Takeaways From Utah Basketball’s 73-65 Road Win Over TCU
Jan 15, 2025, 10:23 PM | Updated: Jan 16, 2025, 1:04 pm
SALT LAKE CITY—Good teams win at home, great teams win on the road, and Utah played like a great team tonight, as they earned a 73-65 road win over the TCU Horned Frogs.
The Utes not only earned their first conference road win, they snapped TCU’s nine-game home win streak.
Craig Smith’s squad did a tremendous job on both ends of the floor. They continued to play a tough brand of defense, while enjoying another balanced offensive outing too.
Make it a movie🎥
Utah vs. TCU Highlights👀#Big12MBB | @UtahMBB pic.twitter.com/2IQD5o57ov— Big 12 Studios (@big12studios) January 16, 2025
Here are some key takeaways from the game…
Keanu Dawes is the primary forward off the bench
His playing time suffered as Utah reintegrated three other bigs (Lovering, Keller, Lohner) into the rotation. After tonight’s game, there should be no doubt about who should be the primary forward off the bench.
Dawes has been pretty productive whenever he’s on the floor. His per 100 possession numbers are off the charts. Tonight though, he made truly impactful, game-changing plays on both ends of the floor that kept Utah out in front of TCU.
He finished the game with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block and 1 steal. The block came in the final minutes of the game that completely erased a Vesean Allette layup attempt that preserved Utah’s 6 point advantage.
HUGE block from Dawes late in the game!!!! pic.twitter.com/U4HY7vzoyh
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 16, 2025
Earlier in the half, Dawes had another series of consecutive dunks, which again, preserved Utah’s advantage. What’s particularly noteworthy about this hammer dunk was the lack of hesitation. He recognized the opportunity from the top before he even gained control of the ball and then threw it down with authority.
MAKE WAY FOR KEANU DAWES!!!!! 🔨🔨🔨 pic.twitter.com/IchTU2QNPk
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 16, 2025
Dawes has been key to Utah’s success in these two victories. He just has a knack for putting the ball through the hoop and grabbing the ball when it clanks off of it, too. He is still learning and developing under Smith, but he just produces at a really impressive rate.
Dawes doesn’t need to start, he is perfectly suited as the primary forward off the bench, but he needs to continue seeing big minutes.
A wire-to-wire road win says a lot
Rarely do teams win wire-to-wire, and it is even rarer that they do so on the road. Utah scored first, and outside of a brief tie early in the first half, Utah controlled the game from beginning to end.
That says the most about Utah’s performance tonight. They didn’t get off to a great start but still got off to a better start than the opponent.
Utah held a small lead throughout most of the first half. The defense set the tone, limiting the Horned Frogs to 33% shooting in the first half. The offense did enough to keep TCU at a distance but just couldn’t get into gear to push the lead.
The Utes jumped out on a 7-0 run in the opening minutes of the second half to build a double-digit advantage. Then withstood multiple runs by TCU, who was only able to get within six points in the second half.
Utah played with intensity and toughness on the defensive end. They did a decent job of limiting turnovers to 13 but mostly played a disciplined brand of offensive ball.
This was a full 40-minute effort by Utah, one that required as much mental toughness as physical toughness. This is the
Improved defensive pressure
The past week has been dominated by discussion of Utah’s new defensive standard. Coach Smith emphasized greater physicality and toughness, particularly on the perimeter.
Utah played a tough brand of defense against Oklahoma State, but the question was whether this standard of play would travel with them on the road.
This was the first game where Utah’s combination of size and athleticism genuinely impacted the opponent. Thanks to their toughness and size, Utah mucked up this game; driving lanes were congested, and shot attempts were contested. Overall, the Utes limited the Horned Frogs to 37.5% shooting from the field.
They did a particularly good job defending TCU’s backcourt scorers. TCU’s Vesean Allette finished with 19 points but went 9-of-24 from the field, while Noah Reynolds finished with just 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
That’s the sort of personnel awareness that Smith has harped on to his team. Utah did a tremendous job individually and collectively in limiting these two tonight.
Coach Smith has to continue to make this the focus for his squad moving forward. As long as Utah gets this sort of tough, defensive effort, they will be competitive.
Utah ball movement, security
As mentioned, Utah turned it over 13 times, which is better than what it had been in previous contests but still not great. However, the ball movement was good for Utah throughout the game, and truly brilliant in moments.
Utah finished with 18 assists on 24 field goals, and enjoyed balanced scoring in this one: G. Madsen had 17, Dawes had 16, Lovering 11, Sharvjamts 10, while Ausar and Wahlin each chipped in 8 points. Utah moved the ball very well, which created scoring opportunities, and players did a good job of finding the open man.
This sort of ball movement and scoring balance is a big positive. Players are creating for others, passing up good shots for better shots, and most importantly is they’re converting these scoring opportunities at a higher rate than in previous games.
Utah’s ball movement has been exceptional the last two games but the ball security has to keep improving.
“THE MONGOLIAN HAMMER” – @ESPNLowell
🇲🇳🔨 pic.twitter.com/1FfnANQ6K0
— Utah Basketball (@UtahMBB) January 16, 2025
Cleaning the glass
In the lead-up to this game, Craig Smith highlighted rebounding as a key factor for Utah against Jamie Dixon’s squad.
Though the Horned Frogs don’t put up big rebounding numbers, they’re towards the bottom of the league in rebounds, they do hit the glass hard.
Utah did outrebound TCU, 41 to 35 in total rebounds. However, they still conceded 15 offensive boards to TCU, 4 of which came from guard Allette.
The Utes have tremendous size but rebounding is a collective effort. They did what they needed to do but still have room for improvement moving forward.
Up next, BYU vs Utah
Utah returns home to the friendly confines of the Jon M. Huntsman Center where it’ll host BYU on Saturday, Jan. 18, for the 265th edition of the storied rivalry as the two renew their rivalry as conference members since 2010-11 when they were both in the Mountain West Conference.
Roxy Bernstein will have the call on ESPN+ alongside Tim Welsh as Utah looks to make two in a row against the Cougars starting at 7 p.m. (MST).
