The Runnin’ Utes got their first Big 12 victory on Saturday, with the decisive win over Oklahoma State, 83-62. Utah accomplished the blowout despite their leading score on the season, Gabe Madsen, being ice cold.
Here are the takeaways from the victory:
Ute a find way even with Madsen’s struggles
As this roster is constructed, Utah is highly dependent on Gabe Madsen and, to a little less extent, his brother Mason. When Gabe struggles, Utah typically gets blown out. For a change, that was not the case on Saturday night.
Gabe was 3–8 from the field and 1-3 from long distance, connecting on a prayer at the end of the shot clock. He finished the game with nine points. Mason only saw five minutes of action, missing the one shot that he took. Gabe has seen his scoring average plummet in recent weeks to 16.2 points per game, while Mason is averaging 10.2.
Their slumps are not going to be sustainable for Utah's success, but for one night, the Utes at least saw that they could have a dominant performance against a Big 12 team.
New forces are emerging
Ezra Ausar is typically reliable for the Utes, although Utah could get a little bit more out of a second leading score. Averaging 10.4 on the season, he led the way with 21 points and four rebounds, finding his way to the line to connect on 7–8 free throws.
Keanu Dawes has really begun to emerge in recent games, but there still doesn't seem to be a true rhyme or reason to the games that he’s playing a lot and others that he’s not seeing much time. One week ago against Texas Tech, Dawes had 11 points. Craig Smith followed that up with him playing just two minutes against Iowa State. Dawes saw more time on Saturday, narrowly missing a double-double. He contributed 16 points on 8–10 shooting and nine rebounds.
Will the trend continue? Will Dawes suddenly see less minutes after a big game? Regardless of Smith saying that the game flow or lineups cause certain decisions, it’s very apparent that Dawes looks like he could be a breakout star and he needs time. As the roster is currently constructed, Utah is still not better than a middle of the conference team and likely lower than that. The upside of Dawes needs more playing time.
Another Ute that seems to be breaking out as the season goes by and then get sporadic time is Jake Wahlin. The sophomore big man was thrust into an unfamiliar role early in the season having to play center with all of the injuries. On Saturday, he found himself back in the starting lineup and the confidence in him paid off with 16 points and a perfect shooting night (5-5 from the field and 3-3 from long-distance).
So for one night, Utah saw a glimpse of what could be with new guys getting to emerge. The question remains, will they be allowed to learn on the job or will they once again be relegated to the bench for various reasons?
Utah dominated from start to finish
It seemed that the Cowboys could never buy a bucket at times as they struggled mightily, shooting 33.3% from the field, 26.1% from long-distance, and 54.5% from the free-throw line. Utah lead from start to finish with their biggest lead being 26 points. The largest run Utah went on without Oklahoma State scoring was 12, early in the first half.
Up next
The Runnin’ Utes over the next week Utah will visit TCU on Wednesday and BYU on Saturday. TCU is ahead of Utah and BYU in the standings by one game. BYU so far has not had the season that they hoped for with the revamp of the basketball program that they have attempted. The first of the rivalry game will be played at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday in a game that BYU will surely try to overrun the seldom full arena with blue.
