Takeaways From Utah’s Win Over Kansas State For Second-Straight Victory
Feb 17, 2025, 11:12 PM | Updated: Feb 18, 2025, 12:39 pm
SALT LAKE CITY—Utah welcomed the Kansas State Wildcats to the Huntsman Center and sent them home with a 74-69 loss.
Craig Smith and the Runnin’ Utes improve to 15-11 overall, 7-8 in Big 12 play and will get some much-needed rest this week.
Doing it all over the floor with his first Double-Double as a Runnin' Ute, @lawson_lovering is tonight's Player of the Game‼️#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/vzZnQQvVIm
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) February 18, 2025
Here are the takeaways from the game…
Utah’s rewarding back-to-back wins against the Sunflower State
In today’s college athletics, NIL is almost everything to a program’s success. In the Big 12 Conference, basketball has been elite for quite some time. Multiple national champions over the last 10 years reside in the Big 12, and accordingly, the price to compete in this league is sky-high.
Kansas and Kansas State have recruited at an elite level for years. But they are programs with a very large pool of resources—in fact, two of the largest in the league. It’s believed that these two rosters combined have somewhere north of $15 million invested in them.
To knock off both programs with a fraction of the budget adds to the magnitude of these two wins for Smith and the Runnin’ Utes.
Utah dug deep to secure the win
This was a tough, ugly game for both teams. Neither team was particularly sharp or energetic, and the quick turnaround from Saturday night’s contests contributed to the sluggishness.
That made this a gut-check type of game, where the players who dug deep and played with the most energy would be rewarded.
For Utah, that was evident on the offensive glass, where they finished with 21 offensive rebounds. That gave them multiple opportunities to end possessions with a score, which kept their points per possession at 1.12, as they scored on 53% of their 66 total possessions.
The defensive effort was also there for most of the game. The Wildcats only averaged 1.00 points per possession and scored on 42% of their 69 possessions. The Utes contested effectively inside but it was their size and length on the perimeter that really affected Kansas State.
Dug McDaniel, Max Jones, and Brendan Hausen combined for 43 points, but they finished 15-of-39 to generate those points. Meanwhile, Utah’s Ausar, Lovering, and Madsen combined for 49 points and finished a much more efficient 14-of-35 from the field.
It went down to the wire, but the Utes effort was apparent in this one. They wanted it more and figured out a way to get the job done, despite a poor shooting night.
Miro Little’s best performance of the season?
Miro Little made a big difference in this one, particularly in the opening frame. He finished the game with 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, and simply looked the best he’s looked in quite some time.
When he first came off the bench, he immediately made his presence felt. He grabbed a defensive rebound, then scored a layup shortly after, and quickly dished out three assists.
More impressively, he just looked like a true floor general tonight. He utilized the pick-and-roll action to create two scoring opportunities for Lovering at the rim. Though he didn’t make as big an impact, he scored twice, both in key moments as Utah’s offensive bogged down.
If Utah can get this sort of play from him more consistently in the final five games, that will make a big difference for the Utes.
Ezra Ausar, the second half monster
Ezra Ausar was great for the Utes tonight, as he finished with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and a 7-for-7 total from the charity stripe.
After being kept in check for the first half, Ausar turned into a monster after the half. He scored 15 points while securing 6 rebounds (4 offensive and 2 defensive rebounds). He was particularly good in the clutch, scoring 7 points in the final three minutes.
Ausar has really stepped up for Utah over the last month. He’s surpassed double-digit points in eight of the last 12 games and has scored at least 18 in five of them. There is certainly room to improve and expand his game, but he’s become a pretty consistent presence on the floor.
The rousing applause for Lawson Lovering
Lawson Lovering’s issues at the free throw line are well documented. This season, it’s not been fun for him. Lovering acknowledged that he spent a lot of time tweaking his mental thought process after the Kansas game.
Tonight, he finished 7-of-12 from the line, and was 7-of-9 before he missed three straight to end the game. He had multiple trips where he banked in the first attempt, then swished the second.
Appropriately, the crowd showed their appreciation with a rousing applause as the free throw makes piled up. That had to be rewarding for Lovering, who admitted that his struggles from the line are mostly mental. Now it’s about making these tweaks more permanent moving forward.
UP NEXT – Utah vs UCF
Utah will now get to enjoy some time off. They will head to Orlando this weekend for a Sunday afternoon tilt. The Runnin’ Utes will try to get a road win inside Addition Financial Arena. Drew Fellios will have the action alongside former UCF Knight BJ Taylor on ESPN+ starting at 2 p.m. (MST).
