Utah basketball’s first regular-season test arrives Monday night at the Huntsman Center, and the Runnin’ Utes have already shown enough in exhibition play to make this opener worth watching closely.
Long Beach State comes to Salt Lake City for a 7 p.m. matchup on ESPN+, and Utah will try to turn the encouraging pieces from its exhibition schedule into something that actually counts. The Utes beat UNLV and Oregon, and those games gave Alex Jensen’s second team a little bit of everything: a promising backcourt, a willingness to scrap for extra possessions and a comeback against the Ducks that went all the way to overtime.
The opponent is also bringing a fresh look. Long Beach State returns just two players and has added 13 newcomers, which gives Utah a chance to settle in early and give the home crowd something to latch onto right away.
For Jensen, the next step is simple enough to say and harder to do: clean up the details.
Free throws were part of the story in the exhibitions. Utah made 21 of 25 against UNLV, then dropped to 14 of 27 over the final two tune-ups.
The ball movement also left room for growth, with the Utes finishing with 47 assists against 40 turnovers. Jensen said that kind of chemistry takes time.
“A lot of that we have to help them as coaches, but I think a lot of that comes with playing together more in different situations,” he said.
He also pointed to experience and continuity as things that should keep lifting this group as the season goes on.
“Continuity is underrated and then the experience is also a huge, huge factor,” Jensen said. “That’s why I say I think we’ll get much better as the season progresses.”
The clearest signs of progress Monday will be whether Utah can take care of the ball, cash in at the line and finish defensive possessions with a rebound.
Trey Campbell has been the most reliable scorer so far, averaging 17 points while knocking down 11 of 25 threes. That 44% clip from deep stood out on a team that combined to shoot 27.1% from three. Jensen, though, made it clear Campbell’s value goes beyond points.
“We’re gonna rely on him to do a lot of things,” Jensen said. “Might be scoring, but might be something else in the game.”
Jackson Holcombe added 13 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, while TJ Burch gave Utah a spark off the bench with 36 points, eight steals and six assists. Even more important, Burch committed only two turnovers in the exhibitions, a useful trait for a team that gave it away 40 times.
Utah also did real damage on the offensive glass. The Utes grabbed 45 offensive rebounds and turned them into 42 second-chance points, with their share of available offensive rebounds climbing each game - from 27.5% against UNLV to 36.6% against Nevada and 39.6% against Oregon.
Malek Gomma was a big part of that work, collecting 13 offensive boards by himself. But Utah still has to convert more of those extra chances into points. Against Nevada, it got 13 second-chance points from 15 offensive rebounds, then 14 from 19 against Oregon.
The flip side is that Utah’s work on the offensive glass didn’t stop opponents from getting their own chances. The Utes finished even on the boards overall, 128-128, because they allowed 44 offensive rebounds of their own. Opponents grabbed about 35% of the available rebounds at the offensive end, and Jensen didn’t sugarcoat where that stands.
“I think we could be a really good rebounding team. We’re not,” Jensen said.
There is some help on the way there. Babacar Faye is back and fully cleared, though Jensen said getting him up to speed will take time. Fynn Schott is still a few weeks away after a minor surgery in September, but both are expected to help on the glass.
Perimeter shooting will matter too. Utah shot 40.2% overall and 31.6% from three in the exhibitions, and nearly half of its field-goal attempts - 95 of 194 - came from beyond the arc. That fits the direction of Jensen’s offense, but it also means the Utes need better results from deep.
Taison Chatman is one of the players worth watching in that area. He scored nine, 11 and 12 points across the exhibitions, making six of 21 threes and five of eight shots inside the arc. The sample is small, but his ability to attack closeouts and work into the paint could give Utah another layer when the outside shot isn’t falling.
The other major takeaway from the exhibitions was how much Utah’s defense can fuel its offense. In the two wins, the Utes piled up 23 steals, 33 points off turnovers and 34 fast-break points. But when the disruption disappeared against Nevada, the numbers fell hard: two steals, two points off turnovers and five fast-break points.
That contrast showed how much this team leans on defensive activity to create offense. Against Long Beach State, Utah will need that same edge while also proving it can operate more smoothly once the game settles into the half court.
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