It’s been a tough stretch for Utah. After returning from a tough road swing 2-2, including a win against then-ranked Cal and Arizona, the Utes looked poised to convert an upcoming five-game homestand into serious conference standing capital.
But a tough start against No. 9-ranked Oregon State vaulted the Utes headlong into a five-game losing streak, all coming in the Huntsman Center where they were previously undefeated. Through it all, Utah was able to muster some confidence in its play against No. 14-ranked UCLA last Sunday, who the Utes greatly outplayed for three quarters.
“We’re coming off of a heart-breaking weekend at home where we lost to two really good teams, USC and UCLA,” Roberts said. “In both games, you have to give credit to them. They beat us, but in both games we left something on the table, so that’s hard.”
Despite the heartbreak, Roberts and her team are remaining focused on the process. She has continually cited this season as one of rebuilding, continuous improvement and effort, not outcome.
“It’s easy to talk about the process when you’re winning, but when you drop a couple, you can’t get derailed and think that things aren’t working because they are,” Roberts said. “Every week our goal is to improve. I can look back at last week and say we got better in a lot of areas. That is what the process is all about. We just have to be even more locked in to trusting the process.”
While the roller coaster season may have felt like it just began to some fans, players and coaches have clearly hit the doldrums.
“The hardest time to get a team to focus is the middle of January because the tournament and postseason are not really in sight yet,” Roberts said. “It’s not really on your radar, and the newness of the season has worn off, so the middle and end of January is the tough time.”
On Devri Owens
While her time has been limited, the past few games have given opportunity to wing Devri Owens. Owens has yet to see a full quarter of playing time yet this season, but the redshirt sophomore’s minutes have incrementally risen and she has shown flashes of her All-American nominee talent, including a six-point game against No. 9 Stanford earlier this season.
Owens provides depth at the win position for Utah, an area that is always important pending any injury throughout the long season.
“We’re playing her a little bit out of her natural position,” Roberts said. “We’ve asked ‘Dev’ to move over and play kind of a forward spot. She’s more of a natural guard. That’s hard on players … She has good court vision. She can shoot. We need her.”
On the upcoming home-and-home against Colorado
Utah welcomes Colorado as the final opponent of its so-far fruitless homestand this Thursday. After facing the Buffs in the Huntsman, Utah will pack up and fly to Boulder where the team will face them again in the Coors Event Center.
Home-and-home games are notoriously difficult for teams to sweep, and the Buffs will certainly be motivated coming off their first conference win of the season against USC.
“It’s not ideal,” Roberts said. “Whoever wins the first game will have a tough trap game in the second one because it’s a natural instinct for your players to relax after you win and beat someone and then have to turn around and play them again 72 hours later.”
Utah will look to earn a much-craved win this Thursday in the Huntsman at 6 p.m. MST.
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