Utah spent much of its time during the regular season in California, and that trend will continue during the postseason.
The Utes received a bid to play in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Monday evening, and they’ll be traveling to California for the third time this season. Utah will play Long Beach State on Wednesday at the 49ers’ home court in Los Angeles.
This is the second consecutive year and seventh time overall that Utah will be playing in the WNIT. The Utes have gone 1-1 in each of their past three WNIT appearances, and they’re not only looking to advance past the second round for the first time in four tries. They’re looking to win the whole thing.
“This team wants to keep playing,” said head coach Anthony Levrets. “They love being around each other. We had great practice when we got back [from the Pac-12 Tournament] because we knew we would be playing. We didn’t know who or where we would playing, but we know we would be in the NIT.”
Utah is coming off a 54-43 quarterfinal loss to UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament. Their 1-1 tilt in the conference tourney improved their record to 18-13 overall, and they’re winners of seven of their past ten. The Utes are eager to get back on the court after their disappointing loss to the Bruins on March 8.
“Us seniors are ready to play,” said shooting guard Iwalani Rodrigues. “We don’t want it to stop. I didn’t like the way we ended [against UCLA]. No one did. When we found out we were in the NIT, we were like ‘let’s go win this.’”
The Utes face off against a 49ers team that finished 16-15 overall and 9-9 in the Big West Conference.
“We don’t know anything about [Long Beach State], but I feel like it’ll be good competition,” Rodrigues said.
What they will know after they scout on Tuesday is that Alex Sanchez and Devin Hudson — both of whom were honorable mentions for the Big West Conference — lead the 49ers. Each averages more than 10 points per game. Sanchez dished out four assists per game, while Hudson grabbed 8.9 rebounds.
“They’re different than what we we’ve played lately,” Levrets said. “But I think we’ll be able to relate it back to games we played earlier in the season and give ourselves a good feel going forward.”
LBSU was second in the Big West with 4.1 blocked shots per game, but they were dead last in turnover margin, with a difference of more than two per game. Utah will try to exploit their sloppy ball handling to control the possession and work their offense down low through Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski, who emphatically stated the team’s mentality before Tuesday’s practice.
“We want to win the NIT,” Wicijowski said. “That’s our attitude.”
Wicijowski said the short preparation they have for Long Beach State isn’t that much of an issue, because they faced the same time constraints with only one day to prepare in the second game of each weekend during the regular season.
“It’s a little bit of a silver lining [to go back to California],” Wicijowski said. “It’s better than having to go somewhere cold and snowy. It’ll be nice to be in the warmth.”
If Utah wins on Wednesday night, they will play the winner of Hawaii versus San Diego. The Utes will look to stay in California for as long as possible.