A flurry of 10 second-half 3-pointers carried Utah to the first upset of the Pac-12 season Thursday at Arizona State, and for that the Utes celebrated.
For a while, at least, inside their Wells Fargo Arena locker room.
Then they loaded on to the bus.
An immediate two-hour ride to Tucson followed and, while guard Sedrick Barefield said the mood was still celebratory, the entertainment was not.
Each player was assigned to watch video compilations of what they had to watch out for Saturday against the Arizona Wildcats.
“We were just watching film on the bus and kind of going over the scouting report,” Barefield told the Star on Friday. “It was little things like that, trying to get mentally prepared for the next game.”
That’s life in the Pac-12.
The Utes and Wildcats will meet at noon Saturday in the quickest turnaround the league offers: After their arrival in Tucson late Thursday night, the Utes had only about 36 hours before Saturday’s tipoff while the Wildcats weren’t home much earlier after a 64-56 win over Colorado.
“Not every conference does this,” UA coach Sean Miller said. “You have to put behind you something that just happened and quickly move ahead to a brand new opponent.
“Hopefully the fact that we’re at home will help us in the recovery and the focus to great ready.”
If the Utes have an advantage, it’s from the experience they gained during an upgraded nonconference schedule.
Despite losing four starters from a team that reached the NIT championship game last season, the Utes traveled to Minnesota and Kentucky, while also inviting Nevada to the Huntsman Center.
They lost all three of those games, plus three others, but won something else that could come in handy during what appears to be a wide-open Pac-12 race: fearlessness.
“We’re battle-tested. … I feel we have a lot of fight within us,” Barefield said. “We had a pretty good nonconference schedule with the teams we were facing and I think that through those tough games we learned a lot about ourselves and what our strengths are.”
Utah senior Sedrick Barefield started the first nine games, dropped to the bench and then started in Thursday’s win.
Even though Barefield is the Utes’ only returning starter from the 23-win team of a year ago, the Utes also had to figure out, what, exactly, to do with him.
Last season, Barefield played mostly off the ball while Justin Bibbins handled the point. This year, Barefield was shifted more fully to point guard, while freshman Both (pronounced “booth”) Gach has proven versatile enough to play either guard spot.
Barefield started the Utes’ first nine games and then, after going 1 for 7 at Kentucky, began coming off the bench. Three games later, he dropped 33 on Nevada off the bench and moved back in the lineup.
Not that Barefield ever made much of that.
“It’s always an adjustment each and every game and you’re not involved with those decisions; it’s whatever’s best for the team,” Barefield said. “When you come off the bench, seeing what the team is doing, seeing the flow of the game versus kind of being thrown into it.”
As it has turned out, Barefield’s numbers have overall been better off the bench. But he had 26 points, four rebounds and six assists (with five turnovers) at ASU, suggesting that starting him isn’t a bad idea, either.
Whatever the case, Barefield and Gach have combined to run a team with considerable versatility at forward and with two 7-footers, Jayce Johnson and Novak Topalovic, inside.
“It’s so much fun playing with Both,” Barefield said. “We’re both capable of playing the one or two. A lot of the time we’ll get me off the ball but if he’s hot, I like to get plays for him. It’s a thing between the two of us.”
Together the Utes have the 35th most efficient offense nationally, shooting 37.4 percent from 3-point range and 54.4 percent from inside the line, making their 16-for-30 effort from long range Thursday at ASU not a huge surprise.
It was a different story on Dec. 15 at Kentucky, when the Utes made just 7 of 23 3-pointers in their 88-61 loss. But, at least internally, Barefield found the game to be something of a turning point.
“It’s funny, but for me personally and I know for some of my teammates, even though we didn’t win the Kentucky game, we made some improvements as far as playing together on the offensive end,” Barefield said. “When we share the ball, we’re a really good team.”
The Utes also may have found out something else at Lexington that day: If they can cope with the atmosphere there, they can probably do the same with Wells Fargo Arena, and McKale Center, too.
