Utah Utes men's basketball notebook: Utes break road trip into two segments

PULLMAN, Wash. — Utah returned home after Wednesday’s 75-65 loss at Washington State. The Utes took a charter flight back to Salt Lake City instead of heading to Seattle for Saturday’s game against Washington. They'll do that Friday afternoon instead.

By doing so, the players will be able to attend classes Thursday and Friday.

Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak also noted that “it takes a little bit of the road off of you” in terms of efficiency.

“I love it,” he said. “This is not an easy place to get in and out of by the time you’re done with buses and different things.”

ROAD SKID: Utah is now 0-12 in Pac-12 road games since joining the conference. Krystkowiak, though, said the skid isn’t developing into any sort of monkey on his players' backs.

“There’s no pressure involved,” he explained. “I think the margin of error on the road is so much smaller. If you’re going to get a road win you’ve got to be good.”

And that, he explained, means everyone needs to step it up.

THE ASSOCIATION: The NBA was well represented in Wednesday's game. Beside a former player in Krystkowiak, former NBA official Tommy Nunez, Jr. was one of the referees. In addition, Washington State had a pair of strong ties. Guard Royce Woolridge is the son of the late Orlando Woolridge and forward D.J. Shelton is the nephew of ex-player Lonnie Shelton.

EXTRA STUFF: Utah’s Aaron Dotson missed his second consecutive game because of a sore knee. ... Attendance was 4,240. ... Freshman Justin Seymour had 11 points and a team-high five assists in 27 minutes off the bench. ... Senior Cedric Martin had four steals. ... The Utes outscored the Cougars 28-18 in the paint.

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