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SALT LAKE CITY — Two games into the Pac-12 season, the Runnin' Utes sit at 0-2 after a pair of tough road losses at Arizona State and No. 3 Arizona. Utah lost the two contests by a combined four points.
The Utes aim to get their first conference victory of the season when they return home to the Jon M. Huntsman Center this week, but matters won't get much easier with UCLA and USC coming to town.
With an 8-6 record thus far in 2012-13, Utah has lost six games by a combined 22 points — an average margin of defeat of just 3.7 points. Last season, the Utes' average margin of defeat was 19 points in 25 losses.
But despite the improvements and the competitive road efforts against two quality opponents in Arizona State and Arizona, the Utes are not satisfied with moral victories.
This Utah team is hungry for conference wins.
"We did a lot of positive things in a tough environment," said Utah head coach Krystkowiak. "I understand the nature of being complemented on playing well, but at the end of the day, we want to get wins."
"Losing hurts," said senior center Jason Washburn. "A lot of people like to talk about the positives, but there's no way to sugarcoat losing, even with all the positives that we did have."
One key to the Utes getting over the hump is Washburn's play, which was electric in the first two games of the conference season. He averaged 18 points, 14.5 rebounds and three blocks during the two contests.
"It was a terrific weekend for him," Krystkowiak said of Washburn. "He was our one go-to guy that was really the rock for us, not just offensively but defensively. He needs to continue to do that. He's an easy guy for all of us to cheer for because he brings it daily."
Washburn got off to a rough start to open the 2012-13 season, but after stringing together several solid performances, he is now averaging 10.4 points and 6.1 boards.
"I've got to find a way to stay in that same mindset," Washburn said on how he can continue his dominant play. "I've got to keep staying aggressive, keep attacking the rim, keep going and getting those rebounds, and let the game come to me."
Senior guard Jarred DuBois is the Utes' scoring and assist leader, with 13.2 points and 3.8 assists per game. DuBois just edges out freshman forward Jordan Loveridge, who is scoring 13 points with a team-leading 7.6 rebounds per outing.
Utah's identity this season has been its suffocating defense, holding several teams well under their season scoring averages. The Utes held Arizona 16.5 points below its season average, as well as BYU (18.1 points below), Arizona State (18.2 points) and Boise State (24.1).
The Utes also rank No. 7 nationally in opponents' field goal percentage, at 35.4 percent. They ranked No. 321 in the nation in this statistic last season.
Great defense can only take a team so far, however, and the Utes know they need to improve on the offensive side of the court to progress into the team they hope to become. They rank No. 11 in the nation in assisted basket percentage at 65, but they have often gone prolonged stretches without a made field goal in critical situations this season.
"The one element (that we need to improve upon most) would be our offensive production," Krystkowiak said. "When we got open shots, we didn't knock them down when we needed to, and there was a number of possessions where we didn't execute the way we needed to."
Thursday night, Utah will try to shoot away its offensive woes against a UCLA team that's riding a seven-game win streak and boasts the nation's No. 1 recruiting class.
Freshman sensation Shabazz Muhammad leads UCLA (12-3, 2-0), scoring 19.6 points with 5.2 rebounds per game. Fellow freshman Jordan Adams averages 16.6 points with 4.6 boards, while senior guard Larry Drew II leads the team in assists, dishing out 8.5 dimes per contest.
Then you have the Wear brothers, Travis and David. The 6-10 juniors average a combined 19.5 points and 10.7 rebounds.
"They have a bunch of NBA-talent guys," Krystkowiak said of UCLA. "Drew does a great job at the point. They just have thoroughbreds at a lot of positions. They're a high-powered team. There's not a guy on the floor that's not going to look to beat you and try to expose you."
"The Wear brothers and Mohammed can step out and shoot the ball," Washburn said. "In transition, they'll run to the perimeter and shoot that thing confidently, and they'll hit it if we let them do it."
"They play with high motors the whole game," Loveridge said. "They're not going to quit on any possession, so we got to be ready for that and play every possession as hard as we can."
After facing the Bruins on Thursday night, the Utes will then host USC on Saturday afternoon.
The Trojans (6-9, 1-1) are led by senior forward Eric Wise, who scores 11.6 points and grabs 4.6 boards per game. Senior guard Jio Fontan averages 8.9 points and 5.3 assists, and junior forward Dewayne Dedmon adds 6.3 points and 7.1 rebounds.
USC had a rough nonconference schedule, facing four Top-25 teams and falling to each of them.
In its only meetings with UCLA and USC last season, Utah dropped the two matchups by a combined 44 points.
But as the Utes have already shown so far this season, they are in the process of turning things around on the hill, and will look to further that process by grasping elusive conference victories this week.
Thursday night's contest against UCLA, which will be a "black-out" game, is set to tip off at 7:30 p.m. MST, while Saturday's matchup starts at 4 p.m. Both will air on the Pac-12 Networks as well as on the radio at 700 AM.
