Opponents just have to press Utah.
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Ok, 7 games in to conference season, 11 to go. We sit at 5-2. Here is my roadmap to a tournament berth.
Current NET ranking: 44. Thats right on the bubble, probably in, but sweating.
Remaining games:
A-tier (opponent with < 35 NET Ranking)
West Virginia
Tech
@ Ok State
Iowa State
Any wins we get here are huge for the resume. I am glad we get 3 of them at home.
B-tier
@ Az State
BYU
@ BYU
@ Colorado
Need to go at least 2-2 here, although 3-1 would be very very much preferable.
F-Tier
@ UCF
Arizona
Cincinnati
We need to not only win all 3 but just dominate.
I think the magic number is 7. 7 more wins in this 11 game stretch and we should be just fine. Anything less and we probably head to KC with work to do.
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If this team can generate the fortitude to beat TCU at home, 3-1 is possible. Tech just lost their first game of the year, at home, against KSU. Baily (tales of the city) Maupin had her usual game for Tech but KSU outrebounded Tech 46-20, which might show a path there. Utah plays Tech this Saturday in the only game this week.
As for Iowa St and WVU, WVU is the stronger team (beating ISU in Ames already this season) and ISU has shown some weakness. Both of these are great games to have in SLC instead of Ames or especially Morgantown.
I predict a 2-2 record in these four games, where we don’t win in Stillwater and we lose to one of the home games.
This is the problem zone I think. Cummard has the Coooogs playing pretty well and Gibb is an all-conference player. Their next four games are very tough with WVU and Tech in Provo, OSU on the road and then Utah at home on the 31st. By the time Utes play them, we will know a lot more about their ability to stay in the upper echelon of the league.
Saw on BYU’s game against Baylor (they lost) that the announcers were showing BYU as a “first four out”. The games against them this year will be very important.
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So, Texas Tech lost to BYU in Provo on Wednesday by 12 points and are now on a two game losing streak. That just made the game on Saturday much more tough. TT is not going to want to lost three in a row.
I was hoping that they would win comfortably against Y and come in to the Huntsman with a nice win. Now, they will fight and claw not to lose three in a row.
Big challenge for the team on Saturday.
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So far, the WBB is stinking it up.
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Ouch!
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Ouch, indeed! I knew TT was going to come in and be serious about not losing three in a row, I didn’t expect that serious. Their defense was tight all game, and it seemed they made nearly every basket and 3pter in the first half shooting 60% and ending the game at 52%/45%(!)/86%, to the point that I can’t believe it was only 60%. TT had a layup line going most of the night, so many layups.
In contrast, Utah shot 33%/19%/82%, and that 19% from 3 land was largely brought by finally, in the 4th quarter, making a couple. Through 3 quarters… 0-11. But the 3’s were not as much of a problem as literally everything else on offense. It is hard to believe but the Utes actually outscored them by 4 points in that 4Q so that the final was less than a 30 point margin.
I thought the Baylor game shooting was brutal, and it still is the worst shooting game I have ever seen, but this TT game came very close to being the worst. That is two straight home games where the team has had such memorially hideous and foul offensive performances.
From here, it doesn’t get easier, with another ranked team in WVU coming to the Huntsman Center on Tuesday. Either the Utes learn to run their offense with even a modicum of efficiency against these good teams in the XII or we are stuck in 9th place or lower every year.
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This is a simply huge week for the season.
As of this morning, we are in “Last four in” in ESPN’s bracketology. West Virginia is currently projected as a 5 seed and our friends to the south are the “first team out” and have really been playing well lately.
The blueprint has been set; you press Utah all game long and they will fold. This is Gavin’s first true test of his time as a Head Coach. He has to figure out how to make teams pay because everyone with an alert coach will be pressing us from tip to buzzer from here on out.
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Utes beat WVU 71-64. They had an 18 point lead in the second half but had to hold on late.
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Big win tonight, especially in light of the bad loss to TT. That said, so many silly turnovers. Another big game coming up this weekend at TDS.
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WBB just keeps shooting itself in the foot as to the post-season opportunity.
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I was not able to watch either game this week, and the games are old enough now, I just watched the youtube highlights.
Obviously, big win against WVU. Great shooting night for the Utes while WVU shot 17% from three. Once again, lose a big lead and hang on.
