You build, you build and you build, and during the whole process, you hope that one day, you’ll have a game like this. Against an established winner, a title contender, on your own floor, with another shot to prove that every practice, game, recruiting trip, everything during this era were all just pieces of an upward trend.
They’d never come out and say it, not during this memorable run, but the No. 21 Utes have their shot. And it’s the first of many. On Sunday at noon, when the ball is tossed in the air against No. 6 Stanford, Utah will play in its biggest game in the five seasons of the Lynne Roberts era. For so many years, the Utes have felt they were close to breaking through, always on the precipice of having a say in the vast hierarchy of the Pac-12 Conference.
This year?
It’s hard to argue with 17-1, the best start in school history and an AP Top 25 ranking for the first time since 2008.
It’s impossible to not see that these Utes are everything Roberts envisioned when she was hired back in 2015.
They’re versatile, they’re tough, they can defend, they can score, and they can shoot. Every player on the floor can score from anywhere, no matter the position, no matter the matchup, which makes Utah a tough scout for any team. Friday night’s 87-74 win over Cal proved as much, as four players were in double figures and ran the Golden Bears out of the Huntsman Center.
“That’s kind of the way I like to recruit,” Roberts said. “It’s finally … I feel like we finally have that. I’ve had some teams where 1 through 5 can score, and that’s where it gets pretty fun. We’ve recruited to that. This is probably the best team I’ve ever coached.”
And to think the Utes are down some key players due to injury, too. Before the season started, sophomore forward Maurane Corbin suffered a season-ending knee injury. Three weeks ago, in Utah’s lone loss of the year against Arizona State, senior guard Daneesha Provo had a season-ending knee injury. But as senior star Megan Huff noted after the win over Cal, the mark of a great team isn’t just replacing the gaps missed by talent, it’s players making an impact their own way.
Like junior guard Kiana Moore’s speed. Or grad student Sarah Porter’s dangerous 3-point shot. Or freshman forward Andrea Torres’ ability to stretch the floor from distance. The list goes on.
“Every one is always ready, and ready to go,” Huff said. “Literally anybody could bring their own stuff at any point in time. It’s really fun to play with people who are really selfless basketball players.”
The Utes will face one of the programs in college basketball predicated on selflessness Sunday, a primary reason why the Cardinal is always there in the chatter regarding potential Final Four appearances. Like the Utes, Stanford is 17-1, its lone loss coming at Gonzaga in early December.
“They don’t beat themselves,” Roberts said of Stanford. “You can’t take bad shots, you can’t turn it over, you can’t give them offensive rebounds. You can’t beat yourself against them, because you’ll never get back in.”
To keep this thing rolling, Utah, Roberts added, must be “fearless.”
The Utes have played that way all year. Admittedly, Stanford is a different beast. And they know it, too.
“They’ve got to come in here and beat us, too,” said Roberts. “They’ve got to prepare for us, too.”
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