Takeaways: Utes win Smith’s Utah Coaching Debut, 70-56

The Craig Smith era began on Tuesday night with a win against 2021 March Madness darling, Abilene Christian University. The Utes used their superior size and numerous second half cold spells from the Wildcats to eventually cruise to a comfortable 70-56 victory.

Here are the takeaways from Smith’s Utah coaching debut:

Rebounding won the game

The Utes shot one-tenth of a percentage point from the field better than Abilene Christian tonight, 38.6% to 38.7%. While the Utes had 30 turnovers—eight more than Abilene Christian—they more than made up for it on the glass with a 55-29 rebounding advantage. The reality is that Utah was the much bigger team, but it’s still impressive, nonetheless. All five starters recorded at least six rebounds. Riley Battin, Marco Anthony and Branden Carlson led the way with 10, nine and nine respectively. Reserve big man and designated bruiser Dusan Mahorcic finished the night with eight.

This is a team that should win a lot of battles on the boards.

Smith tested the team depth

While the Utes won by 14, the game was reasonably close for an extended period of time. Still, Smith gave his guys opportunities to prove themselves and went 11 deep with his lineup. No, it’s not something that’s likely to continue, but in years past it’s something you’d usually only see in exhibition games.

Of that depth, Mahorcic is the one guy that proved he deserved regular rotation minutes. Along with his physical presence in the paint, he also chipped in 11 points. However, all other bench players struggled, going 0-5 from the floor.

When it comes time to shorten the rotation, those that are at the end of the bench won’t be there due to lack of opportunities.

Starting three guards is effective

It won’t work every game, as there are bound to be speedy teams that will cause them problems, but guards Marco Anthony, David Jenkins and Rollie Worster filled up the stat sheet on Tuesday night.

Anthony is a rugged 6-foot-4 glue guy who should pile up the rebounds and get his points primarily in the paint. The 6-foot-1 Jenkins is a sharpshooter who is the early favorite to be the team leading scorer. Worster is a huge point guard at 6-foot-4 that should pile up the all-around stats in preseason play and he did so against the Wildcats with 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Most importantly, Worster only committed one turnover. He’ll want to improve his shooting though, as he took one more shot (13) than he had points (12).

The most important thing about these three is that they don’t have redundant roles to each other and instead compliment each other’s playing styles.

This team is refreshing

It’s one game, the start of a new era and plenty of reasons for excitement. This season is going to have its ups and downs. Fans need to understand that there will be frustrating moments. Still, the vibe of this team is just different. The guys know their role and fit into the system. The last time you could really say that about a Utah team was the 2015 Sweet 16 team. This team isn’t going to shock anyone and have the success of the 2015 team, but the fact that that seems apparent after a near complete roster tear-down should be a refreshing sight for the fanbase to see.

Up next

The Utes will play at home on Saturday against Sacramento State, a 7:30 PM MST tip-off. They’ll follow that up with an 8 PM tip-off at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Monday November 15th against Bethune-Cookman.