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Denver • Twenty-seven wins. Second place in the Pac-12. Reaching No. 12 in the national rankings. Beating Duke. Beating Arizona.
For a season filled with such memorable milestones, the 2015-16 Utes were still distant from true greatness.
It was made painfully clear this year in losses to Miami, Wichita State and three to Oregon — all by double digits. And Gonzaga's 23-point rout of the Utes was merely the last submission of the year, an undoing that was humbling for both the opportunity missed and the final impression it left.
"It's hard to explain," senior forward Jordan Loveridge said. "It's kind of sadness, but other than that, just a loss for words."
There will be time to appreciate the season's achievements. The Utes spent a little bit of time Saturday night doing just that. Coach Larry Krystkowiak thanked Utah's seniors for their service. In the larger picture, they raised a six-win program to go to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. From winning three conference games in 2012 to wrapping up 13-5 in 2016, there's been a lot of growth.
On many big stages, the Utes did succeed this season. They toppled the defending national champions at Madison Square Garden. They won close road games at Colorado, Washington and UCLA. They won 12 of their final 14 regular season games, and beat Cal in a nail-biter in the Pac-12 Tournament.
To take too much meaning in the final game, Krystkowiak said, would be to blow it out of proportion.
But for Utah's fans, it was difficult to ignore the losses as well. When the Utes whiffed, they often whiffed big.
Of the team's nine losses, seven were by double digits. Utah's scoring margin was plus-7.7 points this year, the 53rd-best mark in the country. But in defeat, the Utes lost by an average of 15.5 points.
Two of those losses came at the most critical junctures of the season, with the Utes getting steamrolled in the Pac-12 title game vs. Oregon, and then bounced by No. 11 seed Gonzaga a week later. With a guarantee of playing a double-digit seed in a Sweet 16 matchup, the Big Dance loss was particularly bitter.
"Disappointing, obviously," Krystkowiak said. "As I shared with our basketball team, there's not many places you can be placed in life where you get to ride the emotional roller coaster we did. I know this isn't the way we wanted to finish our season."
The burning question is why the losses happened. There are some common threads.
With the exception of Cal, all of the teams that bested Utah by 10 or more also won games in the NCAA Tournament this year. Utah never had fewer turnovers than its opponent in any loss. In Utah's four biggest losses, defensive game plans completely blew apart: Gonzaga's effective field goal percentage — a metric that gives 3-point baskets more value than 2-pointers — was 63.1 percent, the highest for a Ute opponent this season, trailed by Miami and two of the Oregon games.
In the postseason, there's also perhaps some seeding issues. The Pac-12's supposed parity was exposed to be less competitive than previously thought, as five conference teams — all ones that Utah beat this year — were bounced in the first round. They had benefited in the selection process from getting top-50 RPI wins by beating up each other, and many got beat up in the postseason as well.
While neither Krystkowiak nor Gonzaga coach Mark Few expressly stated that the Selection Committee might've dealt Gonzaga a lesser seed than it deserved, the 11th-seeded Bulldogs certainly played like a contender in Denver.
"I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the Final Four," Krystkowiak said.
Utah, meanwhile, is headed home. The team didn't just miss the chance to do something special in the Big Dance — it didn't come close.
Twitter: @kylegoon