Heading to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 tournament, things couldn’t be better for the Runnin’ Utes. They’re riding a seven-game winning streak, their longest ever in Pac-12 play, they edged out a tough win against Colorado last Saturday night after being down by 14 points, and on top of all that, they beat Arizona a couple of weeks ago for the first time in 18 years.
Much like the rest of the season, Utah was able to go on a 19-0 run to secure the win against the Buffs mainly because of its defensive play. Head coach Larry Krystkowiak has mentioned time and time again that good defense leads to good offense, and that’s exactly what happened because the players are 100 percent on board with this idea.
Senior Jordan Loveridge knows it’s this type of mentality that the Utes will need in the conference tournament if they want to succeed. Loveridge has complete faith that his team can and will do everything in its power to get a win, just like they did against Colorado.
“We kept getting stops, and our defense really helped us,” Loveridge said. “Having the confidence that if a shot doesn’t go in, we have the confidence to come back, say, ‘Okay let’s get another stop and try, try again.’ I think that’s what fueled our offense.”
This defensive mindset is going to be key in these upcoming games. Krystkowiak has been working tirelessly to come up with three solid defensive schemes that work the best with his current players. Krystkowiak wants to be sure Poeltl is staying down low, protecting the rim and staying out of any sort of mismatches. Additionally, the guards need to be protecting the wings. This is why the team’s been playing more of a 2-3 zone as of late, but it’s never perfect.
Krystkowiak will continue to tweak his gameplan as needed because each opponent will pose its own set of problems. However, since the Utes will be adjusting for every game, opponents will be kept on their toes. This works to Utah’s benefit. While the team continues to get better on making in-game adjustments, this wasn’t the case midway through the season.
The Utes could have, and maybe should have, won a few more games earlier in conference play, but Krystkowiak is sure everything happens for a reason. Utah is right where it needs to be heading into both the Pac-12 tournament and the NCAA tournament.
“We had our chances to win a couple more games,” Krystkowiak said. “When you look back at both our Colorado games, coming down to the last possession of the game, we could have easily beat Stanford and had a little more luck at Oregon State — maybe those games don’t go the same way. It all works out, and we’re excited to get things started on Thursday night.”
Despite having a record of 6-5 at one point, the Utes went on to finish second in the Pac-12 with a 13-5 record in conference play, right behind Oregon. However, while winning the conference would have added some more excitement, Krystkowiak doesn’t think it would have counted for a whole lot considering Utah did not play so well when the two teams faced off.
“Oregon did a heck of a job, and they beat us twice,” Krystkowiak said. “Even if we would have tied with them, I’m not into the little asterisks saying we were co-champs. You can’t really say you were co-champs with Oregon when they beat you twice.”
At the end of the day, Krystkowiak would rather be cutting down the nets in the MGM Grand Arena than be awarded a share of the Pac-12 regular season title. He looks forwards to heading to Vegas every year just because of the atmosphere alone.
“I love this time of year overall, the vibe that you get when you show up in Vegas,” Krystkowiak said. “To me it’s the place to be — Las Vegas is the place to be. To be a part of that is pretty cool.”
Although the NCAA tournament is a higher priority on Krystkowiak’s list, he’s focused on Las Vegas for the time being. Mainly, he’s focused on what he can do to ready his team and what he can do to extend the Runnin’ Utes’ season as much as possible.
@kbrenneisen