The Utah Utes were absolutely demolished by the Oregon Ducks in the Pac-12 championship game last Saturday, 88-57. The Utes, however, will swallow that pill of a loss over taking an upset defeat against the Fresno State Bulldogs this coming Thursday.
After a harrowing experience at the hands of Oregon, the Utes must be itching to rebound in a big way with a win over Fresno State .
It simply wasn’t Utah’s day, as the Utes shot 43.2 percent from the field and had 20 turnovers, while being massively outrebounded by Oregon, 36-25. To be fair, Oregon is one of the one-seeds in the tournament and possesses one of the best collections of talents in the nation. Oregon is not Fresno State so the Utes must have their confidence back when they go up against the 14-seed Bulldogs.
Utah is among the most balanced teams in the nation, with the Utes ranking 76th in points (76.5 PPG) and 93rd in points allowed (69.0 PPG).
Without a doubt, Utah’s best player is NBA-bound Jakob Poeltl, who is regarded by many as the finest big man in the nation. Poeltl paces the Utes with 17.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game.
Poeltl also gets ample help from the likes of Jordan Loveridge and Kyle Kuzma, who are putting up 11.8 and 10.8 points, respectively, on the season. After combining for only 15 points in the Oregon game, Loveridge and Kuzma should have a better time garnering baskets against Fresno State’s softer defense that allows 71.2 PPG.
Utah is 9-1 SU and 7-3 ATS in its last 10 games overall.
By way of winning the Mountain West conference tournament, the Bulldogs are going dancing. Although their resume isn’t as impressive as Utah, the Bulldogs’ nine-game win streak is one that’s hard to ignore. In a single-elimination tournament, sometime momentum is everything a team needs to get wins.
As for how they’ll play the game, expect the Bulldogs to give Marvelle Harris a ton of touches against Utah. Harris is averaging 20.6 PPG and while he’s mostly played against weaker competition in the MWC, he’s confident he can be just as dangerous against Utah. After all, he’s dropped 18 and 23 points against Oregon and Arizona, respectively, this season.
Harris of course needs his teammates to step up if the Bulldogs have any plans of prolonging their season or at least covering the spread. Karachi Edo and Julien Lewis will have to carry some extra weight with talented forward Torren Jones out indefinitely for undisclosed reasons. Edo is putting up 9.9 PPG, while Lewis is making 8.6 PPG. Lewis has come up big lately, as the senior guard has averaged 17.5 points in the past five outings.
Fresno State, which is 128th in the nation with 74.6 PPG, is 4-0 SU and ATS in its last four games as an underdog.
