The Runnin’ Utes’ initial road game against Bobby Hurley’s Arizona State Sun Devils was delayed four days due to a Covid outbreak. They tipped off on Tuesday at an unusual time, 3 PM MST. Unfortunately for the Utes, that was the only unusual thing about the day, as common mistakes once again cost them a victory, losing a close one 64-62.

Here are the takeaways from the game:

The positives

When it’s been bad, the best you can do is still look for positives. That’s not fun, but you need stuff from which to build. Both Rollie Worster and Dusan Mahorcic played well. Worster finished with 13 points, six rebounds, and three assists—although you’d like for his assists to be higher. Mahorcic is showing he’s over his scary knee injury, as he played 24 minutes, scored 12 points and pulled down eight boards.

Truthfully, there’s not much that was positive out of this game.

Turnovers continue to lead to losses

The Utes had 14 turnovers to eight for Arizona State. The most glaring issue to come out of this game: a -16 point differential for the Utes in points off of turnovers. No one on the team is playing well enough to be a ball-dominant distributor. It’s a season-long issue that’s only being magnified more during Pac-12 play. There’s no easy fix, either.

The losing streak is likely to continue another week

Six games, SIX! Yes the Utes have been hampered by unfortunate injuries all year, but a six game losing streak is brutal and tough to stomach. If you think they’re going to beat UCLA or USC, the wiser conversation on those two will be, can they beat the point spreads?

After this week, the full expectation is for Utah to be on an eight game losing streak. That’s why it’s crucial that they beat the teams that they should beat, like a struggling Sun Devil squad that had been hit hard by Covid issues.

Ever since December 19, Arizona State was scheduled to play 10 games. They’ve only been able to play four with their lone win coming against Utah.

After the Utes face the two conference heavyweights of #9 UCLA and #16 USC, they’ll face a Washington State Cougars team that had already soundly beat Utah in Salt Lake City.

Up next

As mentioned above, over the next week the Runnin’ Utes host UCLA on Thursday in a late 9 PM MST matchup. They’ll host USC at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, a 4:30 PM MAT tip-off.