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SALT LAKE CITY — No basketball team wants to bow out early, only to have its postseason hopes come to a halt almost as quickly as they came. For Runnin’ Utes forward Jordan Loveridge, the abrupt ending to Utah’s season was not easily digested, nor was it satisfying.
After getting blown out by then-No. 4 Arizona in the second round of the Pac-12 tournament, Utah allowed an early double-digit lead against Saint Mary’s in the first round of the NIT to disappear in a gradual collapse of energy and effort. Utah would lose the game 70-58, ending a season filled with surpassed expectations and also frequent disappointment.
That ending to an up-and-down season for Utah, however, is what motivates Loveridge to get better, to get more wins next season and to prove his doubters and the doubters of the program wrong.
Shortly after losing to Saint Mary’s, Loveridge tweeted: “I’m going to show people that if you put the hard work in and you believe in yourself, anything is possible.”
With a little more than a week after the Saint Mary’s loss, I sat down with Loveridge to talk about his sophomore season, the expectations, the criticism of his game and what he hopes to work on in the offseason.
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What happened in the last two games of the season — Arizona and Saint Mary’s?
With the Arizona game, it was just a special team. They were playing the best basketball that they could at the end of the year, so it was tough for us, or anyone, that night to beat them. They showed that they were the best defensive team in the nation. You’re not hitting shots and they’re already not giving you good shots. When the whole team isn’t having a good offensive night, that just leads to them getting out on the break, doing what they do. And it was just a tough game. With the Saint Mary’s game, it felt like a little bit towards the end of the game maybe they wanted it more. As we were up 13, they just kept pushing and pushing. And once they got the lead, it was tough to do anything with it. It just felt at the end that they wanted it more.
Was there a bit of a hangover from the Arizona game?
A little bit, just with the energy. The energy felt a little down. But other than that, I felt we were very capable of winning that game and beating that team. It just felt like they wanted it a little more.
Despite all, do you think the season was a success?
I think we had little successes within the season. People said we were going to finish lower than we did in the Pac-12. People said a lot of things about our team, and we proved a lot of people wrong. We didn’t make the NCAA tournament, but we made the postseason. There were just a lot of little successes on this team.
You had some ups and downs this season, and faced criticism from some fans. Did you feel the pressure or do you worry about that stuff?
Me and my dad just laugh at it. My numbers were better than they were last year. We got more wins than last year. I don’t know if they want me to shoot every time — I don’t know what they want. My dad and I more just laugh at it. It’s funny because people will usually just check the box score instead of watching the game. There are so many more aspects to the game than scoring, so it’s just more funny when people tweet at you that don’t have any idea. I was happy with my performance this season. You can’t really pay too much attention to those critics.
I think we had little successes within the season. People said we were going to finish lower than we did in the Pac-12. People said a lot of things about our team, and we proved a lot of people wrong. We didn't make the NCAA tournament, but we made the postseason. There were just a lot of little successes on this team.
Your mom quit Twitter for a day after criticism and racist things were said after one of your games. Does that criticism take a bigger toll on your parents?
If it’s about me, it doesn’t necessarily bug me, but when it’s about my family, that’s where it’s out of hand; it’s not really anything to do with them. I don’t understand why anyone would go after someone’s family.
What are your goals moving forward?
Just keep getting better with everything — be more consistent with my shot, finishing. Just making sure I get better each day and every season I’m here just doing something better or helping my team even more.
Do you feel you met the goals you had before this season?
Yeah, a little bit. There’s always room for improvement. I feel like moving forward I’ll keep getting better and just work on a little bit of everything.
With the history of the university in the NCAA tournament, do you feel pressure to bring it back — get the fans back in the arena?
It’s not really pressure, but we want to take it back there. It’s more exciting that we have a chance to take it back to that level. There’s not really a lot of pressure, just more excitement.
Was it nice to see the fans back at the Hunstman Center?
Yeah, it means a lot. That’s why when we have a home game it almost looks like a different team when you see that many supporters and everyone cheering, everyone excited at everything you do, even just a steal or we got a shot clock violation. It just gets everyone excited and it just helps us and helps us feed off of it. We just really appreciate that.
You played mostly as a power forward this year. Do you like that role or is small forward better suited for you? Where do you see your role next year?
How I played it was mostly a wing anyways; I never really posted up that much in the season. So I guess I’m more comfortable with small forward. We’ll see what happens. Coach is going to put us in the best spots to succeed, so if I have to play the power forward again, that’s where I’ll play; if I have to play small forward, I’ll have to slide over and do that.
What are your expectations with the new recruits moving forward?
Just to help. With some guys like Delon (Wright) and Brandon (Taylor), guys like that had to play so many minutes this year it was tough at the end of games. At the end of the season, our legs were tired and by the end of the season it would just kind of pound on your legs and on your body. When you play 37-plus minutes, it just gets tough. Those guys (recruits) will help with that, so we don’t have to play so many minutes. They’ll come in and give good time so there’s no dropoff. I think that will be the biggest part.
Is it nice having the core of the team coming back next season?
It just helps the team grow together. Being able to trust each other more every day you’re with that guy — years go by you’re with that guy — it will just help with the team chemistry. It will help when we start practice we’ll already know mostly what’s going on, and we’ll just have to fill a couple guys in. It will help us mature as a team and not be behind at the start of the season.
You tweeted you’re not satisfied with how things ended. What are you going to do in the offseason to change that?
Do all the little things, so at the end of the game we’re not saying that the little things killed us. At the end of any close game, or any game, we don’t have to come back and look at the little things. I’m just trying to get better at every aspect of the game — mostly rebounding and defense, which killed us in a lot of games. I think those little things will help at the end of close games and at the end of any game.
