Utes beat Rebels, lock up tournament berth?
by JazzyUte on Feb 26, 2009 9:25 PM MST
in Basketball
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ESPN seems to think so and I'm willing to agree, unless Utah has a last second meltdown to end the season. Of course, now it's about seeding and a win Saturday in Provo, well that would be huge at setting up a solid seed.
But the Utes needed a victory over UNLV to get to this position and that is exactly what happened. Though the second half was a bit sketchy at times, all around, Utah dominated the Rebels and cruised to their 20th victory of the year.
Luke Nevill once again bolstered his MWC Player of the Year status by scoring 19 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. Shaun Green added 12 points and the Utes shot 50% from the field on the night, while holding UNLV to only 34% shooting.
Utah's win over the Rebels puts them a victory away from at least claiming a share of the conference championship. However, that could prove to be problematic with two huge road games against BYU & New Mexico looming. Lose both and it'll come down to what should be an easy victory at home against TCU, but I think most Ute fans would like to wrap up the title, even shared, a bit earlier than that.
So now focus turns to the Cougars, who enter the game with an impressive win over San Diego State Tuesday night. They're still fighting for a conference crown and tournament berth, so Saturday's game is huge for them, as well. Especially in the payback department, since Utah handed them one of their four conference losses last month.
Great victory for Utah, but now comes the biggest road game of the year. The Utes still haven't managed a huge road win this season and what better place to get one than Provo? Exactly.
UNLV REBELS
STARTERS
MIN
FGM-A
3PM-A
FTM-A
OREB
REB
AST
STL
BLK
TO
PF
PTS
Rene Rougeau, G
31
8-17
0-0
3-3
0
4
3
4
0
1
2
19
Tre'Von Willis, G
36
4-11
1-2
5-6
0
5
4
3
0
1
2
14
Joe Darger, F
26
1-6
1-5
3-3
0
2
0
0
0
0
4
6
Oscar Bellfield, G
28
0-4
0-2
2-2
0
1
3
0
0
2
1
2
Wink Adams, G
33
3-12
1-1
2-2
2
5
0
2
0
1
2
9
BENCH
MIN
FGM-A
3PM-A
FTM-A
OREB
REB
AST
STL
BLK
TO
PF
PTS
Kendall Wallace, G
19
3-4
2-2
0-0
0
1
0
1
0
0
2
8
Mareceo Rutledge, G
18
0-3
0-1
0-0
0
2
0
3
0
0
2
0
DeShawn Mitchell, F
5
0-0
0-0
0-0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
Darris Santee, F
4
1-1
0-0
0-0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
2
TOTALS
FGM-A
3PM-A
FTM-A
OREB
REB
AST
STL
BLK
TO
PF
PTS
20-58
5-13
15-16
2
21
10
13
0
7
16
60
34.5%
38.5%
93.8%
UTAH UTES
STARTERS
MIN
FGM-A
3PM-A
FTM-A
OREB
REB
AST
STL
BLK
TO
PF
PTS
Kim Tillie, F
14
0-1
0-0
2-2
1
6
0
0
0
2
1
2
Carlon Brown, G
31
2-6
1-1
5-8
0
4
3
0
1
5
0
10
Luke Nevill, C
35
6-11
0-0
7-7
3
13
2
1
3
2
3
19
Luka Drca, G
30
1-3
1-1
2-2
0
6
3
1
0
4
3
5
Lawrence Borha, G
35
4-8
2-5
1-1
0
2
2
1
1
2
4
11
BENCH
MIN
FGM-A
3PM-A
FTM-A
OREB
REB
AST
STL
BLK
TO
PF
PTS
Shaun Green, F
23
4-6
3-5
1-2
1
1
2
1
2
2
4
12
Tyler Kepkay, G
32
4-7
1-2
2-2
0
4
1
0
0
3
2
11
TOTALS
FGM-A
3PM-A
FTM-A
OREB
REB
AST
STL
BLK
TO
PF
PTS
21-42
8-14
20-24
5
36
13
4
7
20
17
70
50.0%
57.1%
83.3%
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Cool, however. . .
We play BYU at the homodome and NM at the Pit. Not looking good for a sweep, personally I think we’ll lose both.
Coogs are kind of flaky this year though, if we take either game I’m thinking that is teh one.
I think it's very likely Utah loses both, unfortunately.
Which is why the BYU win over SDSU stings, because it now appears we’ll be splitting the title with them if that’s the case and I think I could stomach a split with SDSU over them any day.
So here's how the MWC tournament looks now if everyone wins the games they're supposed to win (including BYU and UNM winning @ wyoming).
If we beat BYU or UNM on the road we’ll win the conference outright.
If the top 3 teams (Utah, SDSU and UNM) end tied at 12-4, then the tournament would look like this:
Utah: 12-4 with losses to SDSU, UNM, UNLV and BYU. Now 11-2. @BYU, @UNM, TCU left.
BYU: 12-4 with losses to Utah, UNLV (2), UNM. Now 9-4. Utah, @Wyoming, AF left.
UNM: 12-4 with losses to Utah, SDSU, UNLV, BYU. Now 9-4. @CSU, Utah, @Wyoming left.
SDSU: 11-5 with losses to Utah, Wyoming, BYU (2), New Mexico. 8-5 now. @TCU, CSU, and UNLV left.
UNLV: 9-7 with losses to Utah, Wyoming, SDSU (2), New Mexico, TCU, CSU:. 8-6 now. AF and @SDSU left.
Wyoming: 7-9 with wins over SDSU, CSU, AF(2), UNLV, TCU. 6-7 now. @AF, UNM and BYU left.
TCU: 5-11 with wins over CSU, UNLV, AF (2), Wyoming. 5-9 now. SDSU and @ Utah left.
CSU: 4-12 with wins over AF (2), TCU, UNLV. Now 4-10. UNM and @SDSU left.
AF: 0-16 with no wins. Now 0-13. Wyoming, @UNLV, and @BYU left.
If that happens then BYU is the #1 seed because of the sweep of SDSU. I’m not sure who gets the #2 seed in that situation, because there are no non-exclusive sweeps between UNM and Utah (both swept CSU, TCU, AF and Wyoming, no other sweeps). I don’t know what the #3 tiebreaker is. Maybe it’s overall wins? RPI? No idea. Since there are no other ties, the tourney would be:
#1. BYU v. #9. AF / #8. CSU winner
#2. Utah/UNM v. #7. TCU
#3. Utah/UNM v. #6. Wyoming
#4. SDSU v. #5. UNLV
Of course, if Wyoming holds serve at home then Utah will be #1 by itself, even at 12-4. Then the tournament would look like this:
#1. Utah v. #9. AF / #8. CSU winner
#2. BYU v. #7. TCU
#3. UNM v. #6. Wyoming (because they lost to BYU and UNLV didn’t)
#4. SDSU v. #5. UNLV
Everyone hates a pink-shirt-wearing communist.
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