Utes seeking March Gladness

The University of Utah squeaked by UTEP 60-54 in round one of the NCAA tournament. For the Utes it was like a road game, as many of the UTEP faithful made the trip to Tucson. The Utes came back from an early deficit, and then gave up a big lead of their own, to hold on for a win. The game actually went about like I envisioned, even down to my predicted final margin of victory (5-6) although the ending was more tense than I expected. Andrew Bogut was terrific and received just enough help at the end to get it done.

Next up, the Oklahoma Sooners. I get the sense that many Utah fans and the media that covers the Utes aren't giving Utah much of a chance at this point. Well, if you look at the schedules of the two teams, it becomes clear what will happen....

Utah and Oklahoma share four common opponents. Both schools beat Coppin St., Northern Colorado, and High Point. Please don't ask me where those schools are because I would only say..... Coppin is not a state that I know of, unless it's some small north eastern state hidden around Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, that none of us out west remember from geography class. Northern Colorado, I'd only venture to guess is in some small obscure city north of Denver, no wait that is Colorado State which is in Fort Collins and since there isn't a north and south Colorado like Carolina or Dakota, I'm at a loss...,....and High Point, for lack of a better guess, I would say they should be in some mountainous region maybe in Northern Montana. Okay, refocusing now. Both OU and Utah lost to their other common opponent, Washington. Utah and Oklahoma are also teams that generally win games they are supposed to win. All five of Utah's losses are to tournament teams, and six of the seven OU losses came to tournament teams. That one loss is the one that makes this whole thing clear. The Sooners lost to Missouri, which finished just below .500 this season. Missouri lost to UNLV. Utah beat UNLV three times, so its clear Utah will win.

Using the same logic, Utah should win the National title. That poor Illinois squad lost their only game to Ohio State by one point. That opened the door for the consideration that Ohio State lost to Creighton who lost to Wyoming. Utah beat Wyoming twice. Clearly this isn't March Madness it's March Gladness for Utah.

Seriously, with regard to the Sooners, they look to be very high powered. Strong back court and two big guys to battle Bogut down low. Deep bench of athletes and an extra big guy or two. That might be just the combination to slow Bogut and the Utes. However, keep in mind some of Bogut's best games came against Colorado St., which boasts three 7-footers and was the biggest team in the league. Also, while OU has many good players, I am not sure there is one that is NBA bound on this roster right now. Utah will have to do some obvious things to compete in this game: Control the tempo, hit a few of the open three pointers when OU sags in on Bogut, and keep turnovers within reason. To do that Utah will need the support players to make more of an impact than they did against UTEP.

Despite all my impenetrable logic, Vegas says OU is a 5 point favorite. I think that feels about right.