TEMPE, Ariz. — The gauntlet is over, depending how you look at it, for the Utah basketball team.
Since Dec. 18, the Utes have played six games against teams that each have at least 12 victories on the season, including four nationally ranked opponents and one that has been ranked most of the season.
It began with No. 6 Kentucky and continued with San Diego State, currently the only undefeated team in America. Then the Utes played Oregon State, No. 4-ranked Arizona, No. 25-ranked Colorado, followed by Arizona, which has been ranked for 10 of 11 weeks this season.
“It’s humbling — we just finished playing our fifth of six games against Top 20 teams and we all feel like we’ve been punched,” Ute coach Larry Krystkowiak said, exaggerating only slightly on the rankings of his opponents. “We’ve got a sense of what big-boy basketball is all about.”
The Utes began their tough stretch with an upset victory over Kentucky and followed it with a beatdown by San Diego State. Then after an 11-day layoff, the Utes opened Pac-12 play with a 12-point win over Oregon State, only to lose by five points to Oregon. The last two losses against Colorado and Arizona have been blowouts, the latter a 93-77 defeat in Tucson on Thursday night.
Next the Utes will take on Arizona State, a team it has beaten four straight times here, including a 96-86 victory last season. The Sun Devils are no pushover — they’ve made the NCAA Tournament the past two years and this year they are 10-7, though tied with Utah and UCLA for last place in the Pac-12 at 1-3.
“Not that the schedule lightens up — I don’t want to discredit anybody that’s coming up,” Krystkowiak said. “Certainly it isn’t going to be of the same category of what we’ve gone through.”
But there aren’t any easy games in the Pac-12. After playing Arizona State, the Utes return home to play defending conference champion Washington, followed by Washington State — picked to finish 11th in the league — which just beat Oregon by 11 at home.
In Arizona State, the Utes will be facing a squad that has seen its shares of ups and downs this year.
Early on, the Sun Devils won eight of their first 10 over teams such as St. John’s and Georgia only to be followed up by a 40-point loss at home to Saint Mary’s. Their Pac-12 results have been identical to Utah’s, with losses to Arizona, Oregon and Colorado and a lone win over Oregon State.
ASU is a guard-oriented team led by 6-foot junior Remy Martin who averages 19.5 points and 4.1 assists per game. Junior guard Alonzo Verge scores 12.4 points per game, while junior forward Romello White averages 11.1 points and 9.8 rebounds.
“It starts with Remy Martin and they’ve got a lot of the same players back we’ve faced the past couple of years,” Krystkowiak said of Arizona State.
The Utes coach is more concerned with his own team, however, particularly its play on the offensive end. Since shooting 54.8% in the win over Kentucky, the Utes are collectively shooting under 40% over the past five games including 35.2% against Colorado, 35.6% against Oregon and 32.6% against San Diego State.
“We’ve got to get sharper offensively and get a better identity,” Krystkowiak said. “We’ve been struggling a little bit and part of that is because we’ve played elite defensive teams. We’ve got to execute, we’ve got to screen, we’ve got to be better at making some plays. It puts a lot of strain on our defense if you’re struggling at the offensive end.”
After scoring 16 points against Arizona, Timmy Allen’s scoring average has fallen below 20 for the first time all season to 19.9 points per game. Both Gach, who struggled again with a 1-for-8 shooting night at Arizona, averages 11.8 points per game, followed by freshman Rylan Jones at 10.6. Riley Battin is coming off one of his better games of the year with 16 points at Arizona and he averages 9.5 points per game, while the fifth starter is expected to be Branden Carlson at center (5.1 points per game).
Krystkowiak praised his reserves, who scored 17 points in the final 3:19 of the game, and fans may see more of Alfonso Plummer, who scored nine points with a pair of 3-pointers in those closing minutes.