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GAME 16: Utah (7-8, 1-2) vs. Washington State (7-8, 0-2)
WHERE: Salt Lake City, Utah (Jon M. Huntsman Center)
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019
TIP-OFF: 6 p.m. MT
TELEVISION: Pac-12 Networks / Pac-12 LIVE
RADIO: ESPN700
Now this is a must win game for the Utes. Washington State isn’t very good, and they’re coming off of a 30 point blasting at the hands of Colorado a few days ago. Utah stumbled against Washington, not a major surprise, but losing to Washington State will be a very bad look.
The Huskies length and zone really troubled Sedrick Barefield and others, and they just couldn’t find consistency on the offensive side of the floor, and again turnovers were a big problem. As long as Utah keeps turning over the ball, the NIT would be a blessing. For the Utes, the formula will remain the same all season... stop turning over the ball, and get Barefield, Tillman and Allen going. If Barefield and Tillman are consistent, this will be a competitive team going forward.
Join us here as the game happens, and check out the scouting report on Wazzu from the press release from UtahUtes.com:
The Cougars are 7-8 overall and are coming off a 92-60 loss to Colorado on Thursday. WSU has dropped five straight with its last win coming against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville back on Dec. 19, 2018. The Cougars are 0-4 in true road games this season and 0-7 overall in games played away from Pullman. The 0-4 road record includes the 0-2 mark in Pac-12 road contests. Robert Franks leads both WSU and the Pac-12 with 22.1 points per game, but the senior has not played since the Cougars’ loss to New Mexico State on Dec. 23. He also leads the team with 7.9 rebounds per game. CJ Elleby ranks second on the team in both scoring (15.7 ppg) and rebounds (7.3 rpg). He has tallied a team-best 110 total rebounds and 11 blocked shots on the year. Ahmed Ali has registered a team-high 45 assists. The Cougars are shooting .466 from the field overall, .354 from beyond the three-point line and .740 from the charity stripe. They rank among the top-55 teams in the nation with 15.3 assists per game and their 79.7 points per game is top-50 in the nation overall.