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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah made it to the Pac-12 Championship game for the first time since joining the league, but that's about where the highlights ended for the Utes in their Pac-12 Tournament experience.
However, the 88-57 Oregon rout over Utah is now an opportunity for the Utes to refocus and use the loss as motivation heading into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed against Fresno State.
"It's not going to impact us. If anything it's going to help us," Lorenzo Bonam said after the game Saturday. "It makes us want to play harder than what we did."
"We had to bounce back from an Oregon loss kinda similar to this when we were at home," senior Jordan Loveridge said, recounting Utah's first loss to Oregon early in conference play. "We rattled off seven or eight straight, so hopefully, we can bring the same focus after that loss and go out and win some games."
Although it was never the goal of the program, head coach Larry Krystkowiak said there are some definite positives about losing prior to the NCAA Tournament.
"I would never wish for our team to lose a game, but upon further reflection with what happened to us (Saturday) night, I don't know if it's a bad thing," he said. "It's pretty eye-opening, and it exposed us in a couple of areas."
Krystkowiak added that his team was prepared in that final Pac-12 game, but that there's going to have to be an added focus put on securing the ball and getting rebounds — two things Utah struggled with against Oregon — in the future if Utah hopes to have sustained success in the NCAA Tournament.
"If we're going to have success from this point forward, we can't turn the ball over, we can't get pounded on the glass, we can't come out with a deer-in-the-headlight like look in our eyes and expect to have any success," Krystkowiak said.
Krystkowiak added that he's not a believer in the team's season success and overall record as an indication of potential tournament success and that he's not "comfortable with where we are."
"I'm kinda on edge, and I'm ready to practice. I've always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and for you to make the most of it," he said. "I love our guys and I loved the way they've prepped all year and approached games and practice, but I don't think there's any magic with having been to the NCAA Tournament and having it any easier.
"It's a grind, and it's a challenge. Throw all the rankings, the numbers, the streaks and the scrapbook out the window because this is the time that you're playing that 40-minute game and you better be pretty focused on things you know for sure."
The players, too, recognize that the season success, tournament seeding or even Utah's success in the tournament last season doesn't necessarily translate to winning in the NCAA Tournament.
"Being a 3 seed, that's something that's good, but I don't think we look at it like that because the numbers fly out the window right now," Bonam said. "Now you're just playing and everybody is going to play hard. What they did before and how they played in the regular season, all those numbers don't really mean nothing to me and everybody is just ready to play their hearts out."
Utah will turn its focus to Fresno State, the winner of the Mountain West Conference championship game Saturday. The Bulldogs feature Mountain West Conference Player of the Year runner-up Marvelle Harris, a versatile guard who averaged 20.6 points, 4.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game this year.
"Fresno State is a very good team," senior Brandon Taylor said. "They have a lot of athletes that like to turn you over. They've very good defensively, and they're on a nine-game winning streak, so we've got to be dialed in."
"They get out in passing lanes, like how Oregon was," Loveridge added. "They like to speed things up. They have a lot of athletes so it'll be a tough challenge."
"They're a good defensive team and they like to push," Bonam said. "They're kind of like Oregon and try to get down the court and trap you and try to get you to turn the ball over."