Obviously, terrible loss to BYU after leading most of the game. How the hck do you allow someone named Brinley Cannon to go off on you, let alone someone named Olivia Hamlin. I thought going into the game that plan should be to let Gibb get her points but shut down everybody else. Well, it sure as hck didn’t work the opposite way. Despite Gibb not scoring much, how much money would it take to lure Delany Gibb somewhere other than the Y.
Wilke finally shot the ball really well, and I love what White did the whole game. Ross was not great at scoring but 13 rebounds is great.
Ben, did the Utes pass your test on handling the press? They had 21 turnovers against WV and 16 against BYU. How many were due to press and how many just regular old normal Utah turnovers?
Coming up a one game road trip to Orlando for a game on Wednesday and then a home game on Saturday against newly hot Iowa State.
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I need to go back and watch the byu game, as I was busy on saturday.
West Virginia pressed most of the game but it didn’t get beyond what id say “token” until later in the game. Tech was intense all game.
The thing that frustrates me is that on paper we are a team that should absolutely crush and punish a press with easy baskets. We have two senior wings. We have a veteran, experienced front court who are both plus passers for their position. I guess we can point to our point guard spot being held down by a sophomore in walker who is learning the position and a freshman in sneed who is still learning the college game. But we really should be doing it much better.
UCF is a team we not only have to beat, but win convincingly. Iowa state would be a really nice borderline must have win.
Im guessing that Charlie Creme at ESPN will come out with his latest bracketology either later this morning or tomorrow. On Friday, we were the top team of the “last four in” and BYU was the top team in “next four out”. I dont think Saturdays game was enough to flip our positions, but we are hanging on for dear life right now.
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Im going to stick to the 12 win mark as the spot where im confident we are in. We have 6 wins. We have the 3 sub-100 net opponents still that we need to sweep. Then we need to find 3 more among…Thats going to be a tall task.
Iowa State
@ Arizona State
@ Oklahoma State
BYU
@ Colorado
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That pretty much means you HAVE to win the home games and hope for an upset on the road.
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Fun side bit here…I googled a WNBA mock draft to see where people think former Ute Gianna Kneepkens will be drafted this year…and I found this reddit thread from yesterday. This person has put in far more work into a WNBA mock draft than I think anyone else ever has combined. I was kinda surprised to see they have Lani White going in the first round!
https://www.reddit.com/r/wnba/comments/1qt77b8/2026_wnba_mock_draft_10_database_update/
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That’s interesting… I am not as suprised for White as I am for Kneepkens. Certainly Kneepkens is an A+ talent, but wondered if she has the athleticism to (using his taxonomy) be a C tier player (impact role player, expansion starter). Kneepkens release on her 3’s always seemed to me to be too low and I thought not suitable for the quickness in the WNBA. Also, I see WNBA teams look at White and maybe see the athleticism and three level shooting ability. White is not as good a shooter as Kneepkens is, but she is more athletic and I think scouts see her shot “playing” in the league and will probably be a better defender in the league than Kneepkens. Man, I wish we had her this year.
As I have followed UCLA a bit this year (Kneepkens watch), she is fourth on the team in scoring at 13 pts/game, third in minutes played, and 6th(!) in shooting pct at 53%. Also, I was surprised when I saw Leger-Walker on their team. She was a standout at Wash State but had a horrible injury. That UCLA team is stacked.
When at the Connecticut tournament I talked a bit with the color analyst for Fox on the games (can’t remember her name) and she said UCLA was her pick for the title, over UConn, and I sat next to a scout from the LA team during our game against Syracuse and so not surprised I guess that a Syracuse player is a project pick for them.
As to some of the other players, I have read a lot about that spanish player Fam and the arguments have generally been for Dallas’ pick that they would pass on Fam to take Fudd so that Bueckers has her girlfriend and running mate with her. But others are saying that Fam is the best talent to come along in a long time.
I was suprised to see Regan Beers and Rory Harmon so low and Flau’jae Johnson so high. I think she is over rated.
Final thought, that guy has 5 UCLA players going in the first round and 6 all together. That is crazy, that a whole team and the sixth man would all go in the same draft.
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As of yesterday morning…
Iowa state is among “last 4 byes”, BYU is “last team in” and Colorado/ASU are among the “first 4 out”. So half of our remaining games are against teams that desperately need wins, like us. This should be a very competitive home stretch. Really opening we can use the UCF, Cinci, and Arizona games to build some confidence and figure some things out.
EDIT: We are one spot above BYU.
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Good stuff. Interesting the projection shows Utah as a play-in against VaTech, the school where White was last year.
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Just win. haha
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