The University of Utah men’s basketball team is having a renaissance of sorts this season.  After an impressive home stretch including wins against USC and UCLA, the Utes have a record of 14-4 and are just two victories away from matching their PAC 12 win total from a season ago.

The depth and talent on the Utah roster is something that Utah fans haven’t seen since the last time they made the NCAA tournament in 2009.

With as good as the Utes have been this year, they are underachieving.  Every game that Utah has lost so far this season has been a very winnable game.  In fact,  their four losses have been by a total of nine points.

They haven’t been able to win any close games for one reason; their preseason schedule was far too soft and did not prepare them for when they had any tough games.  Utah played 12 games prior to the PAC 12 season of which 11 were at home.  Their only road game was at Boise State which they lost by a bucket.  The Utes also brought only one opponent that you could consider a quality team into the Huntsman Center in arch-rival BYU.  Every other game was against teams that are either low-end division one programs or worse.  There were even a few teams on the schedule that not even the biggest fans have ever heard of or would want to watch.  It came as no shock that the Utes won some of those games by as much as 70 or 80 points.  That didn’t prepare them in any way for the close games they would face in the PAC 12 and that has hurt them a great deal.  The lack of road games has especially hurt this talented squad.  The Utes fell on the road to a pair of mediocre teams in Washington and Washington State.

Now that Larry Krystkowiak has built an impressive roster, it’s time to use the pre PAC 12 schedule for what it is meant for.  To prepare to win meaningful games.  It serves no purpose to bring in teams like Evergreen State and St. Katherine.

Fans don’t want to watch those games and players get bored facing such inferior competition.  There is no benefit whatsoever, and can hurt them down the line.  The Utes have a talented enough roster to make a tournament run this year, but may not get the chance because the committee that chooses the at-large teams and seeds them, doesn’t look kindly on such a weak schedule.

Now that the Utes have a team built to contend in the powerful PAC 12 I hope that they don’t follow this model anymore.  You don’t need to schedule low-end opponents any longer now that your team has plenty of confidence to compete moving forward.