I know how sportswriters operate. For 10 days, you’ll read in forecasts and predictions related to the Pac-12 championship tournament that Stanford has an ace in the pocket because “they’ve been there”.
Say Stanford and Utah get the #1 and #2 seeds, then beat USC and UCLA in the semifinals to set themselves for their third meeting of the season.
Suppose Stanford wins in Salt Like City next Sunday. Sportswriters will remind us of the legendary difficulty associated with beating the same team three times in one season, but if anyone can do it, it’s the Cardinal, because “they’ve been there”.
Stanford beat Utah in last year’s conference tournament final. Stanford has veterans from their 2021 national championship team. Coach VanDerveer was cutting down nets while Coach Roberts was in diapers. Stanford has been there.
If the clichés about beating one team three times, or holding a significant advantage by virtue of tournament experience don’t suffice, sportswriters will reach back for “Utah is still a year away”.
I wrote that Friday night before UCLA at Cal tipped off (in which Cal looked as bad as they have for a couple of months — UCLA is such a strong team; reaching at least the tournament semifinal, I think).
Unfortunately, it sorta looks right following Arizona 82 Utah 72. The more-experienced Wildcats played better defense, gathered more rebounds, took better care of the ball. Utah didn’t look like a national #4.
Have you noticed that each time Utah reaches their highest ranking yet, they lose the next game?
Jan.6: Undefeated and ranked #8 at Colorado, lost 77-67. After losing to Stanford (speaking of whom, USC — with Marshall sitting out! — was within a last-second trey of sending that game on The Farm to overtime), they dropped to #10, but then won seven straight (while teams above lost) to reach #4.
If you wanted to say Utah’s still a year away, the losses to Colorado and Arizona could be held up as evidence. On the other hand, you could also supply it as evidence of resilience. Efficient disposals of Arizona St. and Cal would be helpful in that respect.