With the U men’s basketball team’s NCAA Tournament bid in question, there’s only one thing the Utes can do at the Mountain West Conference Tournament this weekend in Las Vegas to raise their stock.
“We should be able to go down there and win three games,” said forward Britton Johnsen.
Well put.
The only way the Utes are guaranteed a spot into the Big Dance is to win the conference tournament. The first step begins tonight.
No. 2 seed Utah (20-7, 10-4 MWC) takes on No. 7 seed Colorado State (12-17, 3-11) in the opening round at 6:00 p.m. Utah’s game will be televised on KJZZ.
Should the Utes advance, they would face the winner of the No. 3 UNLV/No. 6 New Mexico match up. Other first round match-ups include No. 1 Wyoming versus No. 8 Air Force and No. 4 BYU versus No. 5 San Diego State.
But before the Utes can look ahead, they must take care of business with a team they beat both times during the teams’ two previous meetings.
“I don’t like playing teams we’ve already beaten twice,” said Britton Johnsen. “But I’m glad we do have this game [instead of Air Force].”
In Colorado State, Utah draws a team it edged 67-62 in Salt Lake City Feb. 2 and 72-62 Feb. 28 in Fort Collins, Colorado.
“We’ve had difficulty with them, we expect a hard fought contest,” said coach Rick Majerus. “They have size and quality players.”
One of those quality players is forward Brian Greene. Greene averages a team-high 16.3 points per game (eighth in the MWC), and is active on the glass (7.6 rpg, third in the MWC). In Salt Lake City, Greene lit up the Utes for a game-high 29 points on 13-19 shooting to go along with 6 rebounds.
However, Greene was held to 11 points on 4-11 shooting in the sequel in Fort Collins.
“Greene is active, he goes to the boards, and [Andy] Birley is a good shooter,” said Ute sophomore Nick Jacobson.
The Rams will try to free up Birley, who led the MWC in three pointers per game (2.72 per contest).
Ute big men Cameron Koford, Phil Cullen and Lance Allred will have to try to stop freshman center Matt Nelson. After not playing in the teams’ first meeting, Nelson scored 22 points on 8-10 shooting, grabbing 6 rebounds.
Koford was unable to stop Nelson in the low block at CSU’s Moby Arena. The Ute center drew five fouls in only 13 minutes of playing time.
“Our goal is to not let them do what they want to do,” Jacobson said.
And even though the U won both meetings this season, Colorado State does enter the tourney with a bit of momentum.
After going 1-10 in its first 11 conference games, the Rams won at Air Force 59-51 and topped BYU in overtime 79-75 March 2. Those two wins propelled the Rams to the No. 7 seed.
Meanwhile, the Utes ride in to the city of lust coming off a 57-56 loss to Wyoming in Laramie?a game that kept the Utes from their eighth consecutive conference title.