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[Chilly]

We have 3 guards signed for the 2024 class:
https://utahutes.com/news/2023/11/8/utah-womens-basketball-announces-three-new-utes-on-national-signing-day.aspx

I would expect that they will need to be targeting a big or two in the portal and/or the 2025 class since we are already thin in the frontcourt and Pili will be graduating. We do have one 6’2″ freshman forward who is likely redshirting since she has not played yet this year.

Sorry can’t help with specific names.

[Chilly]

Obviously Kuithe and Rising are still recovering from major injuries last year but I’m not sure how we ended up so incredibly banged up for the first game otherwise? Thankfully we appear to be really deep, particularly on D. I feel like the CB area might be where we’re thinnest on D, yet thankfully that unit seems to be the most healthy…

[Chilly]

Lead ref today is Melissa (not sure the last name), but she is notorious in the Pac-12 WBB community for making questionable calls. I don’t really know that they consistently benefit one team or another, or any playing style or another, it’s just a consistent level of headscratcher calls.

[Chilly]

I’ll be there, anyone else? In such a deep conference, you’re never going to have an easy path to the title game but I think this bracket is pretty good for our Utes. I’m glad that UCLA, Arizona, Stanford and a recently hot Oregon are all on the other side of the bracket. I feel like we match up well with WSU and Cal. I have no idea what’s going to happen below us, it wouldn’t shock me to see USC beat OSU and Colorado.

[Chilly]

Interesting that Oregon is the “first team out”. They are such a tough one to figure out since they’re #21 in the NET rankings but they’ve got a 15-13 overall record. Had a good win last night against Arizona and seems like they should make it in if they can beat Washington in the first round of the Pac-12 tourney?

[Chilly]

I generally agree with you on all fronts. With the reffing, I don’t think it really benefitted either team significantly but it’s just annoying to see so many bad calls that you’re relying on balancing out. It would be nice if it were just reffed better throughout.

I also think LSU will be a challenge. They will put a lot of pressure on our guards and we need to attack the pressure rather than just survive. We did OK against SEC pressure when we played Ole Miss and Alabama earlier this year. Angel Reese is also a monster, she had 25 points and 24 rebounds in the last game – I’m not sure how we’ll match up with her. It would really help if she got in foul trouble… Finally, we need to shoot better than 1-15 from three this game. Fingers crossed…

[Chilly]

To win by shooting 1-15 from three and having all those turnovers is good and bad. On the positive side, if we clean up the turnovers and shoot better, we can play a ton better. On the negative side, if we turn the ball over that much against LSU, we’re going to get run out of the gym.

[Chilly]

The next tie-breaker is record against top teams. So, the third place team is Colorado. We were 1-1 against them and Stanford was 1-0 so they get the higher seed.

[Chilly]

The win was of course great, but the fact that it happened in front of almost 10K fans is the biggest development for this program. They’ve been playing high quality, entertaining basketball for the last two years and while the attendance has improved a bit, it still trails so many of the top programs. That’s a huge issue for recruiting, as many of the top players think it would be fun to play in front to packed crowds every night. I think if this win translates to a sustained uptick in attendance, that will be even more important than winning a share of the conference title over the long-term.

[Chilly]

Well, it obviously depends a lot on what everyone else does. If any of the current two seeds win out the rest of the way and we take two losses, I think we likely slip to a 2 seed, but I don’t think that’s too much of a big deal.