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UC completes their Mountain West excursion on Tuesday night with a visit to the Huntsman Center to take on Utah in Salt Lake City. The Utes are looking to build on a 22-win season in 23/24 under 4th-year coach Craig Smith and make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2016. Like the Bearcats, Utah has an uphill battle to navigate en route to achieving that goal as they boast a 11-8 record, 3-5 Big 12 record, #78 NET ranking, and #89 KenPom ranking.
While they failed to snag a marquee win during their soft non-conference schedule (#356 per KenPom), the highlight of their season thus far has been a three-game run in mid-January where they beat Oklahoma St at home (83-62), TCU on the road (73-65), and capped it off with an exhilarating overtime win against rivals BYU (73-72 ) at home.
For UC fans, all eyes will be on the Madsen twins tonight. Gabe Madsen has scored over 1,200 career points at Utah through 3-and-a-half seasons and leads the team with 14.8 ppg this year while slashing 38/32/86. After two semi-productive years at Boston College, Mason Madsen had a bright start to his time as a Ute, but has struggled to find a rhythm during Big 12 play where he has only averaged 3.6 ppg and shot 19% from 3 over 7 games.
Utah boasts quite a bit of size as they played 11 players in their last game against Baylor and 7 of those players were 6'8 or taller. While they are neither a strong offensive (#109 per KenPom) or defensive team (#78), they get to the foul line at a decent rate (3rd in the conference in FTs attempted). However, they have shot a conference-worst 59.2% at the charity stripe over 8 Big 12 games.
They have also been a poor 3-point shooting team during Big 12 play (26.5%), have forced the least amount of turnovers (8.1/game), and have given up the most offensive boards per game (12.1).
Despite their deficiencies, the Utes currently stand as 1.5-point favorites at home.
Needless to say, this game is a must-win for UC as they approach a stretch where 3 of their next 4 games will be played at Fifth Third.
While they failed to snag a marquee win during their soft non-conference schedule (#356 per KenPom), the highlight of their season thus far has been a three-game run in mid-January where they beat Oklahoma St at home (83-62), TCU on the road (73-65), and capped it off with an exhilarating overtime win against rivals BYU (73-72 ) at home.
For UC fans, all eyes will be on the Madsen twins tonight. Gabe Madsen has scored over 1,200 career points at Utah through 3-and-a-half seasons and leads the team with 14.8 ppg this year while slashing 38/32/86. After two semi-productive years at Boston College, Mason Madsen had a bright start to his time as a Ute, but has struggled to find a rhythm during Big 12 play where he has only averaged 3.6 ppg and shot 19% from 3 over 7 games.
Utah boasts quite a bit of size as they played 11 players in their last game against Baylor and 7 of those players were 6'8 or taller. While they are neither a strong offensive (#109 per KenPom) or defensive team (#78), they get to the foul line at a decent rate (3rd in the conference in FTs attempted). However, they have shot a conference-worst 59.2% at the charity stripe over 8 Big 12 games.
They have also been a poor 3-point shooting team during Big 12 play (26.5%), have forced the least amount of turnovers (8.1/game), and have given up the most offensive boards per game (12.1).
Despite their deficiencies, the Utes currently stand as 1.5-point favorites at home.
Needless to say, this game is a must-win for UC as they approach a stretch where 3 of their next 4 games will be played at Fifth Third.
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