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Men's Basketball
vs Nevada [Exh]
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Thursday, March 14
Las Vegas, Nev.
9:30 PM
University of Utah
vs
Oregon
Men's Basketball Earns No. 3 Seed in Pac-12 Tournament
3/11/2019 11:12 AM | Men's Basketball
Utes set to face winner of Oregon/Washington State on Thursday
| GAME 31: Utah (17-13, 11-7) vs. Oregon (19-12, 10-8) or Washington State (11-20, 4-14) |
| WHERE: Las Vegas, Nev. (T-Mobile Arena |
| WHEN: Thursday, March 14, 2019 |
| TIP-OFF: 8:30 p.m. PT |
| TELEVISION: ESPN / WatchESPN (Dave Pasch, Bill Walton and Molly McGrath) |
| RADIO: ESPN700 / Utah Radio Sports Network (Bill Riley and Jimmy Soto) |
FAST BREAKS
• Utah earned the No. 3 seed in the 2019 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament and will have a first-round bye.
• The Utes will play the winner of the No. 6/No. 11 seed game (Oregon or Washington State) this Thursday, March 14, at 8:30 p.m. PT at T-Mobile Arena.
• Utah finished the 2018-19 regular season going 17-13 overall and finishing in sole-possession of third-place in the conference standings with a record of 11-7 in Pac-12 play.
• Utah was picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12 standings, according to a media poll prior to the season beginning, but for the fourth straight season the Utes finished above the initial prediction. In fact, Utah has finished above or right at its preseason prediction in all eight years since becoming a member of the Pac-12 Conference.
• Senior Sedrick Barefield was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team on Monday, while freshman Timmy Allen was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. Barefield becomes the fifth Utah player in the past six seasons to earn all-Pac-12 first-team honors, while Allen becomes the first Ute to earn all-freshman honors.
THE GAME
The Utah Runnin' Utes (17-13, 11-7 Pac-12) enters the 2019 Pac-12 Championship Tournament as the No. 3 seed and has earned a first-round bye. Utah will face the winner of No. 6 seed Oregon (19-12, 10-8 Pac-12) and No. 11 seed Washington State (11-20, 4-14 Pac-12) this Thursday, March 14. 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 will air on the Utah Athletics Radio Network (ESPN 700 AM) with Bill Riley and Jimmy Soto announcing. The game will be televised on ESPN, with Dave Pasch calling play-by-play, Bill Walton serving as the color analyst, and Molly McGrath on the sidelines.
SCOUTING OREGON/WASHINGTON STATE
The Ducks will head into the Pac-12 Tournament as the hottest team in the league, having won four straight to end the regular season. After dropping three straight from Feb. 16-23, the Ducks turned around to earn a home sweep over Arizona State and Arizona, while ending the season with a road sweep at Washington State and Washington. Oregon would go onto finish the regular season with an overall record of 19-12 and finishing in a tie for fourth-place with a conference record of 10-8.
Oregon finished the regular season shooting .448 from the field overall, .341 from three-point range and .715 from the free throw line. They rank ninth in the league with 34.1 rebounds per game, but are second with 7.6 steals and among the top four with 4.0 blocks per game. Louis King has a team-best 12.6 points per game and Payton Pritchard follows close behind with 12.2 points per night. Pritchard has dished out a team-best 134 assists and totaled a team-high 57 steals. King also leads the squad with 5.6 rebounds per game.
The Cougars won three of four games from Feb. 7-20, but closed out the regular season having dropped its final five games, which included a home loss to Utah, being swept on the road at both Stanford and California, along with being swept at home by both Oregon and Oregon State. WSU finished the season going 11-20 overall and 4-14 in Pac-12 play - the same exact league record the Cougars finished last season with.
WSU shot .452 as a team overall, .369 from beyond the three-point arc and .755 from the charity stripe. Their 290 three-pointers made ranks just behind Utah's league-leading total of 296 three's made on the year. Robert Franks is the team leader in both points (22.1) and rebounds (7.4). CJ Elleby had a team-high 94 assists, but Ahmed Ali was right behind having dished out 93 assists on the season.
