By Isaac Kushner

The University of Utah’s basketball program historically hasn’t been that good, with their last national championship being in 1944. The last time they were in the NCAA Tournament was 2016 when they lost in the second round to Gonzaga 82-59. In 2015 they had a pretty exciting run, losing in the sweet sixteen to the eventual champions Duke 63-57. Utah is more of a football school that hasn’t seen much success from the basketball team, but they are looking to change that this year. 

The Utes got off to a 5-0 start this year losing their sixth game to Houston. At the time Houston was ranked second in the country and Utah kept it close for a while so the fans weren’t too upset with the loss. To make the NCAA Tournament this year they will need at least 20 wins and to go decently far in the conference tournament. They’re sitting at 14-7 right now. They were 9-2 going into conference play and the Pac 12 this year is a great basketball conference so it is going to be tough to get through barely beaten. With the rest of their schedule being lighter than the beginning, I think they can get to that 20 win mark.

Seven foot senior Branden Carlson leads the way for the Utes averaging 17 points per game. He is shooting 47% from the field and is an efficient scorer with his plus minus being +10. As long as he can stay healthy the Utes have a very high chance of making the tournament. Another big impact player is guard Deivon Smith. He is an experienced senior who can also score the ball very well. He is able to show up in big games Scoring 24 points, grabbing 11 rebounds with 8 assists in an upset win over Oregon. To make a run in the tournament you need to be able to bring your best every game which is a skill these two players possess and I’m excited to see how the rest of the season turns out.