With Keith Van Horn out again - this time because of foul trouble - and Brandon Jessie struggling after a brilliant performance Thursday night, Utah desperately needed someone to step forward in Saturday's NCAA contest with Iowa State.
Luckily sophomores Michael Doleac and Andre Miller came to the rescue to lead the Utes to a 73-67 victory before 15,469 at Reunion Arena Saturday afternoon.Doleac scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Miller scored 14 points, including a key 3-pointer and two important free throws in the final minute to help the Utes to a berth in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1991.
Next stop for the Utes is the Midwest Regional Thursday night at Minneapolis, where they'll play Kentucky, an 84-60 winner over Virginia Tech Saturday.
"I thought it was an extraordinarily hard-played game by both teams," said Ute coach Rick Majerus. "Nothing is more important than defense and I thought our defense today was as it has been all year - superb."
The Cyclones, who beat Kansas for the Big Eight tournament title last week, also played strong defense as the two teams staged a closely fought game until the Utes were finally able to pull away in the final minute.
The key basket came with 43 seconds left after Mark Rydalch had his shot swatted away by the Cyclones' 6-11 center Kelvin Cato. With the shot clock running down, Miller received the ball on the right wing and sank his trey to put the Utes up by five. A few seconds later, Miller, one of the poorest free-throw shooters on the team, calmly sank a pair of foul shots to ice the win.
Then there was Doleac, the Utes' 6-11 center, who never really seemed to play to his potential this year after a promising freshman season. He went 9 for 12 from the field, 5 for 5 from the line and had a pair of blocked shots in addition to his 12 rebounds.
"I don't know what happened - it just seemed to go well for me today," said Doleac. "I couldn't have picked a better time to have a game like this."
Even though the Cyclones had a prolific shot-blocker in Cato, the Utes decided they weren't going to be afraid of him.
"We told Mike, `we're going to go at him with you,' " said Majerus. "He understood and accepted the challenge. Mike played a great game."
Doleac scored 10 first-half points and scored eight of 12 Utah points in a key stretch late in the second half. He tipped in a Ben Melmeth miss, sank two free throws, knocked down a 12-footer from the right baseline, then made a slam dunk off an assist from Jessie.
The latter basket made it 57-54, and a few seconds later Van Horn went out with his fifth foul during a pileup under the Utah basket. On the same play Miller went down hard and stayed down for a couple of minutes after briefly losing the feeling in his legs.
Then Jessie made a spectacular tip-in and Doleac completed a three-point play, but Dedric Willoughby kept the Cyclones close with a pair of baskets.
Iowa State got within two at 62-60, but Rydalch answered with a 15-footer at the 2:30 mark. Willoughby, the Cyclones' top scoreron the day with 26 points, cut the lead to two with 1:13 left.
The Utes set up a play for Rydalch, who got free in the middle for an open 15-footer. Out of nowhere came Cato to knock it back in Rydalch's face. Rydalch grabbed the ball and in the air, passed it to his right toward Miller. With about five seconds left on the shot clock, Miller didn't hesitate and flung one of his flat-footed set shots that hit nothing but net.
"I just wanted to throw the ball up because the shot clock was running down," said Miller, who had missed a wide-open three with 1:30 left. "Maybe I do better when I don't think about it."
Besides Miller, Ben Caton and Doleac also sank a pair of free throws in the final half minute.
Besides Willoughby's 26, Cato finished with 11 for Iowa State, while Kenny Pratt had 10 points and 12 rebounds. Pratt, the former College of Eastern Utah player, was held in check by the defense of Jessie.
"I want to give a lot of credit to Utah," said Iowa State coach Tim Floyd. "I think they played very well on the defensive end and made us work for every basket."
Van Horn, whose timing appeared off much of the game after sitting out all week with the flu, finished with 11 points and a season-low two rebounds in just 23 minutes. He picked up his third and fourth fouls in the first two minutes of the second half, sat out for eight minutes before coming back and fouling out at the 6:05 mark. At least three of Van Horn's fouls looked questionable, but Van Horn wasn't around after the game to talk about them.
Afterward Van Horn was whisked away from the media, surrounded by tournament officials, sort of like the President with secret service agents in tow.
"It wasn't like I was trying to sequester him," said Majerus. "He's been sick and was dehydrated. He didn't need to be standing around here talking (to media)."
The official word from trainer Gerald Fischer was that Van Horn was "a little weak, but doing fine."
In Kentucky, the Utes will be facing a team that until last weekend, everyone thought was unbeatable. The Wildcats had won 27 straight games before losing to Mississippi State in the finals of the SEC tournament.