Utah Basketball: Utes hope to remain at top of Pac-12 standings

After two consecutive successful seasons, Utah basketball is hopeful that they have found their place near of the top of the Pac-12 conference.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a series of articles to summarize this past season for every team in the Pac-12 conference.

The series will start at the bottom of the conference with Washington State and we will work our way to top of the final standings with Oregon. Beyond a final summary, I will attempt to provide some insights on each team as they approach the offseason in hopes of an improved 2016-2017 season.

2015-2016 Season

Overall Record: 27-9

Conference Record: 13-5

Final Conference Standing: Second out of 12

Conference Awards: Jakob Poeltl (Pac-12 Player of the Year, Pac-12 All-Conference: First Team, Pac-12 All-Defensive Team: Honorable Mention), Brandon Taylor (Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Pac-12 All-Defensive Team, Pac-12 All-Conference: Honorable Mention), Jordan Loveridge (Pac-12 All-Conference: Honorable Mention)

Summary: The 2014-15 and 2015-16 Utah basketball seasons had a lot of similarities. The Utes finished second in the conference, had only nine losses, and earned NCAA Tournament bids in both seasons. The main difference between the campaigns was the early season expectations, leaving one year as a success (2014-15) and the other a slight disappointment (2015-16).

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In 2014-15, the Utes were coming off a fairly mediocre season and looking to prove themselves. Utah handled their business early and advanced to the Sweet 16, where they would fall to the eventual champion Duke Blue Devils.

Fast forward to 2015-16. The Utes molded into a team with confidence, experience and a drive to succeed. Utah would enter the year ranked number 16 in the preseason AP poll.

The Utes went go 11-2 in non-conference play, including a win over No. 7 Duke. During conference play, Utah would stay consistent for the most part. However, Utah was unable to defeat Oregon this year and would lose three times to the Ducks.

Utah entered the NCAA Tournament as a three seed, compared to the five seed they received the previous year. The Utes would not make it out of the first weekend though, as they dropped to the 11 seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round. It was a pretty poor showing as they fell behind by 23 points.

This season was a mostly successful year, but the Utah basketball program was looking for an improvement and will have to go in to the next season with unknown production from their roster.

2016-2017 Season

Leaving: Jakob Poeltl (NBA Draft), Austin Eastman (senior), Brandon Taylor (senior), Dakarai Tucker (senior), Jordan Loveridge (season)

New Faces: Jayce Johnson (C, 4-star recruit), Devon Daniels (SG, 3-star recruit), Jojo Zamora (SG, Junior college transfer)

Outlook: Lorenzo Bonam and Kyle Kuzma will lead this squad as the most experienced players on the team. Beyond that, no other returnees held very large roles.

Johnson could slot in as the starting center and fill the role that star big man Poeltl held down for the past two season.

Also, Kenneth Ogbe and Brekkot Chapman will likely be asked to play significant minutes this season.

With a mix of experience and talent levels on the roster next season, it will be interesting to see how Utah fares, especially with several of the other teams in the conference likely to see improvements.

Next: Wichita State set to embark on a new era

With so many strong recruits entering the conference, the Utes stock will likely be pointing down without the services of a high quality NBA big man.

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