Thursday night’s 88-62 loss at No. 8 Arizona was the University of Utah’s worst loss since a 91-52 embarrassment at rival Colorado way back on Jan. 12, 2020, when coach Larry Krystkowiak was roaming the sidelines for the Utes.
“They might be the most athletic team in the league. They try to make the game crazy, helter-skelter, flying all over the place, pressuring you. They are just everywhere. It is almost like a pickup game, they make it like that.” — Utah coach Craig Smith on ASU
Ironically, but not coincidentally, the former coach’s son, Arizona walk-on Luc Krystkowiak, did the final twisting of the knife, as it were, by making a meaningless layup with 30 seconds remaining to provide the final scoring margin at McKale Center. The 6-foot-4 guard, who started his career at Utah in 2020-21 and played last year at Irvine Valley College, was mobbed by his teammates after the 2-pointer, for reasons which became apparent a few moments later.
In a postgame interview, leading scorer Kerr Kriisa of Arizona, who had 17 points in the atonement for the Wildcats’ 81-66 loss in Salt Lake City on Dec. 1, called the walk-on’s second bucket as a Wildcat “the best part of the night” because “Utah screws his family over and then we get right back at them.”
Whatever.
Larry Krystkowiak was fired without cause in March 2021 after his 10th season on the Hill, meaning he was entitled to a $6.7 million buyout. Just a hunch: His family is probably doing OK.
The lopsided loss and that little last-second jab might have dinged the pride of the Utes and their fans — who watched the elder Krystkowiak lead them to an unacceptable two NCAA Tournament appearances in 10 years — but in the big picture it did little to damage Utah’s postseason hopes.
What really matters is what the fourth-place Runnin’ Utes (17-10, 10-6) do next. Saturday’s game at fifth-place Arizona State (18-9, 9-7) is the one the Utes really need to get.
The Sun Devils dropped from No. 69 to No. 73 in the NET rankings after their 67-59 loss to Colorado Thursday night, but a victory over ASU would still be considered a Quad 1 win for the Utes because it would be on the road against a team in the top 75 of the NET rankings.
Beating Arizona in front of 14,688 fans in Tucson was probably not a realistic expectation for the Gabe Madsen-less Utes; knocking off a middling ASU team, albeit on Senior Night in Tempe, is a reasonable ask if the Utes want to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes afloat.
Tipoff is at 4 p.m. MST and the game will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.
“It is a quick turnaround,” coach Craig Smith told ESPN 700 radio after the Arizona loss. “We got another Quad 1 opportunity in front of us. I mean, maybe they will slide out of that after that loss. Who knows? They are a borderline Quad 1 team.”
Utah’s NET ranking slid from 52 to 54, and the Utes dropped out of ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s “Next Four Out” classification into obscurity in the guru’s Friday installment. But the loss wasn’t all that surprising, or damning. A similar setback on Saturday in the first and only regular-season meeting with the Sun Devils would be.
“Losing hurts. Losing sucks,” Smith said. “We gotta bounce back (Friday) with a good one day of prep and be ready to compete in Tempe.”
Arizona State led Colorado by eight points in the second half, then ran out of steam as the Buffaloes stampeded to a 17-3 run late to pull off the upset as five-point underdogs.
The Arizona Republic said the loss was perhaps the “final dagger in the Sun Devils’ NCAA postseason hopes unless (they) were to win the conference tournament.”
So the Utes and ASU are in the same boat. After playing each other, they have their rivals remaining, and games against the Los Angeles schools, league-leading UCLA and third-place USC.
Smith said the Utes are expecting an angry, fired-up opponent at Desert Financial Arena that is closer to full strength than it has been. Nevada transfer Warren Washington, a 7-footer, returned to the lineup after missing last week’s games due to concussion protocol and had six points and five rebounds in 23 minutes.
“They might be the most athletic team in the league,” Smith said. “They try to make the game crazy, helter-skelter, flying all over the place, pressuring you. They are just everywhere. It is almost like a pickup game, they make it like that.”
Utah had 12 turnovers against Arizona, which is near its season average. Smith said taking care of the ball Saturday will be a priority.
“We really have to be able handle pressure against them, take care of the ball,” he said.
“They turn teams over. Then they got a lot of different weapons on offense, namely Desmond Cambridge.”
Cambridge was 2 of 11 from 3-point range against CU and finished with 12 points. He’s averaging 14.1 points per game.
Watch for Smith to stick his best defender — Marco Anthony — on Cambridge. Rollie Worster will probably draw the assignment of guarding DJ Horne, who averages 11.7 points.
