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Show Welcome to March BY RYAN MCDONALD/SPORTS EDITOR r.mcdonald@chronicle.utah.edu t must be March, because the next eight days are going to be absolute madness, folks. With just a few days remaining in the college basketball regular season, the jockeying for seeding in next week's Pac-12 men's basketball tournament is more like a pack of hyenas fighting over a dead carcass. Some teams have two games left while others have just one. A whopping seven squads entered Thursday within a game and a half of one another. In other words, its impossible at this point to conjecture which team will end up with which seed. Amazingly, the Runnin' Utes are squarely in the middle of the conference race. After beating the Cal Golden Bears on Wednesday night in Berkeley, Utah sits in sixth in the conference. Larry Krystkowiak's club is just a game out of third but a half game away from falling to ninth. In a sense, I don't think it will matter much where teams end up as far as seeding is concerned.The Pac-12 has such incredible parity to begin with, and on the neutral court of the MGM Grand Garden news can be inspiring, too. in the first round would likely be most preferable. The Utes' biggest weakness is playing teams with athletic frontlines, and neither the Golden Bears nor the Sun Devils have super athletic big guys. All of the other teams in this ballpark that Utah could wind up playing, however, do have superior frontlines compared to the Utes. Incredibly, Utah managed to sneak its way even more firmly onto the NCAATournament bubble after beating Cal on Wednesday night I'm no bracketologist, but it seems the Utes would have work to do in the Pac-12 Tournament in order to make the Big Dance even if they beat the Stanford Cardinal in Saturday's regular season finale in Palo Alto. In my view, Utah may need to get as far as the tournament championship game in order to get a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Krystkowiak's team has shown it is capable of beating just about every squad in the Pac-12, but in a tournament that is wide open, getting as easy a road as possible to the conference championship game would certainly be preferable for the Utes. m Arena in Las Vegas, most of the first-round games are going to be complete crapshoots. That said, the Utes would definitely prefer an opening-round contest against certain teams over others. In a perfect world, Utah would prefer to finish in the top four of the conference standings and to earn a bye in the first round. If the Utes can't get in the top four, finishing fifth or sixth would definitely be ideal for them. As much equality as there is in the middle of the Pac-12, there are two teams that are undoubtedly the worst in the conference. Washington State and USC are mathematically locked into the bottom two spots entering the tournament, and neither is good at all. Utah fell to the Cougars earlier this season, but Delon Wright and company will be fine against either them or the Trojans at this point in the year. Finishing fifth or sixth would ensure a date with one of these two teams in the first round, which would essentially guarantee that the Utes would skate into the second round of the tournament If Utah finishes worse than sixth, a date with Cal or Arizona State Contact a.drysdale@chronicle.utah.edu for information about being a news writer for The Daily Utah Chronicle. e_1- 6,etly wiere le emit eeeadiew! Main Street (801) 359-0192 mckaydiamonds.com 157 S. (//,,ce /949 titeitirey MOTO fitter altwee d of re tweets? er 1 NI t veet [lett' er et ee ed more rifler tt vl e rCt ertwe on the tweet r •• miner twitte •••-1 <— k -- ) •••• eee tec twell9magiacr:v= tweet a itt e har need more tweets? tweetle -.4011.11 ma Itweete NtgrecT • n the tweets need more t eets?tweetwalker. lemaniac wi eeted twitter rem ter heard on t t sa e k alt ee er RT e de g A tertw ets eet ea t w ine! lear• on the t eet n ore tweet s peak twitteffitt I.• . • ets A•Asn, ; •- . ' • . ALTWORKS MARCH 10-APRIL1 • w et! twittert er tweet a Ii le har eraspulteta need more tw it-ter itter ittee eeee .. • r RT et :wittercept nts? twittert need mor weets: speak twitter ttwidiot eer te - r.• tertweet ni twidiot weepNvg t • ••••• • p erspeaktwitter twitter eard on nnaltweete • speak ^:`• t o tw s? :wittertattgr tw • 411,40 e ne al, ■•►, eb 17 ,4 ttilvEsTiviINSTER - II. Great Salt Lake Institute . • • greatsaltiakeinstitute.org Reception: March 17, 6:00 PM, Richer Alcove Morton Salt • Sam & Diane Stewart Foundation • Stephen G. and Susan E. Denkers Family Foundation US Bank Private Client Reserve • Natural History Museum of Utah • Sushi Groove • Preston Chiaro • Bing and Judy Fang I 4» a az , abillt• accommodation,t‘ittatt the .', Lhool of Art. wid SI fent es at 8171.8 ;2.2.3a0 btoine‘.• dayN prior to the 7'1 •011. |