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LAS VEGAS — As Daylight Saving Time hits and the calendar flips to March, Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak is invigorated.
It’s the best time of year in college basketball — and the Runnin’ Utes are playing like it.
Gone are the early season struggles, the road losses to nonconference rivals, and the struggles of making themselves relevant in the Pac-12.
The Runnin’ Utes take the No. 3 seed into the conference tournament, tipping off Thursday at 9:30 p.m. MST at T-Mobile Arena against the sixth-seeded Oregon (21-11), which outlasted Washington State 64-62 in overtime late Thursday night.
And for a team on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament like the Utes, Krystkowiak likes the feeling around his program as it hits March having won six of the last seven games.
“You’re only as good your next game, and the adage that some of these guys have heard many times is that you are never as good as you think you are and you are never as bad as you think are,” said Krystkowiak, who was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year Tuesday by the Associated Press.
“You just stay in the fight. There are some things clicking … and I get a sense that the guys are staying together and playing well. I feel markedly different than I did at this time last year, where I just felt things were off.”
As far as their tournament hopes go, Utah’s path into the tournament is different depending on which expert is currently speaking on television. With the No. 49 RPI and rated 61st in KenPom’s predictive rating, Utah finds itself squarely on the bubble — but a win over Southern California in a potential semifinal matchup could tilt those odds considerably in the Utes’ favor.
There’s only one way to feel completely safe, though.
“My mindset is to win the first game; that’s first and foremost,” Krystkowiak said. “But the one defined for-sure way to punch your ticket is (to win the conference tournament). In that sense, we are in control of our own destiny.
“If we don’t do that, we are going to have to do some damage along the way to be in those discussions.”
One automatic bid that will go the conference boasts 10th-ranked Arizona, USC and UCLA, as well as the Utes and everyone else. But that berth could swing any number of directions as the tournament tipped off Wednesday in Las Vegas.
“When you look at the results and how packed the league was, Arizona and USC earned the right to be the top two. But after that, there isn’t a whole lot that separates third from 10th,” Krystkowiak said. “I think everybody feels optimistic about putting together a nice run, and there’s no reason not to be.”
The Runnin’ Utes could be without forward David Collette, who suffered a severe ankle sprain in the regular season-ending 64-54 win over Colorado. The swelling is still pretty severe, Krystkowiak noted, and while the Utes’ athletic training staff is working to make him comfortable by Thursday, there’s a significant chance he will still be hobbled by tipoff.
Replacing the 6-foot-10 senior from Murray, who averages 12.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, could go several directions. Jayce Johnson and Tyler Rawson could be asked to do more in the post, and Krystkowiak even mentioned Donnie Tillman, the star freshman from Detroit by way of Findlay Prep in nearby Henderson, Nevada, as a “skewed lineup” replacement for the injured Collette.
Even more onus of the Utes’ offense, then, will likely shift toward graduate senior Justin Bibbins, the all-Pac-12 guard who averages 14.4 points per game.
Whatever changes happen, Krystkowiak also plans to rely on the team’s culture to try to win three games in March and punch its ticket to the nation’s top tournament.
“This is one of your times when you talk about your culture, and ours is DNA — Different. Noticeable. Appealing … There are a lot of people watching, and we want to stop and talk with them.
“Beyond basketball, I think (the Utes) are trying to represent our university and our culture.”
