Flash back to March 12. Utah was entering the Mountain West Conference tournament with a perfect conference record and the overall No. 1 seed.
Then the impossible happened. Utah lost to a Colorado State team that picked up its first conference win that very game and Utah was handed one of the hardest draws in the resulting NCAA tournament.
The Utes have had an entire offseason to mull over the loss, and now it is time to try to get revenge.
“I think everybody is pretty excited to go up there,” said senior Morgan Warburton. “You can’t forget a game like that.”
Upsets aren’t unheard of in college hoops, especially during the postseason. But for a team as good as the Utes were last year, to be upset by arguably the worst team in the conference, a team that had only won four games total, is mind-blowing.
The Colorado State loss last year not only knocked the Utes out of the Mountain West tournament, but was the biggest reason Utah got a lousy draw in last year’s NCAA tournament.
Despite a 16-0 mark in conference play and an overall record of 27-4, Utah got a No. 8 seed and was shipped off to Indiana to play Purdue on its home floor, a game it lost.
So with everything that stemmed from that one loss, it is easy to see why the Utes remember the game so vividly.
“That game is always in the back of my mind,” said Warburton. “But at the same time, we can’t really focus on what happened. We had a great year last year. But we got to focus on the now and see what we can do.”
Saturday’s game is set up much like last year’s affair. Utah is at the top of the standings in the Mountain West, with a 3-0 mark in conference play and a 10-6 mark overall. Colorado State is in the bottom half of the conference, with a 1-2 record in conference and a 6-10 record overall. But as last year’s game proved, records don’t mean much once it’s time for tip-off.
Colorado State upset Utah the last time out by holding them to a very low shooting percentage from the field. The Utes only shot 29 percent in last year’s MWC tournament game.
If Colorado State is to pull off another upset Saturday, it will need to have another strong outing on the defensive end. The Rams only average 58.7 points per contest, and their leading scorer, senior Kandy Beemer, only puts up nine points per game. Colorado State also averages 18 turnovers.
On paper, this game shouldn’t be much of a challenge for Utah, but we all saw how good the stats were at predicting last year’s outcome. Despite Colorado State’s poor record, don’t expect Utah to overlook the Rams this time around.
Tyler Cobb– Kalee Whipple helped the Ute?s win versus Air force on Wednesday. The team takes its record on the road Saturday, looking to extend its winning streak to 7 and go 4-0 in conference when they take on Colorado State in Fort Collins.