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SALT LAKE CITY — From the beginning of the week, something was off for the University of Utah basketball team in its preparation for the Oregon Ducks.
Maybe it was the hangover from the firestorm caused by the University and head coach Larry Krystkowiak defending its decision to pause the annual rivalry game against BYU next year, or maybe there was a sense of complacency from getting the first win of conference play against Colorado last week.
Whatever the reason, the less-than-productive week spilled over into Thursday night's game against Oregon as the Ducks delivered a devastating blow to the Utes, beating Utah 77-59. The program now looks to climb out of a 1-3 conference record deficit in its hopes of staying relevant in the conference title race and a potential return to the NCAA Tournament.
"I feel like we didn't have that good of a week in terms of practice," senior guard Brandon Taylor said following Utah's loss. "As a team, you can't expect to not turn it on in practice and then automatically then turn it on against Oregon in a game. That doesn't work like that."
Against Oregon, Utah lacked a sense of urgency as the team stumbled over itself in an effort to generate any form of rhythm or momentum in an important conference battle at home. Krystkowiak, though, said much of the effort in Thursday's game was a direct result of the team's lackluster week of practice.
"It's been a marginal week, truth be known, practice-wise for us," Krystkowiak said. "We had a hard time, and I think we got a little excited about the Colorado win; that's on me as a coach. It was a little bit like pulling teeth this week, and I thought there was a correlation in how our practices led into the result in the game."
Woven into the already difficult start to the week was an ankle injury sustained by sophomore center Jakob Poeltl in practice Tuesday. Krystkowiak said the team already didn't have a great practice Monday, but that the serious nature of Poeltl's injury left the team in somewhat of a rut leading up to the Oregon game not knowing whether its star center would be good to play.
"It threw us a curveball. It wasn't a normal week," Krystkowiak said. "I think a lot of us were hoping he could get better but not sure he could get better. That may have affected our practice. I know it affected me when he went down on Tuesday. I'd be lying if I said it didn't."
Although a built-in excuse to account for the poor showing Thursday, Krystkowiak said it was still on his team to have a better level of effort in the game, particularly if the team wants any semblance of a successful season in conference play.
"We've got a couple of excuses — maybe something lined up that was a little unusual, but we've got to get ready to go," he said. "Nobody's going to have any sympathy for us coming into our building, and there's nothing magical about our building. We've got to get back to what we've talked about at Day One, and that's playing really hard."
In Utah's three conference losses this season, it's been a combination of struggles, including a lack of focus, turnovers, poor shooting and a failure from the senior leaders of the team to rise above the situation and carry the program to a win. It was no different Thursday in an all-around losing effort.
"I don't think we came out hard and the coaches are right on: We didn't come out hard at all," Taylor said. "I don't think there was a possession — maybe the start of the second half — where we were playing harder than (Oregon). They came out and played harder than us, but I think we still beat ourselves."
Minus the Cal game, where Krystkowiak said the Golden Bears simply beat the Utes in all facets of the game, Utah has been its worst enemy. Utah's players are freelancing from the game plan, getting out of rhythm, turning the ball over and simply just not playing good team basketball.
Utah is at its best when distributing the ball, whether it be passing it into the post for Poeltl or Kyle Kuzma to get things started, kicking it out to the perimeter, or establishing a combination of the two for a great look at the basket. Utah is not a team that relies on its players to create their shots but to get open looks through passing. But in its recent losses, it's been more about the singular approach than that of team basketball.
Above all, Utah is missing a leader who can step up and carry the team on his back. Whomever that is doesn't have to be the Delon Wright-type player, but at least he has to take control and temper game emotions and help rally the team when adversity strikes.
"Leadership is a funny thing, and it's done in a lot of different ways, and I addressed some of that in the locker room after the game: Everybody's got to take some ownership and we can all be leaders," Krystkowiak said. "Just take care of your own area, that's a form of leadership; playing really hard; buying into the plan, those types of things. After a loss like this I think a coach would be crazy to say you've got a bunch of great leadership."
"Accept it and embrace it," Taylor said when speaking about moving forward and not letting Thursday's loss cloud the team's future success. "Accept it and do something about it. Don't just sit here and ponder on it and beat yourself up and think so many things are going wrong because coach always says 'you're never as bad as you think you are and you're never as good as you think you are.' "
Utah has two days off before resuming conference play Sunday when it hosts Oregon State at the Huntsman Center at 6:30 p.m.
