Utah Basketball Recap

The women’s team started this season with great expectations. Last year, head coach Lynne Roberts led the Utes to a 27-5 record, claiming a Pac-12 regular season title and garnering Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors. Alissa Pili earned the Pac-12 Player of the Year award in her junior year, and led the league with 20.7 points per game. All this culminated in an NCAA Tournament run that led the Utes to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006, only to fall to the eventual national champion LSU Tigers. With 5 starters returning and a pre-season ranking at the #5 spot, ambitions for a national championship were high.

The Utes’ non-conference schedule kept them in the top 15 rankings, putting up 10 wins and only dropping two road games to other highly touted squads in Baylor and South Carolina. In conference play, success has come less easily. The Pac-12 is absolutely exploding with talent in its final year, currently boasting 6 teams in the top 25. Because of this, absolutely nothing has come easy for any of these teams. The Utes struggled early on a 3-game road stretch that saw them lose two games, as well as dropping their first conference game in the Huntsman Center to Stanford. Being able to stay at home brought them success though, with the Utes taking down #6 USC and #2 UCLA in back-to-back games, the latter representing the team’s highest ranked victory in the history of the program. Ever since those two games, Roberts’ team has put up a great showing. In the 10 games since, they’ve notched 7 wins, including a 77-76 win over #8 Colorado thanks to a buzzer-beating basket from Dasia Young, and yet another win over a top-10 USC team.

Alissa Pili has remained the name to watch for the Utes in her senior year. She’s improved her team-leading points-per-game to 21.6 while also leading the team in rebounds with 6.3 per game. Even with the loss of Gianna Kneepkens to an injury in non-conference play, the cast surrounding Pili has been able to put on a show. Jenna Johnson, Kennady McQueen, and Reese Ross, have joined Pili in shooting 40%+ from 3, and Ines Vieria has improved vastly in her junior year, going from 3.0 assists per game last year to 6.1 in the 23-24 campaign.

Lynne Roberts has led her squad to another season of success. In a year where the Pac-12 has shown up to be a conference full of juggernauts, the Utes have won 4 games against top-10 ranked squads, good for best in the nation. In the Pac-12 tournament, Utah dropped out after a quarterfinal loss to UCLA, making that their final game before the NCAA Tournament. Current predictions have them set as a 5-seed in the final tournament, giving them a good position to make another deep run. This team has shown they can beat tough competition all season, and appear ready to make some serious tournament noise. 

The Utah men’s basketball program has been coming off of a low streak of the last few years. The Runnin’ Utes have not seen any postseason play since 2018, and have not made it to the NCAA tournament since 2016. Coach Craig Smith, having led the Utah State Aggies to tournament appearances in 3 straight years, was brought on in 2021, and hasn’t been able to get the Runnin’ Utes into any post-season tournament. The last few years have seen the emergence of a star in 7-footer Branden Carlson. Last year, he had a chance to try his hand in the NBA draft, but instead chose to use his final year of eligibility to return for one last season. In the offseason, Craig Smith was able to add transfers Cole Bajema, Hunter Erickson, Lawson Lovering, and Deivon Smith, putting together a roster with serious potential.

During non-conference play, Utah gave the appearance of a very strong team. From November to their first conference games in late December, they only lost two neutral-site games to tournament contender St. John’s and a Houston team hunting for the top seed in the nation. Through that stretch, they notched signature wins in a road game against St. Mary’s and an upset win at home against BYU. Going into the very end of their non-conference season, a ruling in a court case about NCAA double-transfers allowed point guard Deivon Smith, a transfer from Mississippi State to Georgia Tech to Utah, to play in this season.

To start 2024, though, they played their first conference road stretch, dropping both games against the Arizona-based schools. This would start a major trend that began to bring Utah down to where they are today. At home, Utah has been able to compete at a high level with almost anyone. On the road, they’ve had difficulty putting up a fight. Things became even more difficult with starting point guard Rollie Worster having to leave a 90-44 home win against UCLA due to injury. However, in his place, Deivon Smith has emerged as a strong presence in the starting role, notching three triple doubles through the season. Despite the difficulties on the road, they’ve mostly been able to hold onto their home court, only losing two games to the Arizona schools in February. On the road, they were able to notch a win against UCLA by way of a game winning tip by Branden Carlson.

Through the last part of the season, Utah has been considered to be on the edge of a bid for the NCAA tournament. With the opportunity to separate themselves from the other bubble teams in a road stretch against Oregon and Oregon State, they dropped both games in single digit losses, taking themselves out of the current conversation. With the Pac-12 tournament being their last opportunity before the NCAA tournament, the Runnin’ Utes absolutely need a strong showing in Las Vegas to push themselves back into playoff contention. Their effort begins with a Wednesday night game against Arizona State.