Stanford put last weekend behind them, and beat Utah 74-62 at Maples. Stanford’s Jones-Brink-Jump nucleus scored 63 points and gathered 27 rebounds, to go with 8 assists (other Cardinal made 4 field goals) and 5 blocks.
Utah attempted 26 threes, and made 5. The Utes’ 3FG% in their first 16 games was .352, which dropped to .341. (I thought Utah would need to make about 10 threes to win Friday; making an additional five would’ve been .385, a good night, and 15 more points would’ve meant a three-point win.)
What was I saying about Hannah Jump yesterday? The Cardinal need her to shoot well, and she scored 12 of her 13 points in the first quarter (which Stanford won 24-22).
Alissa Pili scored 25 for the Utes. There were some other Utes in attendance, I think.
Perhaps we agree that the bottom line for Utah this season is advancing further in either tournament. That would mean winning the Pac-12 tournament or reaching the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.
If so, we’ve reduced their season to a binary: advancing further, or not. It’s a difference of one game at the end: win or lose, yes or no.
When you reduce basketball to that win-or-lose, yes-or-no, it’s much less interesting to me, though all that really matters to the team are wins and losses, no matter how.
Here’s why I found the 2922 Utes lots more interesting than the 2023 Utes: Even though the 2023 team might ultimately surpass them in terms of tournament placement, the 2022 team employed guile, whereas the 2023 team is rather open book.
Chess and basketball have so much in common (which is why I’m writing this, after all), and at their cores, they are games of deception. In both games, the desirable move or possession is that which causes the opponent to want to be in two places at once. At chess, a double-threatening move does that. At basketball, fake left and go right.
The 2022 Utes’ offense had deception built in with its dribble handoff motion. It’s like the play action fakes in football — the defense can’t be certain of who has the ball until perhaps the offense has gained a step. They had the right personnel for it: Gylten, Kneepkens, Johnson, McQueen, Rees are savvy, mobile players.
The 2023 Utes give the ball to Alissa Pili and wait for something to happen. Standing around while the post rumbles around the basket was the prevalent offensive routine in 1990s NBA play, which was one reason I stopped watching the NBA.
Utah thinks that’s best for them when they have the ball, and as long as that wins games for them, they’ll persist. They recognize their low post force and employ it, which is better than pouring a fashionable offense into team chemistry that isn’t suited for it.
Coach Roberts learned that the hard way in 2009, when Vance Walberg’s dribble drive attack system was the height of fashion. Coach Calipari was very successful with it at UMass, and then everyone was doing it.
Roberts’ Pacific team then wasn’t fit for the Walberg system. They lost eight of their first nine, everyone was miserable, and they rebooted. Coach Roberts learned on the job not to cram square pegs into round holes. If she said discarding the dribble handoff sets wasn’t just for what Pili can do, but also for what they can no longer do in the absence of Dru Gylten, I’d buy that. Maybe wouldn’t like it, because I loved Dru, but I’d buy it.