Runnin' Utes Head to Las Vegas for Pac-12 Tournament

Thursday, March 8

Las Vegas, Nev.

9:30 PM

University of Utah

Oregon

Photo by: Steve C. Wilson

Runnin' Utes Head to Las Vegas for Pac-12 Tournament

3/6/2018 8:04 AM | Men's Basketball

Utah is the No. 3 seed and have earned a first-round bye

THE GAME
The Utah Runnin' Utes (19-10, 11-7) enters the 2018 Pac-12 Championship Tournament as the No. 3 seed and have earned a first-round bye.

Utah will face the winner of No. 6 seed Oregon (20-11, 10-8) and No. 11 seed Washington State (12-18, 4-14) this Thursday, March 8. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. MT at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

COVERING THE RUNNIN' UTES
Thursday's contest against the Ducks/Cougars will be televised live on FS1. Joe Davis will call the action and Steve Lavin will be on-hand to offer color commentary for the broadcast.

Fans can also follow the action on-line by logging onto FoxSportsGo.com or watching via smart phones and tablets using the Fox Sports GO Apps, which can be downloaded at the Apple Store, Google Play Store or Amazon Apps Store.

Additionally, the contest can be found on the Utah Sports Radio Network (ESPN 700). Bill Riley will provide play-by-play commentary, with the assistance of in-game analyst Jimmy Soto.

Live stats will be provided for the game with links found at www.UtahUtes.com.

BIBBINS AND COLLETTE NAMED ALL-PAC-12
Utah seniors Justin Bibbins and David Collette were both named to the 15 member All-Pac-12 men's basketball teams, the league office announced on Monday. Bibbins was tabbed first-team, while Collette earned second-team honors.

Bibbins averaged a team-best 15.8 points per game in Pac-12 play, which also ranked tied for 10th in the league. He was fifth in the Pac-12 with 5.1 assists per game and he ranked ninth among league players with 1.4 steals. He tallied a .859 free throw percentage, which ranked sixth-best in the conference. Bibbins was named Pac-12 Player of the Week back on Jan. 22. This marks the third all-conference honor for Bibbins, who was also tabbed all-Big West second team in both 2015-16 and 2016-17 as a player at Long Beach State.

Collette led the Pac-12 with a .653 field goal shooting percentage, while ranking 22nd in the league with 12.4 points against Pac-12 opponents. He totaled 4.7 rebounds, dished out 23 assists, 15 steals and collected 12 blocked shots in 18 league games. This is Collette's first Pac-12 honor and second all-conference honor in his career overall. He was a third-team all-Mountain West selection back in 2014-15.

Bibbins becomes the fourth Utah player in the past five seasons to earn all-Pac-12 first-team honors (Delon Wright, 2014, 2015; Jakob Poeltl 2016; Kyle Kuzma 2017).

UTES PICKED TO FINISH SEVENTH, TAKE THIRD
For the sixth time in the past seven seasons, Utah has finished the Pac-12 regular-season better than the preseason media poll suggested. The Runnin' Utes were tabbed to finish seventh in the league, in a preseason poll announced back in October, but Utah would go onto tally an 1-7 Pac-12 record and tie for third in the standings. Since joining the league in 2011-12, Utah has bettered its final standing compared with the preseason poll six times, while tying its suggested finish the other season.

UTES IN THE PAC-12 TOURNAMENT
Since joining the Pac-12 Conference in 2011-12, Utah has gone 6-6 overall in the Pac-12 Tournament. Utah has won at least a single game in the tournament in four of the past five seasons. Utah, who earned a first-round bye, will not play until Thursday's quarterfinals. The Utes are 3-2 all-time in Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinal rounds.

A complete breakdown of Utah's history in the Pac-12 Tournament can be found on page 2 of these notes.

A LOOK AT THE OPPONENT
Utah, who has a first-round bye in this week's Pac-12 Tournament, will face the winner between No. 6 seeded Oregon and No. 11 seeded Washington State. Below is a breakdown of each opponent.

Oregon finished the regular season 20-11 overall and finished in a tie for sixth-place in the Pac-12 with a league record of 10-8. The Ducks closed out the regular season winning three of its last four games, which included home wins over both Arizona and Arizona State, along with a road win over Washington in the season finale.

The Ducks finished first in the Pac-12 and rank 12th in the nation with a combined .777 free throw shooting percentage. Oregon also ranks among the nations top-50 teams in blocked shots (42nd, 4.5/game). Kenny Wooten ranked first in the league and 12th in the nation with 2.71 blocks per game and was 10th in the nation with 84 blocked shots overall.

Washington State registered a 12-18 overall record this season, while finishing 11th in the Pac-12 with a mark of 4-14. WSU registered three of its Pac-12 wins in the team's final six games of the regular season, which included a 78-76 home-win over the Ducks just last week. The Cougars opened the 2017-18 season winning its first six contests.

WSU led the league and ranked 13th in the nation in three-point field goal attempts (883). The Cougars knocked down 334 three-pointers this season, which also ranked first in the Pac-12 and 12th in the nation. WSU has four players that have made at least 64 three-pointers on the year, and are led by Malachi Flynn's 74 three-pointers made on the season. Viont'e Daniels (70), Carter Skaggs (69) and Robert Franks (64) are the other three-point specialists for the Cougars.

