Who Was The Utah Utes MVP of The 24-25 Hoops Season??

It wasn’t an easy year for Utah’s hardwood iteration.

But it was worth it.

For every down there was an up, for every setback, there was a step forward.

To some, the 16-16 record on the season may feel like treading water, but for many Ute fans the middling season makes it that much easier to see the team taking the right step next year.

First of all, after being projected to finish in the very last spot in their first Big 12 season, Utah finished 11^th out of 16 teams.

On the surface it may still seem disappointing but in all reality, the Big 12 is as good as any conference in college basketball from top to bottom.

To finish above Cincinnati, UCF, Oklahoma State and fellow Pac-12 transplants in Arizona State and Colorado is impressive for a team that hasn't had a winning conference record since the 2018-2019 season in a worse basketball conference.

Despite the losses, Utah competed in a conference built on competitors, even beating a ranked Kansas team in Salt Lake City.

Worth considering as well is the fact that Utah canned head coach, Craig Smith, on February 24^th, when the team was still three games above .500 at 15-12.

Seeing a coach go who likely recruited you, developed a relationship with you and tried to build with you, can’t be easy, even if it ends up being the best move in the long run.

Thus Utah gets a pass for their 1-5 finish to the season, including their 87-72 defeat at the hands of UCF in the first round of the Big 12 conference tournament.

I am not hear to make excuses for the Utes, but all things considered the season wasn’t a massive loss.

There was bad, but there was good in the mix to be found.

With former beloved athlete and NBA mind in Alex Jensen on the way, there is reason to be optimistic about what Utah will do moving forward.

Utah has a handful of top priorities they will try to hone in during the craziness that is the transfer portal, and a big part of that will be hoping to retain this years top stars.

Only 5 Utes this season played in all 32 games this year, but most were available on a nightly basis.

Thus, when determining the most valuable player for this years iteration of Utah basketball, it’s pretty open to interpretation.

By pure definition, Gabe Madsen, the sharp shooting 5^th year guard, led the Utes in scoring with 15.1 points a night, starting all 32 games for Utah.

Yet, most points doesn’t always translate to most impactful, as Madsen was relatively streaky, shooting 37 percent from the field and 32 percent from distance.

Madsen finished the last 5 games of the season making at least two threes in every game, but shot a grand mark of 26 % on 53 three-point attempts, making 14 of them.

For overall impact, one could and should throw Keanu Dawes into the mix as the teams leader in win shares.

Despite coming off the bench, Dawes led the team in total rebounds at 6.3 a night and was by far and away the teams most effective scorer averaging 8 points a night on 60.4 % shooting.

Keanu finished the season by posting 21 points in 38 minutes with 15 rebounds in the conference tournament opening round loss to UCF.

Dawes also took a little less than 5 total shots a night, good for 8^th most attempts per average on the team, making it hard to qualify for MVP on a more limited team role at 18 minutes a night.

Jake Wahlin, now in the transfer portal, was as steady as they come this year appearing in all 32 games with 22 starts.

Wahlin didn’t shoot much at 5 shots a game, splitting those tries from the inside the arc (57.5 %) and downtown (34 %).

That said he was a constant on the glass ripping down 5 boards a game, while rarely turning it over but at 6.2 points, Wahlin doesn’t quite fit the MVP mold.

Mason Madsen (best three point shooter), Mike Sharavjamts (2^nd best assist leader) and Lawson Lovering (high FG %, top rebounder, good passing big, also in the portal) all did admirable things for this squad, but fans likely wouldn’t petition them as MVP types.

The stark reality is, this team didn’t have a Keith Van Horn or Andre Miller this year, there was no Andrew Bogut esque impact guy.

The MVP category isn’t an easy pick by any means and could go in myriad of different directions.

It’s hard to find the premier face of a team that searched all season for an identity, and in all honesty will be establishing an entirely different one before next season comes close to tipping.

But if you really wanted the dirt on who the top dog was, our money is on Ezra Ausar, the transfer out of East Carolina.

While his generic stats aren’t anything over the top, they are certainly stout (12. 4 PPG, 5 TRB, 51 % shooting on just over 8 tries a game and Utah’s leader in FTA.)

Away from the stats for nerds, the eye test would mostly point to Ausar as being the player with the most sway in Utah’s performance on any given night.

Ausar had some big time moments this year and was one of the most fun players on the floor at any given time, really leading the charge in some crucial wins, such as their road victory In Provo or a home win over K-State.

Some of his best ball, came at the time of most uncertainty for the team, keeping them competitive during a time of change after the firing of Craig Smith.

Utah’s last 7 regular season games saw Ausar elevate his scoring to a total of 119 points for an average of 17 points a game in that span.

Three of those games saw Ausar go for 20 or more points.

The 7 game stretch would feature Ezra shooting 37/77 from the field for a 48 percent mark while snagging about 6.9 boards, including a 12 rebound showing in the loss to BYU.

Sure, if you wanna get picky you could say he turned it over the 2^nd most of anyone on the team tallying 54 turnovers while only assisting on 26 baskets.

But that’s the Utes season in a nutshell, the good came with the bad, sometimes all at once, indicative of a 16-16 record.

Not to mention, all one has to do to see how valuable he was to Utah’s success is turn on the Big 12 conference tournament game against UCF, a 87-72 loss and you’ll see what you need to see as Ausar missed the finale due to injury.

Outside of Keanu Dawes in that contest, Utah shot 19 of 55 from the field showing an offensive sized hole that only Ausar could fill.

You take what you can, and Ezra Ausar capitalized the most earning him the ESPN 97.7 MVP honors of the season for the U of U.

Hopefully we get to see #2 stick around to help Alex Jensen start things off right.

Until official news comes through, all eyes turn towards the portal and a new era of Utah hoops.