Utah’s likelihood of missing NCAA Tournament again hits home after loss in Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals

LAS VEGAS — Utah’s hot shooting from its Pac-12 tournament first-round win over Arizona State didn’t carry over to the Runnin’ Utes quarterfinals matchup against Colorado late Thursday.

The result was a 72-58 loss for No. 6 seed Utah to the No. 3 seed Buffaloes, a defeat that likely dashes the Utes’ final hope of making the NCAA Tournament and brings the school’s Pac-12 era to an end in men’s basketball.

“Basketball is a humbling game, as are all sports. Yesterday it felt like the basket was as big as it could possibly get, and tonight we really struggled to get the ball in the hole,” Utah coach Craig Smith said.

For those who missed the 9:30 p.m. MST tip while they were snoozing away, tucked inside their comfy beds, here’s what happened.

The most damaging struggle for Utah all night was its shooting woes. The Utes made only 32.8% of their field goals, not nearly enough to keep up with a hot Colorado team that shot 44.4% and is making a strong case to earn an at-large NCAA bid, if it doesn’t win the Pac-12 tournament.

“We played super, super hard. Obviously tonight we struggled to make shots consistently, and that happens sometimes,” Smith said.

“They do a good job of making it hard to score around the basket. In the first half we were 2-for-14 around the rim, and it just felt like they sped us up. We were quick and we were just kind of — shot some hope shots instead of playing strong off of two feet, getting your weight on your inside shoulder and finishing those plays at the basket.”

At times, Utah crawled back into the contest and looked like it could become the only lower seed to win in the quarterfinals. Instead, the top four seeds all were victorious, setting up top-seed Arizona against No. 4 Oregon and No. 2 seed Washington State against No. 3 Colorado in Friday’s semifinals.

A critical swing during the second half came when Utah fought its way back to within five and Hunter Erickson, who had 10 points at that juncture, had a good look at a 3.

It hit off the rim, though, and on the Buffs’ next possession, KJ Simpson made his own 3 to push the lead back to eight.

Then Utah had just its third turnover of the night on its ensuing possession, and all the sudden, what could have been a two-point game was an eight-point Colorado lead.

The Buffaloes then went up nine a little over a minute later when Simpson hit another 3 that came after a critical offensive rebound. That made it 58-49 with 7:20 to play, and with the way Utah was shooting, that felt like an insurmountable lead.

Turns out, it was.

Colorado crafted that momentum swing into a 16-5 run to effectively put the game away.

Erickson and Branden Carlson each scored 13 points to lead the Utes, while Carlson added six rebounds and Erickson made a pair of 3-pointers.

Cole Bajema also had 10 points, all in the first half.

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Colorado coach Tad Boyle credited J’Vonne Hadley for his defense on one of Utah’s top shooters, Gabe Madsen. The Utah guard finished with nine points, but shot just 3 of 14.

“Tonight (Hadley) had (Madsen) the whole game — for the most part. KJ had him a little bit, too. It was a good defensive effort. His defensive effort tonight was phenomenal, held him to single digits,” Boyle said.

“And Madsen has been a thorn in our side both times we played them. Guy deserves a lot of credit.”

Colorado, in winning its seventh straight game, grabbed the momentum early by making 10 of its first 14 field goals.

Utah was frigid to start, only making 3 of 17 field goals at the beginning of the contest.

After Colorado built a 14-point lead at 21-7 less than eight minutes into the game, there were five 3-pointers in a minute and a half span — three for the Utes, two for Colorado.

That came as Utah fought its way back into the game with a 15-0 run over a five-minute stretch to take a 28-27 lead.

During that run, Colorado missed eight straight shots, while Utah made 6 of 10 — three of which were 3s.

Colorado ended up taking a three-point lead into the half, and then the Buffaloes again grabbed the momentum in the early moments of the second half, never letting Utah take the lead.

After the Utes made 6 of 14 3-pointers in the first half, they hit just 2 of 16 in the second.

“They were getting good looks. At times we were kind of over-helping, and I think communication was the biggest thing, understanding where people are, where shooters are, and running them off the line with a high hand and not letting them get attempts up as much,” Simpson said of Colorado’s ability to limit Utah from 3-point range in the second half.

The Utes’ postseason fate is now in the hands of committees, with no more opportunities to strengthen their case. Their hopes of breaking a seven-year NCAA Tournament drought appear over, with Quad 3 losses at Oregon State and Arizona State weighing down a resume that includes a 4-9 record now against Quad 1 competition.

The NIT is a more realistic option, as Utah has the fourth-highest NET ranking (No. 48) among Pac-12 teams.

The NIT is implementing a new rule this season that the top two highest-rated NET teams that don’t make the NCAA Tournament from the Power Six conferences, including the Pac-12, will automatically earn NIT invites.

At this point, Arizona and Washington State are NCAA locks, and Colorado is looking like a strong contender for an at-large berth at worst.

That would set Utah up with one of those two spots assured to go to Pac-12 schools.

Still, the sting of knowing that making the NCAA Tournament is no longer a reality was apparent in the postgame press conference, where Carlson and Madsen sat next to their head coach.

“I’m not sure people totally understand, just meeting with the team afterwards, those are hard things,” Smith said. “Because the amount of time (not just) these two, but everybody — I’m speaking for the University of Utah and all the teams around the country — the amount of sacrifice and discipline and work ... everything that goes into it.

“And then it comes to it where you know you’re not going to make the NCAA Tournament like that, and there’s a lot that goes into it, so it’s really, really hard. This team’s had to go through a lot of different things throughout the year. It’s hard when it’s final. Tonight we just weren’t able to get it done.”