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Utah basketball headed to the NIT with a first-round home game against UC Irvine

brandon judd
·3 min read
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Left to right, Utah Utes guards Deivon Smith (5) and Gabe Madsen (55) smile during the first half of the game between the Utah Utes and the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first round of the 2024 Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
Left to right, Utah Utes guards Deivon Smith (5) and Gabe Madsen (55) smile during the first half of the game between the Utah Utes and the Arizona State Sun Devils in the first round of the 2024 Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.

Utah basketball is headed to a national postseason tournament, just not quite the one the Runnin’ Utes were hoping for.

Utah found out Sunday that it will play in the NIT, though it came down to the final matchup reveal before the Utes heard their name during the selection show on ESPN2.

Utah earned a No. 2 seed and will host UC Irvine in the first round on Tuesday at 9 p.m. MDT. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

The winner of that game will play the winner of No. 3 Iowa and Kansas State on either Saturday, May 23 or Sunday, May 24 in the second round, with the chance that Utah again hosts that game.

The first three rounds of the NIT will be played at host schools (the quarterfinals run March 26-27), while the semifinals and championship will be played in Indianapolis at Hinkle Fieldhouse on April 2 and April 4, respectively.

The Utes (19-14) were viewed as an NCAA Tournament bubble team until recently, when Utah suffered a damaging Quad 3 loss at Oregon State that all but squashed their hopes of returning to the NCAAs without winning the Pac-12 tournament.

Utah beat Arizona State in the first round of the Pac-12 tourney before falling against Colorado in the quarterfinals.

After the loss to the Buffaloes, seniors Branden Carlson and Gabe Madsen both said they would like to keep playing, despite falling short of making the NCAA Tournament.

“I play because I love the sport and I want to play as long as I can. So whatever it is. You only get — you play for the games,” Carlson said.

UC Irvine (24-9) won the Big West Conference regular-season championship with a 17-3 league record, but the top seed Anteaters were upset by Long Beach State in the Big West tournament semifinals.

The Anteaters beat USC back in November, when the Trojans were in the top 25, and lost by just one to San Diego State, a No. 5 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and last year’s national runners-up.

All-Big West first-time honoree Pierre Crockrell II paces UC Irvine — the fifth-year senior guard is averaging 7.9 points and 6.4 assists per game, with a 2.9 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Justin Hohn, the team’s leading scorer at 12.7 points per game, earned All-Big West second-team honors, while Andre Henry was named the league’s best defensive player.

This is the first time in six years that the Runnin’ Utes will play in a national postseason tournament — Utah also played in the NIT in 2018, and last played in the NCAAs in 2016.

Utah reached the NIT championship in the 2018 tournament.

That year, Utah beat UC Davis and LSU at home in the opening two rounds before beating Saint Mary’s on the road in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals at Madison Square Garden, the Utes beat Western Kentucky before losing to Penn State in the championship game.

This will be Utah’s 15th appearance in the NIT. The Utes have a 15-13 all-time record and won the tournament in 1947.