Krystkowiak: Utah not looking like a championship team


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SALT LAKE CITY — Don't hate the player, hate the game.

While that advice is likely flipped for many Utah fans after senior guard Brandon Taylor fouled Oregon State's Stephen Thompson Jr. on a half-court shot at the buzzer leading to an Oregon State 71-69 win, it should be noted that Utah shouldn't have gotten themselves in that dilemma to begin with.

"We shot ourselves in the foot," head coach Larry Krystkowiak told ESPN 700 following the game. "Obviously the last play is going to be the one that's magnified, but we came down and looked like we were point shaving or something turning the ball over — threw one out of bounds. It just looked completely scrambled."

Yes, Taylor's foul ultimately led to Utah's loss, but it was the lack of offensive production and consistency in the final 8 minutes of play that gave Oregon State a fighting chance at the end of the game. Most importantly, it was a 41 second stretch late in the game where Utah turned the ball over four straight times and allowed the Beavers to go on a 7-0 run to cut Utah's lead to 3 points that hurt the most.

Utah still had a chance to put the Beavers away with more than 2 minutes left given an ensuing Oregon State scoring drought that lasted more than 3 minutes, but to no avail. Thompson Jr. made a 3-pointer with 2:22 left and a follow-up jump shot to give the Beavers their first lead since halftime.

Krystkowiak said Taylor's error was simply the "last error of the game," but that Utah lacked the poise and mental fortitude to be a championship-caliber team.

"We just didn't look like a team that has their sights set on a championship the way that we handled poise in the last 4-minute segment," Krystkowiak told ESPN 700. "I was really pleased with a majority of the game and then all of the sudden it was like an out-of-body experience and (they) started chucking it all over the place. We didn't have much leadership from the back court."

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Utah went away from what was a generally successful ball game — working it into the post and playing team ball with the pass — and allowed the shifting momentum to overcome their game plan. It's not that Utah hasn't weathered adversity before (remember the Washington game?), but Thursday the turnover-prone Utes reared its head and got the best of the team.

All the positives — Jordan Loveridge making three clutch free throws at the end of the game, Jakob Poeltl scoring more than 20 points in four straight games, Kyle Kuzma's continued emergences on offense, and a potential six-game winning streak — are all now meaningless and overshadowed by a few minutes of play against an opponent Utah had all but beat for the second time this season.

Although visibly frustrated, Krystkowiak said he hopes the end of the game will be a learning lesson moving forward — an opportunity to finish strong and prove its value in the conference as a viable contender for a Pac-12 Championship in March.

"Hopefully this season is built on learning experiences and you can remember how bad this felt and how silly we look when we watch the film," he said. "Beyond that I don't know if there's much you can do to work on it. It's just having some poise and if you want to be a championship team. We didn't look like it down the stretch, and we're going to have to improve."

Utah will get an opportunity to prove its championship mettle on Sunday as they take on a surging Oregon team. The Ducks currently sit in first place and control their own destiny in terms of conference standings. For Utah, a win against the Ducks would do a lot to erase the devastating mistakes made against the Beavers while also shaking up the conference standings.

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Josh Furlong

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