On Saturday at 1:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks, Stanford men’s basketball will face the Utah Runnin’ Utes on The Farm. Stanford comes in at 5-8 overall and 0-3 in the Pac-12 while Utah comes at 10-4 overall and 3-0 in the Pac-12.
Last time out: On Thursday, Stanford fell to Colorado on The Farm by a final score of 73-70. K.J. Simpson led the Buffaloes with 31 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists while Spencer Jones was the top performer for the Cardinal with 25 points and 6 rebounds.
RECAP: Stanford MBB falls to Colorado on The Farm
On Utah: The Runnin’ Utes are off to a strong start, picking up conference wins vs. Arizona, at Washington State (OT), and at Cal. They do have losses to Mississippi State (neutral site), Sam Houston State (neutral site), at BYU, and vs. TCU. So, they are certainly beatable. Like all Utah teams, they are especially tough at home, but away from Salt Lake City, they don’t have the same punch. Though as we’ve seen, they do have a pair of road wins in conference already.
The Utes are led by senior center Branden Carlson, who is averaging 15.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game. Junior guard Gabe Madsen is the number two scorer on the team with 13.4 points per game while fifth-year guard Marco Anthony (11.1 points & 6.8 rebounds) is also in double figures. The three of them form a really nice trio.
As a team, the Utes average 73.6 points per game on 45.9% shooting from the field, 36.0% shooting from 3-point range, and 68.7% shooting from the foul line. They average 42.4 rebounds, 15.1 assists, 4.9 steals, 5.7 blocks, and 13.1 turnovers per game. They also average a +7.5 rebound margin and a -1.9 turnover margin per game.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is get more than one point out of Harrison Ingram. If he had even had five points against Colorado on Thursday, they would have won the game, but he was off and that really hurt them. So, they need him to have a bounce back game and if he does, that really could make the difference.
Secondly, Stanford needs to win the battle in the paint. Not just in terms of rebounding, but they can’t let Carlson eat them for lunch inside. He’s going to look to have a big game. This is a matchup where guys like James Keefe and Maxime Raynaud need to come up big inside.
Finally, this game is going to come down to ball security. That’s been a weakness for both teams this year and whichever team can find ways to take better care of the ball will have the edge. Stanford commits too many silly turnovers that really are shooting themselves in the foot. As an example, against Colorado, Ingram threw a pass straight out of bounds due to some miscommunication with Isa Silva. Turnovers like that can’t happen.
Prediction: This is honestly a toss-up game. The Vegas line has Stanford by 1.5, which means they could see this game going either way. I had Stanford beating Colorado by three points on Thursday and they lost by three. And the line was Stanford by 1.5 in that game as well. Utah is coming in with more momentum and I think they’ve earned the right to be picked to win this game, but it’s going to be another close one. Stanford will certainly have their chances to win if they don’t. Utah 70 Stanford 68 is my prediction.
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