ASU Basketball: 2019 Pac-12 Week 9 Power Rankings
By Trevor Booth
11. Utah Utes (6-6) LW: 11
Thus far, the 2018-19 season has been tumultuous for Utah. Just 12 games into the season, it’s 6-6 without a quality win.
This past week, the Utes wrapped up non-conference play, and it went as expected.
Their lone game this week came against No. 6 Nevada. A Sweet 16 participant a year ago, the Wolf Pack have been nothing short of excellent to start this year’s campaign.
That showed against Utah. Nevada shot 47.5 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from 3-point range, helping the Wolf Pack cruise to a 15-point victory.
But Utah actually played better than in some of its previous games.
The Utes had a solid shooting performance from the field, 3-point line and charity stripe while outrebounding Nevada 39 to 30.
Ultimately, the Wolf Pack’s star power of seniors Caleb Martin and Jordan Caroline was too much for the Utes to handle, as the duo combined for 50 points.
For the Utes, it was Sedrick Barefield who stepped up. A senior guard, Barefield has been the primary scorer for Utah in the early season, leading the Utes with 15.0 points per game but does his damage off the bench.
Heading into Pac-12 play, Utah already has six losses. Though none of those defeats came to horrible opponents, this high amount of losses shrinks the margin of error for the Utes with how poor the Pac-12 has been.
Just like Colorado, the Utes begin their conference season in the Grand Canyon State, kicking off Pac-12 play with a road test against Arizona State. After that, the Utes head south toward Tucson to face struggling powerhouse Arizona.