One of my favorite poems is One Step Backward Taken by Robert Frost. In this poem, Frost illustrates the pain we often have to go through to get to our destination. He talks about "gulping muddy gallons" and "great boulders off their balance." Utah has taken several steps forward this season, but against USC and Washington State Utah basketball "started down the gully" and I imagine the players felt, at least in some respects, their "standpoint shaken, in the universal crises." Not only did they not know how to win basketball games, they forgot how to be competitive. But Coach Krystko went big picture and had his team take a step backwards, so they could move forward. At the end of that mini-process, Utah played beautifully in a win against Washington.
The last three weeks of Utah basketball is an illustration of what it takes to learn how to win at this level. Utah seemed on the brink of being a solid team in close losses to ASU, Arizona, and UCLA. And then the Utes seemingly digressed in a home loss to USC and a road loss to Washington State. In the latter two losses, Utah frankly did not look good. I was curious to see how they would come out against Washington. Would Utah take a step backward so they could move forward?
The answer was a resounding Yes! As Coach Krystko pointed out after the losses to USC and WSU, he was more concerned about some of the big picture issues and not so much on the little details. Utah was not taking care of the ball, they were not getting back on defense, and they were not playing within themselves. As often happens after a few tough losses, players try to do too much and get out of what made them competitive. Coach did a great job getting the players to remember the things that made them competitive against the Arizona schools and UCLA. Moreover, unlike in past games, Utah punched Washington before getting punched and then did not panic when Washington made its run. Utah played with toughness, did not panic, and under the leadership of Senior Jason Washburn and Freshman Brandon Taylor, played an entire 40 minutes of basketball. It was a beautiful thing to watch, and I was pleased to see so much progress made in the space of six games.
Will Utah be able to maintain the same level of intensity against Cal and Stanford next weekend? I think we will continue to see progress, but don't be surprised if we continue to see some more "two steps forward, three steps back" with this team. This is a young, rebuilding team. But we will continue to see gems like we saw against Washington. I would encourage fans to stick with this team because I am confident, with what we are seeing this season, that the coaching staff is doing it the right way. Like any work of art, the process is not always pretty, and the steps are not always sequential, but I think the end result will be worth it.
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