LAS VEGAS — One example of the respect that Lynne Roberts’ University of Utah team has earned among Pac-12 circles was evident when the league announced its preseason women’s basketball coaches and media polls on Tuesday.
Utah, for the first time, was picked to finish first in the Pac-12 — a unanimous move by the media and coaches alike.
That respect for the ninth-year Utes coach goes far beyond some polls, though.
Just ask her peers.
Roberts’ program advanced to the Sweet 16, earned a share of the Pac-12 regular-season championship, won 27 games — one shy of a school record — and was ranked as high as No. 3 in The Associated Press poll last season.
She was also named Pac-12 coach of the year.
While Roberts doesn’t concern herself with trivial things like preseason polls, they help shed a light on the work she has done since taking over the Utah program in 2015.
Fellow Pac-12 coaches have taken notice, among them Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, the Hall of Famer who has guided the Cardinal to three national championships in her 38 seasons as the program’s head coach.
“She’s done a fantastic job and she has an incredibly talented team,” VanDerveer said of Roberts during the Pac-12 women’s basketball media day event in Las Vegas. “I picked them (to win in the coaches poll) last year — because you know, you can’t pick yourself — and they did really, really well.
“Kudos to Lynne and her staff. They play what I call beautiful basketball. They are fun to watch.”
Roberts and VanDerveer gave the Pac-12 world a pair of thrilling contests last year, when Utah and Stanford split a pair of games. The Utes’ win over Stanford in Salt Lake City clinched Utah its share of the regular-season title.
Another coach who calls herself “a very good friend” of Roberts’, Colorado head coach JR Payne, has her program on a trajectory that closely mirrors the Utes’.
Roberts and Payne were both in the West Coast Conference almost a decade ago, when Roberts was the head coach at Pacific and Payne at Santa Clara. Roberts beat Payne to their current positions by one season.
At Colorado, Payne’s Buffaloes have made the NCAA tournament two straight season last and also advanced to the Sweet 16 last year.
This season, Roberts has five returning starters. Payne’s Buffaloes return four starters.
While Roberts’ team is being projected as a top 5 team nationally by places like ESPN and The Athletic, Payne’s is also garnering top 25 attention.
“We talk often about our teams and everything basketball-related,” Payne said of Roberts. “She’s done an incredible job, she has a great staff. They followed a similar track to us, in that they came from a smaller West Coast Conference school to the Pac-12. I’ve been really excited and just happy for how she’s doing and how well they’re going to do this year.”
Speaking of great coaching minds, Roberts added another this offseason as an assistant in former BYU women’s coach Jeff Judkins. Payne, understandably, likes the move.
“Anytime you can add that type of experience is pretty awesome,” Payne said.
Arizona coach Adia Barnes, whose team also split a pair of games last season with Utah in thrilling fashion, also is complimentary of the work Roberts has done in Salt Lake City and even earlier in her career.
“Coach Roberts has been incredible. She’s always been a good coach who I’ve really respected, just even back in her Pacific days,” Barnes said. “To watch what she’s done at Utah has been phenomenal. Utah better really fight hard to keep her. She’s built something really special.”
Barnes lauded the work Roberts has done in making Utah one of the country’s most explosive teams offensively — the Utes finished last season No. 4 nationally in scoring offense, averaging 82.8 points per game.
“She’s done a good job at getting her teams to play their offense, it’s really hard to guard,” Barnes said “It was so smart bringing in (USC transfer Alissa) Pili, who’s made a huge difference, and the way that she has Pili playing — at levels the best I have ever seen Pili — is attributed to what she’s doing as a coach.”
Roberts, for her part, is cognizant and appreciative of the amount of top-end Pac-12 coaching talent has passed the conference throughout the decades and exists there today, while lamenting the end of an era with 10 league teams heading to new conferences next year.
“This group is unmatched. If you look at our league, and I still feel as if I’m a rookie in this league with the legends ... it’s an amazing group,” Roberts said.
“What’s sad is I think we worked well together — you’re competitors at heart, and coaches are a little bit crazy naturally. But we had the conference’s back, and we help each other.
“That all starts with Tara, her leadership.”
