At this point, yes, I think a 3-1 finish probably has us in. Our wins against TCU and West Virginia, and the road sweep of the kansas schools is really helping our case.
The latest bracketology, published yesterday morning, had us second on last four in.
This one quickly turned into a blowout. Gonna really have to dig deep to win out.
As much as I would like to see this team make the Tourny, they just are not there. Other than Wilkey and Loni, they just don’t have any consistent scoring. Teams who can guard those two make it real difficult.
Tuesday update and to no ones surprise, we are on the outside…second team in “first four out”. BYU and Colorado games loom large. And yes, I plan on holding out hope until the end! haha.
I am right there with you. If they can keep turnovers under 20/game, they always have a chance.
Sigh, Utes down 7 early shooting horribly
down 14 now 
What an incredibly frustrating end to the season.
Like the men, the women need to hit the portal hard. They signed some highly regarded freshmen, but they need some help.
I have watched this team enough to know when they have “it” and when they don’t. Right off the jump, even though the teams were playing even, I just “knew” that it wasn’t going to work out.
We have nobody that can really play defense on Gibb and it showed.
The season’s not quite over. Game tomorrow in Boulder (who is 12-5 in conference) and on Saturday at home against Arizona (2-14). Likely a 1-1 finish which leaves the team at 18-12 and 9-9 in conference and somewhere between 8th and 10th in the conference. Preseason picked as 8th.
Miracles do happen, and it will be needed to get to tourney.
More of the same in the first half at colorado; 12 turnovers,
Whats new tonight is that the refs seem to have a case of “Hey mom! Im on tv!” and both teams have a lot of foul trouble.
What a comeback! GO UTES!!!
“Dont do this to yourself or us, Ben. Please.”
Ok, just hear me out… before that win, we were second in “first four out”.
If we…
-win against AZ
-have TCU, WVU, and COL win out
-win our first round game (looking like the 8/9 game right now) in the conference tourney, we may still get that coveted spot.
GO UTES!
I think the tournament has a different format. Top 4 get two byes into the quarterfinals and next 5 get one bye. Based on current standings, Utah would play Houston.
Press Conference.
Yep! I totally missed that!
Regarding the officiating, they were bad both ways last night, but one thing I liked that has been missed by other crews is that a lot of the turnovers come from teams playing aggressive defense. I was glad that some of the plays that were turnovers in other games were fouls this game, especially in the second half when the Utes really got aggressive on offense.
They had 18 TOs in the game and with Ben’s mention of 12 at halftime, only 6 the rest of the way. When this team takes care of the ball, the offense is in better sync and the shooting improves. Kind of a 1 helps 2 helps 3 thing.
Wilke is just hot and cold and her only hitting 2 of 5 fts down the stretch could have easily lost the game for the team, but fortunately, the defense executed and it didn’t matter. (note: it would have mattered in every other game played).
This was a Group1 win for the team and will certainly help the ranking number for the tournament. I am with you Ben, beat AZ on Saturday, pick up two wins in the conference tourney and they might be gold.
still sitting at second team out in this mornings update.
We could land anywhere from 7-11 in the conference tournament but it just feels like we are going to need another signature win if we are going to grab one of those final spots.
So based on PD’s inforamation top 4 go direct to quarterfinals and next 4 get one bye while 9-16 play an elimination round.
Considering Ben’s calculus of 7-11, the Utes would be well advised to be either 7-8 so that we get a bye, get a more beatable team and advance to quarterfinals, where anything can happen.
As standings are now (ignoring tiebreakers but just how it is listed on website) here are the rounds.
Round 1
#9 Utah vs #16 Houston
#10 BYU vs #15 UCF
#11 Kansas vs #14 Arizona
#12 Kansas St vs #13 Cincinnati
It is likely that the 9-12 seeds win, if they do…
Round 2
#5 Okie St vs #12 Kansas St
#6 Colorado vs #11 Kansas
#7 Arizona St vs #10 BYU
#8 Iowa St vs #9 Utah
A win over Iowa State in this scenario (which may easily change as there are 3 teams at 9-8 and 3 teams at 8-9 comprising the 7-11 Ben mentioned) would probably get us in, it seems.
On the last day of the season, it looks like our floor is now 9 (I admit that I have no idea how the tiebreakers with Iowa state and ASU would work, we went 0-3 against them, so I assume we would get 9th if they both win today.)
With that, games of note today are Iowa State at K State. Thats at noon on FS1. ASU is at Tech ( 1 pm, espn+). TCU at Baylor has some intrigue as well as the better TCU does, the more it helps us (ditto K state).
Again, Im unfamiliar with tiebreakers but i could see a scenario where we get our friends to the south in the tournament. I feel like we owe them one.