'Pressure is a privilege': Utes looking to build off last season's success

SALT LAKE CITY — In college basketball, making it to the NCAA Tournament is the goal.

Teams can talk about winning a national championship (at least for the deservedly few), but the goal for every team in the country is to have their name called as part of the tournament process. For the Utah women's basketball program, it was an elusive goal that beset the program for as long as it had been in the Pac-12.

But earlier this year, head coach Lynne Roberts' team realized its goal and was even favored in the opening round of play against an Arkansas team they'd later dominate to reach the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2009.

The dream ended there in the second round against a good Texas team, but it was a momentum-building run that gave Utah a taste at what it takes to be a tournament team. Getting there was a difficult journey, but it's only half the battle for a program on the rise that expects more.

"Every year is a new year and you always have to get better," said Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Gianna Kneepkens. "We want to be better, we have higher standards this year."

"We're always trying to take the next step," Robert added. "The one thing we're not going to do is sit back and not keep pushing the boulder up the hill; we've got more stuff we want to do, and we're not done."

Utah is not done. If anything, Utah is just getting started, according to those in the program.

The team's run in the Pac-12 Tournament, as well as its brief run in the NCAA Tournament, the year the team was picked to finish 10th in the conference has given a young roster the experience it needs to meet the daily grind needed to get back there. Once the blueprint has been made and the players have experienced it, it's much easier to get back there, according to Kneepkens.

"I think it just gives us experience. Like last year, none of us had been in that position, so we kind of just went into it — like, obviously, we had expectations to win, but you never knew how things could go," Kneepkens said. "So just having all of us now have experience so we know like the type of composure it takes and the work it takes.

"I think the biggest thing is just knowing what we have to do now to get there in the future, so that if we have a day that's maybe off in practice, we know if we want to reach our goals, we have to start now if we want to get there."

And though the team has the experience now, it continues to be a difficult goal to obtain. Utah has improved its lot in the Pac-12 and was picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll in a loaded conference, but the road back to the NCAA Tournament remains an ever-changing task.

It's why Roberts has brought in people like Kevin Eastman, a former NBA coach and now motivational speaker, to help her team maintain the mental edge needed to "keep pushing the boulder up the hill," as she's fond of saying. It's about doing more each season to maintain and then improve upon the success of the year prior.

"We're not sitting around talking about last year all the time, but I do think it has given them a definite springboard to see what is next and how much better can we get, and how much further can we go," Roberts said.

Her team is unofficially ranked No. 26 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 rankings and she has a Cheryl Miller Award preseason watchlist and Naismith Trophy women's watchlist member in Kneepkens on the roster, but the accolades only mean something if the team continues to make progress.

"I've done this long enough to not get too one way or the other in October — too hyped or too low," Roberts said. "But I really like this group. I think they're hungry and they're confident in a different way from I think last year success. Our main thing is we've got to stay healthy and stay motivated in that way."

Unlike in the previous few years, where Utah wasn't much of a factor in the Pac-12, the 2022-23 season comes with bigger expectations. Few will be sleeping on Utah's talented roster that is young but experienced. The road back to a deep conference tournament run will become tougher, and what worked last season may not work this season.

"Coach always says pressure is a privilege," Kneepkens said of the preseason expectations. "We want to have high expectations, but we just have to take it day-by-day. We can't focus too much on what's to come, because that can mess up things now and not focusing on getting better. ... We love the expectations, but we can't get too high or too low."

Kneepkens said this year's team will be a "super high energy team that loves celebrating each other."

"We're going to be a competitive team," she added. "We're never going to back down and just always going to be playing as hard as we can. High energy, competitive, and really, really wanting to win."

Utah tips off the 2022-23 season on Monday (5:30 p.m. MDT, Utah Livestream) against Idaho in the first game of a double header with the men's basketball team, who will take on Long Island (9 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Networks).

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