With just nine games left on the calendar - eight in the Big 12 regular season and at least one in the conference tournament - time is running short for Utah basketball to carve out progress in what’s been a challenging first season under head coach Alex Jensen.
The Utes are in the thick of a brutal Big 12 schedule, and while the record isn’t where they’d like it to be, the goal remains the same: get better every day, every game. That’s been Jensen’s message since day one, and it hasn’t changed as the season hits its home stretch.
“Same goal as the beginning of the year,” Jensen said. “Get better every game, every day.
And I think we all learned how good the Big 12 is. There’s no games or weeks off.”
That’s not just coach-speak. The Big 12 is a gauntlet - arguably the toughest league in the country - and Utah’s felt the full weight of that grind.
Take last Saturday’s road loss to No. 11 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Utes were within two points early in the second half before the Jayhawks unleashed an 18-4 run that shut the door. It was a snapshot of what’s plagued this Utah team all season: long scoring droughts and stretches where the game slips away.
To Jensen’s credit, his team hasn’t stopped competing. The Utes have battled through adversity, clawing back from deficits and showing grit. But effort alone won’t fix the inconsistency that’s defined their season.
“I’ll give them credit. I think we’ve played hard for the most part, and we’ve never given up,” Jensen said.
“We’ve dug ourselves holes that we’ve come back from. My job every day is to help them get better… We’re just trying to be more consistent and not have those three or four minute stretches where we dig ourselves those holes.”
Consistency is a tall order in this league, especially with what’s coming next.
Houston Comes to Town
Up next: a Tuesday night showdown at the Huntsman Center with No. 3 Houston - a team that’s 21-2 overall, 9-1 in Big 12 play, and as tough and disciplined as any squad in the country.
The Cougars have won four straight and haven’t lost since early January. Their only two losses all season came by a combined seven points.
Houston brings a loaded roster to Salt Lake City. Freshman guard Kingston Flemings is already making noise, and he’s flanked by 6-foot-11 big man Chris Cenac Jr. and experienced guards like Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan.
This team is long, athletic, and relentless on both ends of the floor. And they’re coached by one of the best in the business.
“Coach Kelvin, there’s not a better coach in the conference,” Jensen said. “There’s a lot for myself and us to learn from them, because they do what they do and they’re really good at it.
He gets the players that fit him well. He’s one of the few coaches that’s won everywhere he’s gone.
It’ll be a good challenge for our guys… this will be the hardest playing team that we’ve played against.”
Lineup Experimentation & Silver Linings
In the loss to Kansas, Utah was without backup guard Obomate Abbey, which forced a bit of a lineup shuffle. That meant more minutes at the two-guard spot for 6-foot-6 Seydou Traore and 6-foot-8 Kendyl Sanders sliding into the three.
The result? A bigger look that, while unconventional, showed some promise.
“Seydou at the 2 gives us a little more size, and it was good,” Jensen said. “Those were conversations we had at the beginning of the year, before we had some injuries and other things.
In the future, it’d be great to be able to have that luxury of going big and small and being able to change up the lineups. We were kind of forced to at Kansas and it actually worked out pretty good for stretches.”
It’s the kind of flexibility that could pay off down the road - maybe not this season, but certainly as Jensen continues to build his program.
The Road Ahead
Let’s be honest: barring a miracle run in next month’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Utah’s season is likely to end there. At 9-14 overall and 1-9 in conference play, the Utes are the lowest-rated team in the Big 12 according to the NET rankings (No. 126), and five of their final eight regular-season games are against Quad 1 opponents.
The other three? Still Quad 2.
That’s the reality of life in the Big 12. There are no easy nights.
Still, there are opportunities for growth - and maybe even a few chances to steal a win or two. Home games against UCF (Feb. 21) and Colorado (March 3) stand out as more winnable matchups. But the clock is ticking.
“There’s a lot fewer games (at the NCAA level), and in the NBA, sometimes you have the luxury to have a bad week or two,” said Jensen, who spent over a decade as an assistant in the NBA. “In college, you can’t - a bad week could be the difference in a lot of things.”
Utah’s Remaining Schedule (NET/Quad Status as of Feb. 9)
- Feb. 10 - vs. No.
3 Houston (NET: 6; Quad 1)
- Feb. 15 - at Cincinnati (NET: 71; Quad 1)
- Feb. 18 - at West Virginia (NET: 63; Quad 1)
- Feb. 21 - vs.
UCF (NET: 44; Quad 2)
- Feb. 24 - vs.
No. 5 Iowa State (NET: 5; Quad 1)
- Feb. 28 - at Arizona State (NET: 82; Quad 2)
- March 3 - vs.
Colorado (NET: 72; Quad 2)
- March 7 - at Baylor (NET: 46; Quad 1)
- March 10-14 - Big 12 Tournament (Kansas City)
So what can Utah learn about itself in these final few weeks? That’s the question Jensen and his staff are trying to answer - one game, one practice, one possession at a time.
The wins may not come in bunches, but the growth? That’s still on the table.