10 Utah sports stories that defined 2023

Well, 2023.

Like Cam Rising’s knee, you were more complicated than most of us predicted.

Though, in hindsight, we should’ve known better. The reality is always difficult. As complex as the NBA’s salary cap rules, as cutthroat as negotiating a new media rights deal.

But in sports, we found reasons to believe nevertheless. That Sweet 16 heartache might become one shining moment. That Small Lake City can become a Major League town. That what is broken can be healed.

So goodbye, 2023. You were heartbreaking, frustrating and wonderfully interesting — and you’ve left us all wondering what’s next.

The Salt Lake Tribune’s Top 10 Stories of 2023

10. Puka Nacua becomes unstoppable

Plenty of locals in the NFL made headlines this year. Jets quarterback Zach Wilson went from off-Broadway understudy to leading man and back again. San Francisco linebacker Fred Warner continued to terrorize offenses. And former Utes Zack Moss, Britain Covey and Dalton Kincaid had highlights aplenty.

But Nacua’s breakout season stood alone.

Anyone who has watched football in Utah has known Nacua was a talented wide receiver — from winning a state title at Timpview to making unbelievable catches last season at BYU.

But given Nacua’s injury history there were plenty of questions about his NFL future and not much in the way of expectations for his rookie campaign. The only question left is whether the Los Angeles Rams wide receiver will break the NFL’s rookie receiving record (he’s 147 yards away) en route to winning offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

9. Mountain Mike moved to Minnesota

The Utah Jazz’s 2023 only feels like two very different chapters.

The team finished last season just outside of the play-in, leaving fans and players optimistic about the campaign to come. What’s followed has been a reminder of how challenging an NBA rebuild can be — and where Mike Conley stands among the league’s point guards.

While the Jazz finished with 37 wins last year, the team went 10-16 after dealing away the veteran point guard on Feb. 8.

This season, the team started 10-18 before surging of late.

Conley was the Jazz’s “crutch,” head coach Will Hardy acknowledged, and the guy who “did a lot of the thinking for everybody.”

Now Conley has the Minnesota Timberwolves thinking about an NBA title, while the Jazz embark on their rebuild in earnest without him.

8. Out of the wilderness, into the jungle

After a decade of wandering the wilderness that is football independence, the BYU Cougars were finally welcomed into their new home on July 1.

Rudely so, in some cases.

A sellout crowd of 63,834 — the largest at LaVell Edwards Stadium in nearly 15 years — roared as BYU hosted and won its first Big-12 home game, beating Cincinnati by a score of 35-27.

It would get more challenging on the football field after that.

The Cougars went 2-7 in conference play and missed out on a bowl game for just the third in the last 20 seasons.

Head coach Kalani Sitake called the Cougars’ inaugural Big 12 season “the most difficult schedule in BYU history.”

“We are going against a different beast here,” he said after a blowout loss against Iowa State. “These are teams that have been at a Power Five level way longer than we have. I’m not making excuses. I’m just telling you, they are really good players.”

7. You get a truck! And you get a truck!

University of Utah football players grabbed the keys to new Dodge pickup trucks — and national headlines — earlier this year thanks to what has to be the U.’s single biggest name, image and likeness deal to date.

And NIL’s deals and impact will only be bigger stories going forward.

There’s no doubt that NIL rules have instantly changed the collegiate sports landscape.

The millions of dollars now being funneled to student-athletes now keep star players (see Rising, Cam) from bolting for the pro ranks, make life difficult for Group of 5 schools (just ask the folks at Utah State) and spark debate among academics, administrators, athletes and the United States Congress alike.

(We’ll reluctantly yield the remainder of our time here to Sen. Lindsey Graham, who earlier this year cited the Utes’ trucks as proof of needing a federal standard for NIL.)

6. NBA All-Star Weekend comes to Salt Lake City

As competition, the NBA’s All-Star Game is meaningless.

As spectacle, it’s almost unparalleled in U.S. sports.

And one long weekend in February, that party took over Salt Lake City. Rapper Travis Scott had people snowboarding at the Gateway. Damian Lillard paid tribute to Weber State, and won the 3-point contest in the process. And Jazz owner Ryan Smith got a chance to sell his vision of Utah to the world.

“I think we want to show every kid that other people think their state’s cool,” Smith said.

Most people seemed to enjoy themselves.

“I love shedding light on cities that a lot of people probably don’t understand,” said DeMar DeRozan, the All-Star guard from this year’s Chicago Bulls squad. “It is a great city. It is cool to be able to experience it.”

Hall of Famer Charles Barkley felt differently, however.

“Ain’t nothing to do in this boring a-- city,” the TNT commentator said during the game’s broadcast.

OK, Chuckster. Let’s get you some coffee.

5. Tom Farden steps down

At the ribbon-cutting for his team’s upgraded multi-million dollar facility in August, Utah gymnastics coach Tom Farden talked about the delicate process of building something meaningful.

