Utah basketball coach Larry Krystkowiak danced in the locker room after the Utes advanced to the NIT semifinals with an overtime victory at Saint Mary’s, sending them to Madison Square Garden in New York.
The program’s standards three years after the Utes reached the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 and 20 years after the school appeared in the national championship game may be higher than any NIT achievements. Even so, these Utes deserve credit for what they’ve done since losing to Oregon in the Pac-12 tournament, and they’ve earned the right to have fun in the NIT.
The Utes are the Pac-12′s only remaining basketball program in postseason play after the football team was the only bowl winner in December.