Utah’s men’s basketball team impressed a lot of people this week.
Over three days, the Runnin' Utes defeated Kansas and Kansas State in Salt Lake City.
Both of those programs reportedly have bigger NIL budgets than the Utes. So Utah’s head coach — who may have even saved his own job with the victories — took a confident victory lap following the program’s momentous wins.
“I do have a feeling they had a pretty good idea of that,” Craig Smith said of his team’s understanding of the Kansas schools’ NIL budgets. “So whatever it takes to motivate them … Hopefully you have guys who are very intrinsically motivated, but certainly there are always outside influences.”
So where does Utah stand in the race to the NCAA Tournament?
It is 71st in NET Rankings
It is 76th in KenPom
There are 68 teams in the March Madness field. Clearly, the Runnin’ Utes are inching closer to the bubble. Can they keep their momentum up?
Here’s the rest of their schedule by potential Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins:
Quad 1 — at Arizona and at BYU
Quad 2 — at UCF, vs. West Virginia and vs. Arizona State
For reference, the Cougars and the Mountaineers are currently earning the final two remaining Big 12 nods in Joe Lunardi’s latest March Madness bracketology.
BYU has a 3-7 record in Quad 1 games.
WVU currently has a 5-8 record in Quad 1 games.
The Runnin’ Utes? They are 3-9 in those contests. So Utah has two paths: Win most of their remaining games or make a deep, deep run in the Big 12 Tournament.
They could also win the entire Big 12 Tournament to steal an automatic bid.
But, for the first time in a while, the Utes have given themselves a chance.
