Preview: Utah
We head to Utah for a 5pm game on Friday. The game will be televised by Pac 12 Networks.
The last trip to Utah was our final regular season game last year, and it ended badly. Utah won 84-78 in a game in which we could not stop Gianna Kneepkins, who had 28 points in front of a festive crowd of 9600 in Huntsman Center. Utah was not able to shut our own offense down as other Pac 12 teams had done, but it scored at such a pace that it did not matter. Giving up 84 points is not what Tara's teams routinely do.
This year, Kneepkins is out with an ACL injury. Isabel Palmer, the 5’9” senior guard was a likely replacement, but Palmer has been out for even longer than Kneepkins and I have found no word on when she will be back.
And there is the conundrum. Kneepkins was the biggest star on a very good Utah team, but she has been out for the last 7 games and her team has had time to adjust. Utah is certainly not as good a team without her as with her, but it is still a very good team playing in what will be (for us) a very hostile environment. Maybe instead of being a possible Natty contender, Utah has fallen to the level of a Gonzaga. And that is not a reassuring thought.
Utah is ranked 19th in the AP poll, 18th by Massey, and is 11-4. It lost at Baylor, it lost in a tourney to South Carolina, and it has lost 2 of its last 3 games to Colorado and Arizona—the latter a one point loss on the road. It will be eager to get back on track at home against us. It does not have a marquee win yet, but it has put up some dizzying numbers, including 60 and 70 point wins and six games over 100. Most of that was not in league play, and some of it before Kneepkins went out.
Without Kneepkins, Utah’s scoring leader is Alissa Pili, who is also in the conversation as one of the best players in WBB. Pili is a 6’2” forward, a senior who transferred from USC two years ago. She is not as tall as a typical “big” but has such excellent moves that she is virtually unstoppable one on one. She averages 23 points and 67%, and had 37 points in Utah’s loss to South Carolina. She also shoots the three at 50%, and this is not fluke of few trys—she has made 28 so far. Figuring out a way of stopping Pili without getting Brink and Iriafen in foul trouble will be a major issue. She seems tailor made, with her spins and moves, to attract those inside fouls.
Jenna Johnson, the 6’2” senior, is the other forward. She averages 9 points and leads Utah with 7 rpg. She also shoots 37% from three point range.
Kennady McQueen is the other half of what used to be the McQueen/Kneepkins duo, and McQueen is an excellent shooting guard. She averages 10 points and shoots the three at 44%.
Those three are the core of a very good team. In addition, Ines Vierra, a 5’6” junior guard from Portugal, has started 12 games and played all 44 minutes against Arizona. She is the point guard, and has 100 assists to 34 turnovers, averaging 7 ppg.
Dasia Young, a 5’11” senior forward, has been the fifth starter recently. Her three point shooting is not as sharp as nearly everyone else on the team, but she is capable, and has scored in double digits about half the time.
No one seems to be able to stop Pili, so the key will be to limit her to the 20s, prevent Utah from getting the rest of its offense in sync, and for our own offense to heat up. We won’t have a good outcome if our three point shooting goes cold, if we turn the ball over, or if Pili gets our bigs into foul trouble. But Utah does not have the full talent it thought it would, and I think our prospects are better than they were a year ago when we staggered into Huntsman after a team-travel disaster, and staggered out with a loss.
We head to Utah for a 5pm game on Friday. The game will be televised by Pac 12 Networks.
The last trip to Utah was our final regular season game last year, and it ended badly. Utah won 84-78 in a game in which we could not stop Gianna Kneepkins, who had 28 points in front of a festive crowd of 9600 in Huntsman Center. Utah was not able to shut our own offense down as other Pac 12 teams had done, but it scored at such a pace that it did not matter. Giving up 84 points is not what Tara's teams routinely do.
This year, Kneepkins is out with an ACL injury. Isabel Palmer, the 5’9” senior guard was a likely replacement, but Palmer has been out for even longer than Kneepkins and I have found no word on when she will be back.
And there is the conundrum. Kneepkins was the biggest star on a very good Utah team, but she has been out for the last 7 games and her team has had time to adjust. Utah is certainly not as good a team without her as with her, but it is still a very good team playing in what will be (for us) a very hostile environment. Maybe instead of being a possible Natty contender, Utah has fallen to the level of a Gonzaga. And that is not a reassuring thought.
Utah is ranked 19th in the AP poll, 18th by Massey, and is 11-4. It lost at Baylor, it lost in a tourney to South Carolina, and it has lost 2 of its last 3 games to Colorado and Arizona—the latter a one point loss on the road. It will be eager to get back on track at home against us. It does not have a marquee win yet, but it has put up some dizzying numbers, including 60 and 70 point wins and six games over 100. Most of that was not in league play, and some of it before Kneepkins went out.
Without Kneepkins, Utah’s scoring leader is Alissa Pili, who is also in the conversation as one of the best players in WBB. Pili is a 6’2” forward, a senior who transferred from USC two years ago. She is not as tall as a typical “big” but has such excellent moves that she is virtually unstoppable one on one. She averages 23 points and 67%, and had 37 points in Utah’s loss to South Carolina. She also shoots the three at 50%, and this is not fluke of few trys—she has made 28 so far. Figuring out a way of stopping Pili without getting Brink and Iriafen in foul trouble will be a major issue. She seems tailor made, with her spins and moves, to attract those inside fouls.
Jenna Johnson, the 6’2” senior, is the other forward. She averages 9 points and leads Utah with 7 rpg. She also shoots 37% from three point range.
Kennady McQueen is the other half of what used to be the McQueen/Kneepkins duo, and McQueen is an excellent shooting guard. She averages 10 points and shoots the three at 44%.
Those three are the core of a very good team. In addition, Ines Vierra, a 5’6” junior guard from Portugal, has started 12 games and played all 44 minutes against Arizona. She is the point guard, and has 100 assists to 34 turnovers, averaging 7 ppg.
Dasia Young, a 5’11” senior forward, has been the fifth starter recently. Her three point shooting is not as sharp as nearly everyone else on the team, but she is capable, and has scored in double digits about half the time.
No one seems to be able to stop Pili, so the key will be to limit her to the 20s, prevent Utah from getting the rest of its offense in sync, and for our own offense to heat up. We won’t have a good outcome if our three point shooting goes cold, if we turn the ball over, or if Pili gets our bigs into foul trouble. But Utah does not have the full talent it thought it would, and I think our prospects are better than they were a year ago when we staggered into Huntsman after a team-travel disaster, and staggered out with a loss.
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.giphy.com%2Fmedi...ipo=images]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2Fl2YWEMTateOgBzOak%2Fgiphy.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=e5e4d47a9f35304e95a366a2bf0c658f374013ed723770017d44ed7609497c4b&ipo=images)
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.tenor.com%2Fimag...ipo=images]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.tenor.com%2Fimages%2Fa66ca3463edde822f857278b74fa38d4%2Ftenor.gif%3Fitemid%3D10143792&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=028dd740e4291995dbed43e7cabde0599730959f85e0b9fa958b485de5d8c48e&ipo=images)