Ezra Ausar led the Utes with a season-high 21 points, shooting 7 of 12 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Wahlin scored a career-high 16 points on 5 of 5 shooting, including three …
It’s one win, but last Saturday in an 83-62 victory over Oklahoma State, the Utah men’s basketball team best resembled the version that one could have expected when the Runnin’ Utes saw an overhaul of their roster this past offseason.
That was by necessity, as Utah added length and versatility when graduations and key transfer portal defections left coach Craig Smith needing to fill several holes.
In the dominant win over the Cowboys — a much-needed victory after Utah had lost four straight — the Utes were particularly effective on offense.
“I really liked how we played at that end of the floor. I thought it was our most complete game on the offensive end,” Smith said.
Utah’s coach had been critical of his team’s turnover issues and poor shot selection in its first three games in Big 12 play. Against Oklahoma State, the Utes shot 55.6%, including 66.7% in the second half, while turning the ball over 11 times — a notable reduction when compared to their first few league games.
The Cowboys only scored nine points off those takeaways, one game after collecting 31 points off turnovers in a win over Kansas State.
“We took care of the ball. That’s a team who most of their offense comes off turnovers,” Utah’s Jake Wahlin said. “I think we’ve been growing in that sense, and it translates to the half court and transition, where we can take care of the ball, trust each other. It’s beautiful.”
Could the win help set the identity for a Utah team that is still searching for some consistency midway through the season?
It might not always be easy to see the improvement, considering the Utes are competing in their first season in the ultra-competitive Big 12 — and their first three league opponents were all in the top 20 in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
Last Saturday, though, the Utes showed off a more balanced offense than they had all year.
“We were able to get to the rim, we had some pull up stuff, obviously made some 3s,” Smith said. “Our volume was good. Just thought we took a lot of really good shots, made simple basketball plays.”
Early in the season, when Utah was waiting for three post players who weren’t available — two due to injury — the team was more prone to shooting a heavy amount of 3-pointers.
“We were able to get to the rim, we had some pull up stuff, obviously made some 3s. Our volume was good. Just thought we took a lot of really good shots, made simple basketball plays.”
— Utah coach Craig Smith, on his team’s offense against Oklahoma State
As a byproduct of that, when the Utes faced more challenging opponents (i.e. Quad 1 or Quad 2 teams), they were often playing quick and not in rhythm on offense, leading to poor shot selection, as Smith explained.
Against Oklahoma State, that improved dramatically.
The Utes scored 55% of their points in the paint, including 44 of them on either dunks or layups. Utah’s 55.6% shooting percentage was its third-highest of the season, trailing only slightly its shooting percentages in wins over Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State.
The Utes made 6 of 15 3-pointers, their fewest number of 3-point attempts this season.
Utah also made 17 of 24 free throws, including a perfect 7 of 7 in the first half, when it got off to a 12-0 start to the game and led 37-26 at halftime.
Smith was pleased with the balance his team showed offensively in the win over Oklahoma State.
“Having balance, I always say, is huge,” Smith said. “You’ve got to have some go-to guys, but you’ve got to make teams guard everything.”
This has been one of the top share-friendly offenses this season — the Utes are No. 2 nationally with an average of 20.5 assists per game.
Against Oklahoma State, though, it stood out how much Utah’s bigs sharing the ball in their free-flowing offense led to buckets. The Utes’ post players accounted for 14 of the team’s 23 assists (60.8%) in the win, including six from Lawson Lovering, three from Wahlin, two each for Keanu Dawes and Caleb Lohner, and one for Zach Keller.
Smith said Utah was able to use the Cowboys’ aggression against them, which led to Utah owning a 46-24 edge in points in the paint while consistently burning Oklahoma State with backdoor cuts.
“We felt like there’d be seams or openings in the defense as long as we didn’t turn it over,” Smith said. “A lot of these teams do load up, they come after you, and you’ve got to be able to make the right decision and the right play and then make them pay.”
It led to a big scoring night from several Utah frontcourt players.
Ezra Ausar led the Utes with a season-high 21 points, shooting 7 of 12 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Wahlin scored a career-high 16 points on 5 of 5 shooting, including three second-half 3-pointers as he found success working the perimeter.
Dawes, meanwhile, took advantage of a worn down Oklahoma State defense and scored a season-high 16 points, including 10 in the second half.
He also had nine rebounds, two assists and a block.
“I think we took a big step. I’m not gonna say that we’re 100% there, but we took a big step, taking it game by game, executing every week’s game plan,” Ausar said.
“It’s just about taking it a game at a time and not looking ahead, so we just executed this week’s plan. We won, so now, it’s really going on to the next.”
Utah has turned the page since the Texas Tech game
Both Smith and his players noted a difference in the team after Utah’s humbling 28-point home loss to Texas Tech on Jan. 4.
While the Utes still lost by 23 at No. 3 Iowa State three days later, Utah was within six against the Cyclones with 13 minutes to play and showed a physicality that wasn’t evident in its two Big 12 losses the week before.
“After Texas Tech, we came back that next day and we moved on,” Wahlin said. “We moved on to Iowa State and obviously, like (Dawes) said, the box score — they beat us by quite a bit, but we felt like we played a really good game most of that game and they’re a really talented team.
“But all throughout this week, I’d say Thursday and yesterday were some of our two most physical, toughest practices we’ve had, and we saw that carry over, and we have to keep that rolling.”
Smith went as far as saying last Thursday’s practice may have been the best since he’s been at Utah.
“We really built off of Iowa State, even though we lost box score-wise, but we really did a lot of good things, and just took what we did from then and the two practices leading up to this, just in the game, you can see how it came out and kind of dominated right away,” Dawes said.
So, can Utah can that momentum going when it picks things back up over the next few days?

Scouting the TCU Horned Frogs
Week 3 of Big 12 play for Utah includes a road matchup at TCU on Wednesday night (6 p.m. MST, ESPN+) before hosting rival BYU at the Huntsman Center on Saturday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+) in the first of two regular-season meetings.
The Horned Frogs (9-6) are off to a 2-2 start in league play, including a 71-67 win over BYU last week at Schollmaier Arena. TCU is also 9-0 at home this season.
The Horned Frogs are fifth in the Big 12 in scoring defense, giving up 69.5 points per game. On the year, TCU is only allowing opponents to shoot 29.1% from 3-point range.
“Points are hard to come by. A lot of long possessions. They don’t make many mistakes defensively,” Smith said. “They make a mess out of the paint. They have great size. They have great physicality. You’ve got to earn everything with these guys.”
While Arizona State transfer guard Frankie Collins was lost for the season with a broken left foot, senior guard Noah Reynolds leads the Horned Frogs by averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game.
In the Horned Frogs’ win over the Cougars last week, Reynolds scored 21 points, including a go-ahead layup with 25.3 seconds to play.
“He plays at his pace. He just keeps you off balance,” Smith said of Reynolds. “He’s got every shot in the book. He’s just a really crafty guy, and he makes you pay when you make a mistake.”
In TCU’s victory over BYU, fellow guard Vasean Allette had 11 points and a season-high five assists. Reynolds and Allette had zero turnovers between them.
Center Ernest Udeh Jr. anchors the post for TCU by averaging 7.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.
Smith has some familiarity with TCU and coach Jamie Dixon, as the Utes played the Horned Frogs in nonconference play each of Smith’s first two seasons at Utah.
Utah lost both of those matchups.
“Jamie Dixon’s teams are always really good on the glass, so you’ve got to neutralize them and hopefully win the rebounding battle,” Smith said. “They’re bringing three to four guys, and you’re gonna have to play with a lot of force.”
Source: Utah News