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SALT LAKE CITY — From role player to hero, Utah’s Parker Van Dyke has done it all.
On Thursday, Van Dyke was everything Utah needed in a down-to-the-wire finish against the visiting UCLA Bruins in an important conference matchup with potential postseason implications on the line for both teams.
Van Dyke scored a career high 18 points in an 84-78 win over the Bruins to give Utah its fifth consecutive win — the most since Utah’s regular season finish in 2015 when the team won its last seven games — and another resume-building win to help convince the NCAA committee that it is worthy of an NCAA Tournament bid.
But it was Van Dyke’s performance in the final minutes of the game that resonated most in the victory. With 41 seconds left to play and Utah trying to hold on to a 3-point lead against a surging Bruins team, Van Dyke knocked down a fadeaway 3-pointer to give the Utes some breathing room and confidence down the final stretch.
It was also the second time in a matter of 2 minutes that Van Dyke had drained a deep, highly contested 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to its final mark. His first improbable basket came with 2:15 left and gave Utah a 4-point lead after UCLA’s Thomas Welsh hit a corner 3-pointer to cap off a 13-point comeback against the Utes.
Van Dyke also grabbed a key rebound off a missed 3-point attempt by UCLA star Aaron Holiday in the Bruins’ final possession of the game, and then hit back-to-back free throws to seal the victory for the Utes.
In all, it was a storybook finish and one that kids dream about since they first touch a basketball: make a game-winning shot at the buzzer and be the hero for the day. And Van Dyke was certainly the hero after the game as teammates swarmed him and all the praise was directed toward the Salt Lake native. He even had fans stay after to ask for his autograph as the senior celebrated his shining moment with a grin from ear to ear.
“It’s special,” Van Dyke told media after his career performance. “I grew up watching games on the Huntsman Center floor, so to play every game is awesome, but this game specifically is something I’ll always remember.”
For much of the season, though, Van Dyke has never had a defined team role. One minute he’s riding the bench as one of many role players, the next he’s starting in place of an injured Sedrick Barefield and playing key minutes down the stretch. The most consistent aspect of his game this season has been the inconsistency in his actual playing time and impact on the game.
But Van Dyke weathered the inconsistency of his playing time well, saying Thursday that the season has always been about the team first and never about individual accolades or personal pride. As a result, the seemingly mundane and fruitless effort given throughout the season paid off big in a high-pressure situation.
“You’ve just got to be prepared,” Van Dyke said. “I’ve had a lot of roles on the team and I’ve played multiple positions at different times in the year. I’ve just been prepared mentally and physically to do whatever the team asks me to do. That’s just a part of our program. If you have that team-first mentality, everything else just kind of falls into place.”
Head coach Larry Krystkowiak said the moment served as “a little flashback” to when Van Dyke first joined the team and was “just a little ankle biter.” The contrast, Krystkowiak added, was "really cool” and was a special opportunity to see one of his players grow and come up big in a vital game.
Although the shots went in and are to be celebrated, Krystkowiak said he believes the late Jon Huntsman Sr. was “up there pulling some strings for the old Utes.” Including Van Dyke’s shots, Krystkowiak said the team has been fortunate to have the bounces fall their way the last few games.
“’I’m convinced that that guy is — I don’t know a whole lot about life after death, but if there’s anybody that’s got a little juice up there after all that he did for so many people, it might be him,” Krystkowiak said.
Utah will shift its focus quickly to the visiting USC Trojans that are coming off a 75-64 win over Colorado Wednesday as the two teams prepare to play Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in another important conference game. And while the win over UCLA is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of earning an NCAA Tournament bid for Utah, USC is another worthy and capable team of upsetting Utah’s hopes for an extended postseason.
As of this writing, Utah remains a bubble team according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. A win over UCLA added another arrow to Utah’s quiver, but the team still has some room to improve its resume and make an indisputable case to the NCAA committee for their being worthy of a postseason bid.
