The one thing prognosticators seems to agree on is that UtahMBB has to beat Stanford tonight in Las Vegas to remain in the NIT conversation.
Utah center Branden Carlson and Utah guard Jaxon Brenchley high-five before playing Southern California in an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, in Salt Lake City. The Runnin’ Utes are limping into their Pac-12 tournament matchup with Stanford.
Craig Smith’s squad has lost five straight, and seven of their last 10, as injuries mounted late in the season.The prevailing notion in theworld is that Utah is very much on the bubble, hovering between a 7-seed and out of the field of 32 entirely. The one thing everyone seems to agree on, though, is that the Utes have to beat Stanford to remain in the conversation.
Winning that first-round game on Wednesday night would be another Quadrant 2 victory, which would put Utah’s resume in better shape. But still, it’s a matter of how many NIT automatic bids are used by low and mid-major No. 1 seeds that lost in conference tournaments. As of Monday evening, six auto bids were out, which is a lot, and more are expected as Champ Week rolls on.
If Utah loses to the Cardinal, that would be eight losses in 10 games and a brutal ending to what has largely been an optimistic second season under Craig Smith. At that point, hindsight is 20/20 and fans will wonder what might have been if and Rollie Worster were healthy the whole way. Would Utah win at Arizona State? Could the Utes have scored a victory over the USC Trojans at the Huntsman Center?Smith, for what it’s worth, has said his team would accept an NIT invite if it received one, despite a number of injury concerns.
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