Utah Basketball: And Down The Stretch…

Feb 23, 2014; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Utes forward Jeremy Olsen (41) defends against Arizona State Sun Devils center Jordan Bachynski (13) during the second half at Jon M. Huntsman Center. Utah won 86-63. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

…They Come

So Utah took care of Colorado on Saturday, making us 6-2 at home in the Pac-12.  A solid effort.  Probably should have won the Oregon game but we probably should have lost the UCLA game so all in all, it’s fair.  Now we take our 1-6 road record to the Bay Area against, two of the better teams in conference, Cal and Stanford.

In the Pac-12 standings four thru nine are within one game of each other.  In the HoyoScale Standings, Utah is firmly in 10th place.

Utah’s task is clear, take it’s 1-6 on the road and win road games in order try to have a shot at the NCAA’s. (FWIW, Joe Lunardi has us as the 11th team out of the tourney.  It’s better than not being talked about but a long way to go.)

Of the teams around us, Washington, Oregon, Oregon St., Cal and Stanford all have home games.  The Oregon schools host the Arizona schools and Washington has UCLA coming to town.  So the Utes might be able to pick up some ground there.  Of course if everyone get’s splits then things stay pretty much as they are.  Any of that group who wins two games wins the weekend.

Also, as noted today, sixth is a very coveted seed in the Pac-12 tourney.  As seven and ten will draw a hot UCLA team and eight and nine draw Arizona.

It’s going to be an interesting week.  And maybe for Utah basketball right now, that’s enough.