UTAH vs. OREGON SERIES HISTORY
Utah dropped its only meeting with the Ducks this season, falling 78-72 at the Huntsman Center back on Jan. 31. The win pushed Oregon's all-time record over the Utes to 21-10, with a 6-5 mark over Utah in Salt Lake City. Should Utah and Oregon face each other in the tournament on Thursday, it would mark the fifth time the two teams have faced each other in Las Vegas over the past six years. Oregon is 4-0 all-time when facing the Utes in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Ducks are 7-2 all-time when facing the Utes on a neutral court overall.
UTAH vs. WASHINGTON STATE SERIES HISTORY
Utah registered another season-sweep over the Cougars in 2018-19, picking up a home win, 88-70, back on Jan. 12, and then downing the Cougars in Pullman, Wash., 92-79, back on Feb. 23. Utah has won 11 straight over WSU, dating back to Feb. 8, 2014. Utah and WSU have met just twice on a neutral court, with the all-time series even at 1-1. The two teams have never faced each other in Las Vegas and the last time Utah and WSU met on a neutral court was back in 2005, in Seattle. Should the two teams meet on Thursday, Utah would head into the meeting with an all-time record of 25-4 over the Cougars.
UTES FINISH THIRD IN PAC-12 STANDINGS
For the fourth time in the past five seasons, Utah finshed among the top-three teams in the Pac-12 Conference, after going 11-7 in the standings in 2018-19. Utah opened league-play this season with an upset road win at Arizona State back on Jan. 3. The Utes trailed by as many as 17 points early in the first half before coming all the way back to defeat the Sun Devils by 10 points, 96-86. After dropping its next two games, Utah won four straight, which included a road sweep at Stanford and California. It would turn out to be Utah's first win over Stanford in Palo Alto since 1971.
After dropping a pair of home games to both Oregon and Oregon State, Utah went back out on the road to register a sweep ober USC and UCLA. The Utes dominated the Trojans in the first game of the week, but then had to come all the way back from 22 points down to defeat the Bruins. Parker Van Dyke provided the heroics, knocking down the buzzer-beating three-pointer as time expired.
Utah returned home to defeat Arizona for just the second time since joining the Pac-12 Conference, and then despite falling in the next two games to the top two teams in the league (Washington and Arizona State), the Utes would close out the season winning three of its last four games, which included picking up its only home sweep of the season with another win over both USC and UCLA.
AND, OH BY THE WAY ... UTES WERE PICKED TO FINISH EIGHTH IN THE PAC-12
For the seventh time in the past eight seasons, Utah has finished the Pac-12 regular-season better than the preseason media poll suggested. The Runnin' Utes were tabbed to finish eighth in the league, in the 2018-19 preseason poll announced back in October, but Utah would go on to tally an 11-7 Pac-12 record and finish in sole-possession of third-place 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. A complete look at Utah's predicted and final finishes are on page six in these notes.
BAREFIELD AND ALLEN EARN ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
Senior Sedrick Barefield was named to the All-Pac-12 Conference First Team and freshman Timmy Allen was tabbed a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honoree. Barefield becomes the fifth Utah player in the past six seasons to earn all-Pac-12 first-team honors. He joins Delon Wright (2014, 2015), Jacob Poeltl (2016), Kyle Kuzma (2017) and Justin Bibbins (2018) as the only Utah players to earn first-team accolades. Meanwhile, Allen becomes Utah's second player to earn Pac-12 All-Freshman honors and the first since Jakob Poeltl was named to the team in 2014-15.
UP NEXT
A Utah win would send the Utes onto the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament. The Utes would face either No. 2 seeded Arizona State, No. 7 seeeded UCLA or No. 10 seeded Stanford. The second semifinal of the tournament is scheduled to be played on Friday, March 15, at 8:30 p.m. PT. The contest will be televised live on ESPN.
Players Mentioned
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