“Like an ice sculpture,” he said. “If you chip too fast, it’s probably going to crack. If you chip too slow, it’s probably going to melt.”

Only later would it be revealed that Farden was under investigation at the time — and that his behavior had already created a fracture among the athletes he coached.

Privately, a number of gymnasts had alleged Farden was verbally and emotionally abusive. When news of the investigation broke, others came to Farden’s defense, saying his tough coaching was essential to their success.

And few teams in Utah have been as consistently successful as Farden’s Red Rocks over the years.

An independent investigation could not find evidence that Farden was abusive by definition, but the U. placed the coach on an improvement plan and said he would change his coaching tactics.

Months later, after Farden’s lawyer told the Washington Post that the coach had no intention of changing, Farden and the U. parted ways.

The controversy and eventual exit of a coach who had taken his team to three straight Final Fours would be a massive story on its own. But Farden’s story might also tell of a cultural change, and a redrawing of lines when it comes to what is and isn’t acceptable in coaching.

4. Cam Rising’s ACL

When the Utes’ star quarterback left the Rose Bowl with a leg injury on the second day of the year, nobody knew it would be the end of two different Utah football seasons.

For months to start the 2023 season, doctors kept everyone — seemingly including head coach Kyle Whittingham — guessing when Rising might return to the field.

As it turned out, Rising’s injury was more severe than most knew. The QB tore his ACL, meniscus, MPFL, and MCL, he revealed in early October. A few weeks later, the Utes finally ruled him out for the rest of the year.

Rising’s absence, and the guessing game surrounding it, provided some incredible moments.

We won’t forget walk-on Bryson Barnes throwing a 70-yard bomb to Money Parks on the first play from scrimmage against Florida, or how the Pig Farmer bested the Heisman Trophy winner in L.A.

But ultimately, Rising’s absence (along with a seemingly endless list of other injuries) derailed a Utah season that held such promise.

At the start of the year, Whittingham said it was the most talented team he’d ever assembled. By the end of the year, everyone just wanted to pretend something called the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl never happened.

3. If you bid it, will they come?

No puck has dropped.

Nobody’s shouted, “Play ball!”

And no Olympic torch has been passed.

Not yet anyway.

But the prospect of things to come provided major storylines for Utah’s sports fans in 2023.

In October, the International Olympic Committee all but assured Salt Lake City it would host the 2034 Winter Games.

And we’ll see where those Olympians end up playing hockey. Smith has made it clear he’s leading the charge to bring a National Hockey League team to the state, whether through expansion or relocation. And Smith has NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s ear.

Meanwhile, the Miller family is looking to get back into a different game after selling their majority stake in the Jazz. The family announced in April it was leading a coalition to try to land a Major League Baseball franchise.

“When I think about the community I love and the legacy we want to leave for future generations, I am thrilled that we have the potential of bringing an MLB expansion team to Salt Lake City,” Gail Miller said. “Our coalition is swinging for the fences and couldn’t be more excited.”

2. Utah basketball becomes a national power once again

There are Utes fans who’ve spent decades longing for the days of Rick Majerus, when the Utes crushed opponents every weekend at the Huntsman Center.

Alissa Pili is here to answer your prayers.

The Utah women’s basketball team was absolutely dominant in 2023. Behind the seemingly unguardable Pili (she’s averaging 23.8 points per game again this season, by the way), the high-powered Utes’ won the Pac-12 regular season championship and came within a free throw or two of beating eventual national champs LSU in the Sweet 16.

The image of Utah coach Lynne Roberts consoling forward Jenna Johnson at the end of the game should be a lasting one for this reason: It wouldn’t have hurt if the Utes weren’t legitimate contenders.

There’s big-time hoops at the Huntsman Center again.

And big things are happening for women’s sports both at the U. — where Amy Hogue’s softball team earned a trip to the College World Series for the first time since ‘94 — and around the state — where Utah Royals FC has spent the year preparing to bring women’s professional soccer back to the Beehive.

It’s time we all pay better attention.

1. Pac-12 rests in pieces

It’s difficult to say who exactly is to blame for the death of the Pac-12.

Was it the Trojans and Bruins of Los Angeles, Calif., who decided two summers back that Ten was worth more than 12? Was it Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, who jumped the line and grabbed a bag of cash for his schools, leaving too little for those to the west?

Was it Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff (or his predecessor Larry Scott) who blundered and bungled the thing to pieces? Or Utah President Taylor Randall, who reportedly was the loudest voice pushing for a bigger payday in an ultimately failed media rights negotiation?

Should we pick a deadly sin — pride, greed, envy, lust — and point?

What’s simpler to know and to say is that the Conference of Champions, which helped put Utah on the map for good, will be missed.

Still, it’s OK to have hope for the future.

If the old adage is true, it is always Pac-12 After Darkest before the dawn.