ASU Basketball: 2018 Pac-12 Tournament Preview
By Trevor Booth
No. 3 Utah vs. No. 6 Oregon/No.11 Washington State
It’s now or never for the Utes.
After dropping a key game against USC at home, Utah will likely have to advance to Saturday’s championship game in order to regain the possibility of an NCAA Tournament berth.
At the moment, their odds are looking pretty good.
The Utes enter the Pac-12 Tournament having won six of their last seven games, with the USC loss being the lone blemish on an otherwise stellar stretch of play.
Point guard Justin Bibbins picked up All-Pac-12 First Team honors for the Utes Monday, while senior forward David Collette received Second-Team honors.
The Utes will get a first round bye in the conference tournament, where they’ll face the winner of Oregon Ducks and Washington State Cougars at 9:30 p.m MT Thursday night.
The Utes went 3-0 against their potential opponents in the regular season, defeating Oregon on the road back on Dec. 29 while beating Washington State twice by comfortable margins.
If they were to face Oregon, Utah would have to execute a similar defensive effort on Troy Brown and Payton Pritchard. They limited the pair to just 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting that night, which allowed them to slow the pace and lock the Ducks down in the halfcourt.
Against Washington State, the Utes would also have to look to manage the pace while limiting the threat of the Cougars’ three-point shooting. In their two wins, Utah shot 49 percent from the floor, but allowed the Cougars to stay in each game with a combined 24 makes from the 3-point line.
One player that will be key to the Utes’ success this tournament will be senior forward Tyler Rawson. In games where Rawson scores 15 points or more, the Utes are 7-2, where they typically show a better offensive flow with a stretch-four option that can keep teams off balance on defense.