UTES ON THE GROUND

Drone On:  UCLA overthrows Utah 76-49, without breaking a sweat

The Utes of ill-repute need new recruits, or they mey never taste the fruits of victory again.

After UCLA’s 76-49 total annihilation of Utah on Thursday night, the only remaining question is, how did Utah win two Pac-12 games?  UCLA started slowly, struggling to acheive an 11-11 tie, then asserted themselves to build a 15-point lead by Halftime. Utah never threatened after that, as the Bruins extended the lead to 36 before finally settling for a somewhat-boring 27-point win.

No Bruin played over 32 minutes, as Ben Howland cleared the bench for the final few minutes.  Because the game wasn’t close, a lot of playing time was shared with reserves, so no individual Bruin achieved any personal stats worth relaying here.  The important stats were that the Bruins had only 2 Turnovers in the entire 1st Half, and that they dominated the shooting percentage battle.  The Bruins played unselfish team ball, but the REAL reason for their success was the lack of resistance from the Utes.  The Utah Defense applied no pressure, and allowed the Bruins to do whatever they wanted, inside and out.  On every possession, the Bruins seemed to have multiple options for uncontested, high-percentage shots, including Josh Smith having his way with the Utes in the Paint.

If the Bruins come out of this game excited and overconfident going into their match-up with Colorado on Saturday night, then they need to watch a tape of the game, because the team they just pounded was so bad, that even lowly usc should be favored over them this weekend.  On the other hand, it’s a good sign that the Bruins can hit their shots when they aren’t being guarded.  Maybe I won’t be so guarded in my enthusiasm if the Bruins handle the Buffaloes on Saturday night to climb over .500 in Conference play.