Sweet 16

[UtahFanSir]

Three Pac-12 teams. USC could have made it four (with patience and not loading up their diaper), but alas 3 is nearly 20% of the remaining field. 8-1 W-L. Also, three from the Big 10. 8-3.

But all the press can talk about is the Big-10. Hard to get respect. Annoying.

[Minnesota Ute]

Makes you wonder how bad the 4th place team in that league really is…  Frustrating as hell.  I said all along that the 4th for sure and probably the 5th place team too should be in from the PAC.  That loss in the NIT is doubly frustrating because we really did not show up, and it would have been nice to have been able to make a better argument for ourselves.

[Tony (admin)]

The gap between 3 and 4 this year in the Pac-12 is HUGE. I don’t wonder at all.

[utefansince79]

After having all 7 PAC12 teams in the tourney fall to lower seeds last year (and zero victories over higher seeds), every PAC12 team won their first 2 games this time.  A significant and welcome improvement.

Was a massive gap between the top 3 and rest of the league however. Other than USC beating UCLA and Colorado beating Oregon, I believe the top 3 won all their games against the other nine teams.

 

 

 

[Minnesota Ute]

This is a huge and developing problem with the NCAA, they run it like they are rowing a boat.  They decided we were weak this year because we were weak last year.  Next year they’ll decide was are strong because of this year, and next year we might be weak again.  There is such a change in personnel and maturity each year that you can’t go by the prior year.  It’s annoying.

[Minnesota Ute]

I respectfully disagree, just look who we lost to… Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, Xavier, & Butler… What do these teams all have in common?  SWEET16 that is what.  Yeah we sprinkled in a pair of WTFs in OSU and SanFran, and two respectable losses on road to Cal/Stanford.  But at the end of the day, when you realize that there were some very close losses in there to teams that are in the Sweet 16, you are crazy if you think we were not good enough to be dancing.

Did we have holes, for sure.  Were there aspects to this season that were frustrating as hell, definitely.  But to say there is a HUGE gap between us and the top 3, I don’t buy it.  No more so than between the top 3 in the Big 10 and the next 3.  Look at it this way:

Big 10 got in 7 teams, their top 2 and 5th made to sweet 16.  UMN was 4th, got murdered.  And 3rd got bounced by Xavier, one of our road losses.  6th and 8th also both got bounced.

Pac 12 got in 4, top 3 all made it to sweet 16 and 6th nearly made it.  That is a team we beat, around same time we lost by 1 point to UCLA.

So, at the end of the day, for you to think that we were less deserving than Michigan St., Northwestern, etc.  Or for gots sake, the frickin ACC that got in 9 teams and all but one got bounced, and they almost all got bounced.  S**t Wake Forrest at 19-13, you don’t think we could have taken their spot.

My point is simply this, are those three teams better than us?  For sure, did we derserve to be in the tounrament rather than the 7th, 8th, or 9th entries from teh ACC or the 7th entry from the B10, ABSOLUTELY.

There is too much hating on these Utes.  Are we missing pieces, for sure, and does Kristko need to improve his situational coaching and get us winning some close games, you bet.  But to say that gap is HUGE, nope I disagree.

[GameForAnyFuss]

This is a phenomenal post.

[Minnesota Ute]

 

Conference	Bids	Record	Win %	R64	R32	S16	E8	F4	CG	NC
Big Ten	7	8–4	.667	7	5	3
Big 12	6	8–3	.727	6	4	3
SEC	5	7–2	.778	5	4	3
Pac-12	4	8–1	.889	4	4	3
Big East	7	5–5	.500	6	3	2
ACC	9	7–8	.467	8	6	1
WCC	2	3–1	.750	2	2	1
Atlantic 10	3	1–3	.250	3	1	–	–	–	–	–
American	2	1–2	.333	2	1	–	–	–	–	–
C-USA	1	1–1	.500	1	1	–	–	–	–	–
Missouri Valley	1	1–1	.500	1	1	–	–	–	–	–
Big West	1	1–1	.500	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
NEC	1	1–1	.500	1	–	–	–	–	–	–

[Minnesota Ute]

I guess All I’m asking for here is for the NCAA to look at this and realize that it makes no sense to take 23 teams from the ACC, B10, Big East, and only 15 teams from the PAC, B12, SEC when the net resut is 6 teams in Sweet 16 vs 9.  Yeah you hear that right, 9 of 15 teams made it from PAC, SEC, & B12, while 6 of 23 made it from those other guys.    

[FountainofUte]

IDK. I think there was a point in the year where we were NCAA-tourney caliber. Which is what made our weak OOC schedule and end of season fade so frustrating. I saw it with my own eyes. We had potential to be good.

[Minnesota Ute]

Yeah, don’t get me wrong, we certainly had control over our own denstiny.  You talk about our weak OOC schedule, and yeah, Xavier and Butler were all we had to hang our hat on, but it wasn’t like we didn’t play anybody, we played them but just didn’t win either one.  Scheduling out of conference must be burtal, I gotta imagine not a lot of teams east of the Mississippi want to come west when there are plenty of good teams out east.  Especially if they think they might just get beat.

And I get it that our RPI was high, and we had no quality wins, yada yada.  However the split with Cal and win over USC if those were equivalent ACC or B10 teams would be considered good wins, instead they are just written off.  Similarly a loss to Oregon State is a killer for us, where as a loss to a bottom feeder in the ACC or B10 doesn’t hurt their middle to top teams as much.  

We were good, but we had potential to be a lot better and just couldn’t quite put it all together on a consistent basis.  But it is undeniable that east coast bias really killed us this year.  We got little to no credit for our entire conference season.

[Anonymous]

Our win/loss record aside, just watching our games and Tourney games, I don’t think we are a tournament team — not that my opinion matters.

Sure, it’s nice to say we finished 4th in the conference. Had we played the AZ/SoCal teams twice, instead of Washington teams, we would have more losses and fewer wins. Would we have beaten USC had Boatright played? I don’t believe we have the right mix of athleticism and BB IQ. No consistent outside shooting. No backcourt playmakers. No inside defense. No elite, or very high level, athleticism. Guards/wings didn’t seem to understand passing angles. Had little help/weak-side defense. Throughout the season, as a team, we did not seem to have the aptitude to make sufficient improvement. And, we just seemed to lack that “feel” or craftiness.

Am I a bit harsh, perhaps. I just call it how I see it. I’m hopeful the next two years prove me wrong.

[Minnesota Ute]

I agree with much of what you say, but not all.  I mean for starters, I don’t assume that had we played AZ/USC,UCLA all twice that those would have been three more losses.  It’s possible that the extra game with USC would have been the win that put us over them, and we might have stole one from AZ or UCLA.  I don’t disagree that we are missing some pieces but on certain nights when it all came together, we looked pretty damn good. Again, my point isn’t to compare us to AZ, UCLA, or Oregon.  My point is that we are definitely comparable to many other at large teams from the ACC & B10.  All that said, I’m very concerned about the lack of development this year and that goes to coaching.