After handling the Colorado Buffaloes in Salt Lake City earlier in the season, the University of Utah couldn’t come close to that same offensive production in Boulder, on Saturday afternoon. Colorado started the game on a 8-0 run after the Utes didn’t score a point in the first four minutes and never looked back. Utah chipped away at the Colorado lead at many points in the game but could never over the hump. The cold shooting of Utah ultimately led them to the 71-63 defeat.

Here are the takeaways from the loss in Boulder:

Again, you can’t just live off the three-point line

The Runnin’ Utes have developed a risky habit of living off of the three-point line this season and it cost them on Saturday. Utah finished 5-26 from behind the arc tonight which is far below the season average of 38%. They started the game 0-6 from downtown before Sedrick Barefield knocked down a three to put the Utes up 9-8 early on. As they got themselves into a hole, the Utes continued to depend on their three-point shooting to generate some offense but the shots were just not falling. The rest of the Pac-12 has noted Utah’s hot shooting from behind the arc and have made the adjustments necessary to ultimately shut down the Utah offense. Depending on such low-percentage shots can be risky and turn your offense one-dimensional and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday afternoon. If the shots aren’t falling for the Utes, where does this team go for offense? Utah attempted nine more field goals than the Buffs on Saturday but due to their cold shooting, the Utes could never take advantage.

What happened to the bench?

Early on in the Pac-12 season, the Utah reserves provided a constant spark of energy when the starters needed a rest and there was rarely a drop-off from the starters. This was not the case on Saturday against Colorado. The Utah benched combined for just five points off of 2-10 shooting. Notably, senior Parker Van Dyke—who has been on a hot shooting streak as of late—did not even record a point against the Buffs. This forced the starters to force up a lot of shots and play a lot more minutes due to the lack of production by the bench. Looking forward, if the Utes want to compete at all in the postseason this needs to be fixed. Late in the season with so many games in such a short span, takes a toll on the players and Utah will need all they can get from the bench if they want to compete in the post-season.

Johnson and Topalovic need more production in the paint

Over the last four games, Jayce Johnson’s scoring output has steadily dropped, as he hasn't put up more than five shots per game, in that span. The reality is, Johnson is there to clean up the glass—he had 13 rebounds against the Buffs—but teams need to believe that the threat of him shooting it is there. If Johnson and Novak Topalovic can average just five more shots a game within the paint, it would open shooting lanes for the other Utes, giving them higher-percentage shots than the team is currently taking.

Up next

Heading into the last week of the regular season, the Runnin’ Utes have the advantage of hosting both USC and UCLA at home—of course, the problem is that this Utah squad is better on the road. Currently tied with the Bruins for fourth place in the Pac-12, the final game of the season could potentially decide the tiebreaker, for who gets an extra day of rest in the upcoming conference tournament.