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Utah's first Pac-12 win, 56-54 on a last-second shot at Colorado, was cause for relief.
After the second — a 59-53 victory at home over Oregon State — the Utes (13-5, 2-3) were a little more muted. Perhaps some of the celebration factor of winning in Boulder affected them early in the week, coach Larry Krystkowiak mused, helping contribute (with other distractions) to a big loss to Oregon on Thursday. Utah has taken that to heart.
"You hope that as this point of the season comes, you can start putting all those things together and start growing and not making those same mistakes," he said Sunday night. "I don't think we're going to be in harm's way with taking anybody lightly in this league after experiencing what we did on Thursday night."
The Utes can't afford to. While they've certainly shown an ability to be clutch this season, holding on for tight wins against San Diego State, Temple, Duke, Colorado and Oregon State, the Utes have yet to show dominance they had at times last season.
Remember those times from 2015? A 71-39 win over UCLA. An 83-41 win over Arizona State in which the Sun Devils scored only nine points in the first half. Of Utah's 26 wins last season, a whopping 22 were by double digits.
There is no security like that this season: Utah has won eight games against RPI top 100 teams, and only two of them — Texas Tech and IPFW — have been double-figure margins. The Utes have won in overtime, they've won with late stretches of solid defense, and they've won with free throws.
They haven't often won comfortably.
Ahead of a date with 9-8 Washington State, the Utes are taking the game with the conference's last-place team very seriously. After all, they're a loss away from being there themselves.
"We're not an elite-type team that can make any kind of assumptions that we're taking a night off," Krystkowiak said. "That's kind of silly. We're all scratching and trying to figure out a way to get a W. They're a quality team: There's no disrespect there."
The issues, somewhat oddly, have been on offense in Pac-12 play. The Utes began the season as the conference's most efficient offense, anchored by sophomore center Jakob Poeltl's production in the center. But since Pac-12 play began, Utah's productivity has taken a dip, and both wins have seen Utah score fewer than 60 points.
On one hand, it's encouraging for the team to come through in key moments. Utah showed growth at the free throw line, for example, against the Beavers, hitting 10 of their final 13 attempts. It was a marked improvement from an 0 for 7 finish in a loss to Stanford at the beginning of the month. And Utah's defense locked in late and kept OSU from getting good looks.
But Krystkowiak also told his team on Sunday night "we have to be better to accomplish our goals." A lot of that lies in getting better shooting numbers and giving up fewer turnovers. Utah would also love to get a good start at some point: In its last four games, Utah has struggled to score out of the gate. In four of its last five, it's had 30 points or fewer in the first half.
"Just having the mindset of coming with intensity and energy," Dakarai Tucker said. "We can't disrespect the game. We have been coming out sluggish lately and that is something we need to fix. We just have to push it down their throats and not let up."
That's what Utah did a lot of last year: pushing down and not letting up. This season, they're still looking for the push.
Twitter: @kylegoon —
Utes' close calls
• Of eight top-100 RPI wins, six have been in single digits.
• Utah's scoring margin has slid from plus-14.2 ppg last season to plus-8.7.
• Utah hasn't scored 60 points or more in its past four games.
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Utah at Washington State
P Thursday, 9 p.m. MST
TV • FS1