Friday's 76-68 first-round loss to Indiana didn't just mark the end of Utah's season. It also potentially marked the end of one of the most successful eras the school has ever seen.
The Utes had made it out of the first round in three consecutive NCAA Tournaments coming into this season, the first time that had happened in program history, and for the first half of Friday's game against Indiana, it looked like that streak might reach four years. The Utes were the better team in that first half, but a little bad luck led to a tie game at the break, with Indiana pulling away in the third quarter.
Now, the Utes head into an offseason filled with question marks.
This era of Utah women's basketball is over
The Utes were dealt a significant blow last fall when head coach Lynne Roberts was named the new head coach of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. Roberts accepted the job just four games into the college season and left for the job immediately. The Utes were 3-1 at the time, with Gavin Petersen named as the head coach once Roberts left.
Petersen did a great job taking over on the fly, leading the team to a huge upset win over Notre Dame in just his fourth game as the team's head coach. But Petersen's job is about to get a lot harder.
That's because the players who've made this era of Utes basketball so successful are now on their way out. The team already lost its biggest star, Alissa Pili, after the 2023-24 season as she headed to the WNBA, but the depth left once Pili was gone allowed the team to still have another 20-plus win season this year.
That depth might be wiped out this offseason though. Leading scorer Gianna Kneepkens still has eligibility left as she could get a medical redshirt after playing just six games last season, but she could also depart for the WNBA as well after a breakout year that saw her average 19.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals per contest. Her stock might be the highest it will ever be, so would Kneepkens want to return for a fifth college season?
Her decision will be complicated by the fact that the team's starters are all at the end of their college careers as well. The team's four other starters have all played either four or five seasons, setting Utah up to replace its entire starting five going forward.
Utah has a number of freshmen on the roster, but none played a significant role this season. Brooke Walker was the team's best freshman; she averaged 1.8 points, 1.0 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game. Walker was ESPN's No. 70 recruit last season, so there's definitely upside there, but can she go from barely in the rotation to one of Utah's most important players?
Utah does have two incoming freshmen who could be huge parts of the program, as ESPN's No. 26 recruit in 2025, point guard Leonna Sneed, and No. 46 recruit, guard Avery Hjelmstad, but it can always be risky to trust first-year players. Sometimes you get a Michigan-esque year where a freshman-heavy team gels perfectly in Year One, but that simply isn't always the case. Louisville added three of the top 25 recruits last year, but only one made a consistent impact for the team.
Barring the Utes hitting the transfer portal and coming out with multiple high-level starters, it looks like this program is heading for a rebuild, and it's unclear what exactly that rebuild will look like.
So, shoutout to this era of Utah basketball. It was a fun one, but all good things must come to an end. Whatever roster Utah puts on the floor next season, it's bound to look significantly different.