Utes Bulletin: Things Happening In Utah Athletics (Week Of 3/13/23)
Mar 13, 2023, 11:47 AM
SALT LAKE CITY – We are a week out from spring football at the U and several of the smaller sports are in full-swing and having success, making a one-stop-shop for little tidbits of Utah Athletics information necessary with the Utes Bulletin.
If you missed any of the highlights from the previous week, you can review that here.
Without further ado, here is this week’s Utes Bulletin that includes ranking updates, upcoming events for the week, and important dates to keep track of among other items of interest concerning Utah Athletics for the week of 3/13/23.
𝗨𝘁𝗮𝗵 𝗔𝘁𝗵𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸
⛳️ @UtesGolf
🥎 @Utah_Softball
⚾️ @utahbaseball
🏊 @UTAHswimdive
🎾 @UteWomensTennis
🏐 @UtahBeachVB
🏀 @UTAHWBB
🎾 @UtahTennis
🤸♀️ @UtahGymnastics
🥍 @UtahLacrosse🎟️ https://t.co/pL7bwJAt8N#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/a5X28ZTskE
— Utah Athletics (@utahathletics) March 13, 2023
Utah Women’s Basketball Goes Dancing
Utah women’s basketball will be dancing for the second year in a row after making it to March Madness last season for the first time since 2011. As a second seed in the NCAA Tournament this year, the Utes will get to play host in the first two rounds at the Huntsman Center.
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Who, What, When, Where
Utah’s first game in the NCAA Tournament will take place on Friday, March 17 with a 5:30 p.m. MT tip time. The No. 8 ranked Utes will play the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs- a first-time meeting between the two programs.
𝑵𝑶. 2 𝑺𝑬𝑬𝑫 ‼️
Dancing in Salt Lake City against the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs this Friday🙌#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/DTjRe9QpMP
— Utah Women’s Basketball (@UTAHWBB) March 13, 2023
If Utah advances, they will be set to play on Sunday, March 19 with opponent (either be North Carolina State or Princeton) and time yet to be determined. Tickets are already for sale and can be purchased here.
Utah Ski Team Are 4-Peat National Champions
Madison Hoffman became a double national champion in the Alpine event as Utah skiers won all four title races in New York.
Novie McCabe swept the women’s Nordic races and Sophia Laukli (third place) and Sydney Palmer-Leger (fifth place) weren’t far behind. They helped contribute 103.0 points to the Utes’ total.
🏆🏆 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑-𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐓🏆🏆
For the 16th time in program history, we are national champions‼#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/nO4sQOREwG
— Utah Ski Team (@utahskiteam) March 11, 2023
Final Results
- Utah (526.0 points)
- Colorado (491.5 points)
- Denver (416.5 points)
“It’s an incredible feeling to pull this one off,” Utah director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt said. “It was probably the hardest one in my five years at Utah. Colorado came out and they really performed at a higher level than they have all winter, and it ended up coming down to the wire. I’m very proud of our whole team.”
Utah Gymnastics
The Red Rocks had another mixed-bag weekend. They came up short to Oregon State in the final regular season meet of the 2023 season, 197.950-197.700.
2023 Pac-12 Regular Season Co-Champions!#trUSt | #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/RddKTrrfc0
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 12, 2023
Despite the loss, Utah did improve their NQS road scores and earned a fourth of the Pac-12 Regular Season Title. Unfortunately, while the Red Rocks did improve their NQS road scores, they will drop down to No. 5 in this week’s rankings.
Entering post-season ranked #5
Event Rankings ⤵️
Vault: 5th
Bars: 5th
Beam: 1st
Floor: 8th#trUSt pic.twitter.com/1z13TFObrT— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 13, 2023
Pac-12 Honors For The Utah Utes
Who, What, When, Where
The Red Rocks will have one more opportunity to improve their road NQS scores for final positioning ahead of post-season play this weekend during the Pac-12 Championship Meet.
All eight Pac-12 gymnastics teams will compete in West Valley City, Utah at the Maverik Center on Saturday, March 18. Times are still pending for the two quad-meets, but all of the action can be caught on Pac-12 Networks.
Utah Basketball
Utah saw some good improvement in Craig Smith’s second year at the helm but will now be turning their attention to making further improvements for year three. Part of that movement started today with guard Mike Saunders Jr. hitting the NCAA Transfer Portal.
We have our first offseason movement for the #RunninUtes as Mike Saunders Jr. has hit the NCAA Transfer Portal.
— Michelle Bodkin (@BodkinKSLsports) March 13, 2023
Saunders Jr. transferred into the Utes last summer from Cincinnati but was used very sparingly through the 2022-23 season. His biggest minutes came against UCLA and USC when starter Rollie Worster was out with an injury.
Postseason Love
While the ending to Utah’s season didn’t pan out the way they would have liked, two players, Branden Carlson and Marco Anthony, walked away with Pac-12 Postseason Awards.
Carlson was also named to the AP’s All-Pac-12 Team.
Utah Softball
The Utes swept Oregon State over the weekend, overcoming some late deficits to do so. Utah has now crept into the Top 25 for softball at No. 23 after being the only Pac-12 team to get through the weekend without a loss to open conference play.
The Utes completed a sweep of Oregon State on Sunday by erasing two late deficits and winning the game in the 10th inning. #GoUteshttps://t.co/0WF1DOHXg7
— Utah Softball (@Utah_Softball) March 13, 2023
Utah Baseball
Utah baseball also opened up Pac-12 play this past weekend against Washington. The Utes finished 1-2 against the Huskies, getting a win on Sunday to close their first Pac-12 series out.
Hear from Coach Henderson following Sunday's win to close the series at Washington#GoUtes pic.twitter.com/ILnpTuDiZi
— Utah Baseball (@utahbaseball) March 13, 2023
Utah Football
Utah football is a week out from their 2023 spring practices which will start next Tuesday, March 21 and run through April 22 with the “22 Forever” Spring Game. Practices are not open to the public, but KSL Sports will be on the scene with updates and information from each availability.
Kenneth Scott Takes Over The Saturday Show
Former Utah football player Kenneth Scott is in town and spent Saturday in-studio at KSL on the Saturday Show talking about life, football, life after football, and the things he’s doing to give back to the Salt Lake Community and University of Utah.
International Women’s Day
Utah Athletics has been crushing it with their women’s sports as of late which made highlighting some of the greatness last Wednesday for International Women’s Day very fun.
Finally, with Black History Month in the review mirror, Women’s History Month on deck, and several other minority and marginalized history months coming down the pipeline, we talked with former Utah football player and current Executive Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Operations/Associate A.D. for EDI and Student Belonging for the Utes, Keith Embray about the importance of taking time to understand each other and how to better accomplish that.
Pac-12 Media Negotiations
The rumors have continued to swirl around what will happen to the Pac-12 and the Utes concerning their open media rights negotiations. A lot of the press has been very negative, but KSL Sports has been hard at work trying to get a better idea of what is going on.
Michelle Bodkin is the Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of both the Crimson Corner Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and The Saturday Show (Saturday from 10 a.m.–12 p.m.) on The KSL Sports Zone. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @BodkinKSLsports
