ASU Basketball: 2019 Pac-12 Week 16 Power Rankings
By Trevor Booth
5. Utah Utes (14-11, 8-5 Pac-12) LW: 3
Finishing 6-6 in the non-conference season, Utah was believed to be one of the Pac-12’s worst teams coming into league play. The Utes have proven otherwise since the beginning of January.
Coming into last week, the Utes were 7-4 in Pac-12 play. A split with Arizona and Arizona State added one win and loss to their resume.
In the first of the series, Utah earned a 83-76 win over Arizona — a team that has now lost seven in a row.
That game, the Utes had no trouble finding the bottom of the net, no matter where they shot from. Utah shot 50 percent from the field and shot 41.7 and 75 percent clips from the 3-point and free-throw lines, respectively.
Parker Van Dyke was Utah’s leading scorer, finishing with 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Three other Utes — Timmy Allen, Jayce Johnson and Sedrick Barefield — also finished in double figures.
The very next game against Arizona State, Van Dyke was once again electric. The senior guard finished with 17 points, tied for the most on the team, but that wasn’t enough to stop the bulldozer that was ASU’s offense.
Arizona State shot 54 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from deep, helping the Sun Devils score 98 points — their highest total since November. In particular, the Utes had no answer for ASU guard Rob Edwards. He finished with 28 points on an efficient 64.3 percent from the field.
Even after the loss to ASU, Utah sits tied for third in the Pac-12 standings. A sweep against the Washington schools could be huge for the Utes’ seeding in Vegas.