DOWNTOWN WITH BIBBINS
Justin Bibbins, who currently leads the team with 80 three-pointers made on the season, moved up Utah's individual single-season record books this past weekend. The Carson, Calif., native moved into Utah's top-10 list for three-point field goals made in a season, currently sitting in a tie at No. 6 overall on the list. He is currently tied with Nick Jacobson's total of 80 three-pointers made, which he set back in 2002-03. Bibbins is two three-pointers away from tying Brandon Taylor's mark of 82 three-pointers made, which was set in 2014-15.

Bibbins has also tallied both a team and Pac-12-best 44.9 percent from beyond the arc this season. The senior ranks second in the league and 75th in the nation with 2.66 three-pointers made per game. He also ranks second in the Pac-12 with his 80 three-pointers made.

BIBBINS AMONG TOP-SCORING GRADUATE TRANSFERS
Bibbins, who was a graduate transfer to the U from Long Beach State, heads into week averaging 14.4 points per game, which currently ranks ninth-highest among graduate transfers in the NCAA this season. Nick King of Middle Tennessee State leads all graduate transfers with 21.4 points per game.

Bibbins has tallied the third-highest scoring average among NCAA teams from power conferences, only trailing Missouri's Kassius Robertson (16.5) and NC State's Allerik Freeman (14.8). He is one of just two Pac-12 graduate transfers to rank among the top 15 players, along with Oregon's Elijah Brown (13.5).

NEARING SCHOOL RECORD MARKS
In addition to Bibbins ranking among Utah's top-10 all-time leaders in three-pointers made, David Collette is on his way to earning a top-10 ranking as well. His 62.9 field goal percentage currently ranks fifth highest in a single season.

On the team side of things, the 2017-18 Utes have tallied 266 three-pointers on the year, which currently ranks No. 2 all-time, following only the school's all-time record of 273 three-pointers made, which the 2015-16 squad recorded.

The Utes have attempted 731 total three-pointers, which currently ranks No. 2 all-time, only trailing the 2015-16 squads total of 746 three-point attempts.

Utah's current 76.1 team free throw percentage currently ranks No. 5 on the all-time single season list.

DISHING WITH RAWSON
In addition to his double-digit scoring (10.7 ppg), his team-leading 196 total rebounds and his team-leading 29 blocked shots, Tyler Rawson can also dish out some dimes. Rawson, a forward for the Utes, currently ranks second on the team with 112 total assists. His 3.9 assists per game average ranks ninth in the Pac-12 and 192nd in the nation.

Not only does Rawson rank among the top-10 in the league, but he is the only forward in the conference ranked among the top-10 in assists. In fact, he also ranks above many Pac-12 guards, including: Arizona State's Tra Holder (3.6), Washington's David Crisp (3.2) and Oregon State's Stephen Thompson, Jr. (3.4).

CLUB HOPPING
Justin Bibbins and David Collette both became members of the 1,000-point club this season.

Bibbins registered his 1,000th career point on Dec. 20, 2017, when he scored 25 points in Utah's win over Northwestern State. Bibbins tallied 870 career points in three years at Long Beach State and now has 418 points with the Utes, for a career total of 1,288 points.

Collette eclipsed the 1,000 career-point mark against Washington on Feb. 15, 2018, with 22 points in a win over the Huskies. Collette has tallied 658 career points with the Utes. In addition to the 397 points he tallied a Utah State, Collette now has a career-total of 1,055 points.

UTES GET ROAD WIN OVER AP TOP-RANKED TEAM
With its win over then No. 21-ranked Arizona State a few weeks back, Utah snapped a 20-game losing streak to ranked teams in true road games. It also snapped a current five-game losing streak to ranked teams overall. The Utes' last win over a ranked team on the road had come against No. 18 ranked New Mexico, back on Feb. 1, 1999. The Utes downed the Lobos, 57-39, at "The Pit" in Albuquerque.

BIBBINS NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Utah guard Justin Bibbins was named the Pac-12 Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Jan. 22, after helping lead Utah to its second Pac-12 weekly sweep of the season as the Utes downed both Washington and Washington State at home. In a win over the Huskies, Bibbins tallied 20 points and 10 rebounds, and then followed with 13 points and 12 assists against the Cougars.

Bibbins is the only Utah player to register back-to-back double-doubles this season and with his season-high 12 assists, he became the first Utah player to dish out at least 10 assists in a game since Brandon Taylor totaled 10 assists against USC back on Feb. 21, 2016.

It marked the first Pac-12 POW honor for Utah this season and the first since Jakob Poeltl was tabbed the conference POW back on Feb. 22, 2016. Bibbins is the first Utah guard to earn the honor since Delon Wright was named POW back on Dec. 15, 2014. Overall, Utah has had eight Pac-12 weekly honors since joining the league in 2011-12.

UP NEXT
Utah will head to the Pac-12 men's basketball championship tournament, which will be held next week in Las Vegas, Nev. The tournament is set to run March 7-10 at T-Mobile Arena.