like,” and that Brendan Wenzel “looks like a tight end.”

“I’ve been super pleased,” he said. “We’ve got our whole team intact and it’s an unbelievable group.”

Krystkowiak also said his players have done a good job of handling the disruption that the COVID-19 virus has caused and he feels positive they’ll get through it.

“It’s been a crazy five or six months for all of us,” he said. “This is going to end at some point and there is going to be a percentage of the population that’s going to come out the other end wounded and not able to recover, and I feel for those people. But whatever we’re able to be in control of, let’s not let that be our demise. There’s going to be a percentage of the population that’s going to come back, and we want to be in that category and that’s where our focus is.”

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