The significance of Saturday’s game at Oregon could be heard in Utah guard Gabe Madsen’s voice Thursday night after the surprising Runnin’ Utes buried Oregon State 63-44 with their trademark stifling defense.
“We know how big of a week this is for us and, yeah, we are not messing around this week, and we are ready. That loss (to Oregon) left a little sour taste in our mouth. So we have been waiting for this one.” — Utah guard Gabe Madsen
“We know how big of a week this is for us and, yeah, we are not messing around this week, and we are ready,” Madsen told ESPN 700 radio. “That (70-60 loss to Oregon three weeks ago at home) left a little sour taste in our mouth. So we have been waiting for this one.”
Tipoff is at 6 p.m. MST inside Matthew Knight Arena, which seats 12,364 and is expected to be rocking Saturday night because the Ducks (12-9, 6-4) are coming off a 75-69 win over Colorado and are also playing for their postseason lives.
Oregon is 22-2 against Utah in Pac-12 games and hasn’t lost in Eugene since Dec. 29, 2017, a 66-56 decision; the Utes’ only other win over the Ducks came on March 9, 2013, in Salt Lake City.
Oregon has had Utah’s number more than any other program in the league. Can Utah, which has won three straight, reverse course Saturday night?
“It is going to be a way different feel and vibe (than Thursday, when an announced crowd of 3,252 was taken out of the game early at Gill Coliseum by Utah’s 10-0 start),” coach Craig Smith said. “You go there and it is like an NBA arena feel. … It has that aura to it, or feel to it.”
For the Runnin’ Utes, who bused to Eugene immediately after completing the season sweep of the last-place Beavers, Saturday’s showdown feels “huge,” as Madsen said.
It is also a big opportunity to build their NCAA Tournament resume, because Oregon is No. 61 in the NET rankings and road wins against teams in the 1-75 range are considered Quad 1 wins. Utah’s NET was No. 45 Friday morning and it was 2-3 in Quad 1 games.
They are up to 40 in KenPom.com, another metric the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses in the process to fill the tournament field.
So while Thursday’s game at OSU was about taking care of business as eight-point favorites, Saturday’s game is about erasing bitter memories of past failures against Oregon and moving closer to the bubble.
Also, Utah (15-7, 8-3) is suddenly in second place in the Pac-12 and just a half-game behind league-leading UCLA (17-4, 8-2), which has lost two straight and does not play again until next Thursday.
The pressure is building, which is a lot better than last year when they won just four league games. That’s the way Smith likes it.
“I have always looked at pressure as a privilege,” he said. “You want that. See the picture, paint the picture, sell the picture.”
What Smith is selling right now, the Utes are buying.
“I don’t worry about that (standings and rankings) stuff,” he said. “I am really old school that way. I don’t care. I mean, I care, I don’t want to be at the bottom of the standings. But it doesn’t matter now. All that matters is today, and tomorrow and the next day.
“And if we take care of all that, then, you know, hopefully good things will happen.”
With the struggling Bay Area schools on the docket next week at the Huntsman Center, and middling Colorado visiting the week after that, Utah could easily take a seven-game winning streak into the Feb. 16 game at Arizona if it can somehow manage to knock off the Ducks.
KenPom.com gives Utah a 41% chance of winning, and predicts a 69-67 win for Oregon.
Three weeks ago, the Ducks came to SLC angry after losing 68-41 at Colorado two nights prior, and took their frustrations out on the Utes in a rugged game that featured 41 fouls.
Oregon led by as many as 14 points in the first half before Utah rallied after the break, but fell short.
Oregon’s N’Faly Dante, who led the Ducks with 17 points and 12 rebounds that night, did not play Thursday against Colorado, a late scratch due to a lower leg injury. Nate Bittle replaced him in the starting lineup and had 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Oregon’s big issue this year has been inconsistency — the Ducks are 2-2 since dumping the Utes — and poor 3-point shooting. They are 314th in the country in 3-point percentage, making just 30.6% of their attempts from deep.
Conversely, Utah is No. 7 in 3-point percentage defense (27.4%).
“We have got to rebound,” Smith said when asked for keys to the game. “We got pummeled on the boards against them (in Utah). It felt like they just made us pay with layups and dunks. And those are huge momentum-gainers no matter where you are, but especially at home.”
Utah’s best player, center Branden Carlson, was just OK in that game, scoring 10 points on 2 of 6 shooting, while grabbing nine rebounds in 29 minutes. Oregon double-teamed him when he got the ball down low, and he struggled to find the open man.
That will have to change Saturday for the Utes to be successful.
“They are just uber-talented, and they are so athletic,” Smith said. “I mean, throughout their lineup they have length and athleticism, and they are getting healthy now.”
