Next: A trip to the Rockies

The Cardinal travels to the Rocky Mountains this week to play:

• Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday evening at 5:00 PT
• Colorado in Boulder on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PT

Both games will be televised by Pac-12 Networks (with Ros as the analyst), streamed online by Pac-12 Networks, and broadcast by KZSU. Utah live stats here and Colorado live stats here.

Utah and Colorado do not travel to Stanford this season, so this is the only time these teams will play during the regular season.

  Utah Utes

The Utes, under the guidance of four-year head coach Anthony Levrets, had reasonable expectations of another good season (they finished at #6 in the Pac-12 last season and advanced to the WNIT title game).

They suffered a serious setback when All-Pac-12 senior forward Taryn Wicijowski tore her ACL in August. She and senior forward Michelle Plouffe were one of the best frontcourt duos in college basketball.

The Utes, who have nine underclassmen on the roster, have re-grouped and gotten good contributions from their four freshmen, but they've stuggled so far this season.

They ended non-conference play on a high note, with a five-game winning streak, then began conference play with losses to UCLA and USC.

The probable starters for the Utes are:

• #15, 6'4" senior forward Michelle Plouffe leads the Utes in scoring (17.9 points per game) and rebounding (10.7 per game). She shoots from the outside as well as the inside, making an average of 1.4 3-pointers per game. She leads the Pac-12 in defensive boards (5.9 per game) and ranks fourth in total rebounds. She's had six double-doubles this season.


• #12, 6'5" freshman forward Emily Potter played on the Canadian U17 and U19 teams. She's done a terrific job of helping to fill the void left by Wicijowski's injury. She's second only to Plouffe in scoring (12.5 points per game) and rebounding (6.4 per game) and blocks the most shots (1.3 per game, which ranks #4 in the Pac-12).


• #22, 5'10" sophomore guard Danielle Rodriguez is the Utes' starting point guard for the second season and plays for 36 minutes per game. She dishes out 5.2 assists per game (which ranks #4 in the Pac-12) with a good assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.94. She also tallies 9.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.


• #31, 5'10" redshirt junior guard Ciera Dunbar contributes 6.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.


• #3, 5'10" freshman forward Malia Nawahine was the Gatorade Utah Girls Basketball Player of the Year last season and is another valuable addition to the team. She averages 6.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.

Utah's has six reserves who account for about 1/3 of the playing time and 1/4 of the points and rebounds.

Utah's win-loss record (7-6 overall, 0-2 conference) places it 11th in the Pac-12, its RPI (159) places it 11th, and its strength of schedule rank (183) places it 12th.

Here are Utah's statistics and roster.

  Colorado Buffaloes

When head coach Linda Lappe, now in her fourth season at Colorado, brought the Buffs into the Pac-12 (from the Big 12) two years ago, she was optimistic about their prospects. She said, "We feel like we can do very well in the Pac-12; we feel like we can make an impact."

The first year didn't end well for the Buffs. They had a perfect non-conference season (against very weak opponents), then faltered in conference play and ended at #10 in the standings.

They improved considerably last year. They again aced a middling non-conference schedule, went 13-5 in conference play (#4 in the standings) and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament where they lost to Kansas in the opening round.

The Pac-12 coaches picked the Buffs to place third in the conference this season and they've begun very well. Their non-conference schedule was much tougher (ranked 96 of 343 at the beginning of conference play), and they lost only to #7 Louisville. They lost their first conference game to USC 55-45, then defeated UCLA 61-59.

The Buffs have been ranked in the Top 25 all season — as high as #11, but they dropped to #17/18 after the loss to USC.

The Buffs are a very good defensive team, and the game in Boulder on Sunday may well be the Cardinal's most challenging conference game of the season. The Buffs lead the Pac-12 in scoring defense (allowing their opponents just 59.2 points per game) and in 3-point percentage defense (allowing 22.4%, which ranks fourth best in the nation). They rank second to Stanford in overall field goal percentage defense with 34.7% to Stanford's 33.4%.

I remember the Buffs from prior seasons as being very aggressive and physical. I've been wondering how the more stringent officiating this season (refs have been instructed not to tolerate physical play in the post, on shooters and on ball handlers) would affect them. It hasn't changed their attitude. Coach Lappe said recently that the Buffs need to, "... make sure we're not getting pushed around, we're holding our ground and being physical when we can be physical." But they're managing their aggression well. They average a not-excessive 21.6 fouls per game. That's the most in the Pac-12, but the conference average is 18.7 and the low is Stanford's 16.1.

This year, the Buff's star player Chucky Jefferey is gone, but the other nine players who averaged more than 14 minutes of playing time per game remain. Linda Lappe has developed a balanced lineup with four players averaging double figures in scoring and seven players averaging more than 4.0 rebounds. Their five most productive players are:

• #32, 6'1" sophomore forward Arielle Roberson was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year last season. She leads the Buffs in scoring (12.9 points per game) and in rebounding (8.8 per game). She's had four double-doubles this season.


• #34, 6'2" junior forward Jen Reese comes off the bench for an average of 23 minutes per game. She's the Buffs' best shooter (makes 54% of her shots) and their second best scorer (12.7 points per game).


• #1, 5'11" junior guard Lexy Kresl runs the point for the Buffs and dishes out the most assists (3.7 per game), but has only a fair assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.5. (None of the Buffs are great ball handlers — as a team, they've committed an equal number of assists and turnovers.) Lexy also contributes 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.


• #11, 5'7" senior guard Brittany Wilson shares the point guard duty and is perhaps the Buffs' most aggressive defender. She averages 10.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 2.7 assists per game. Her assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.1


• #21, 6'0" junior guard Jasmine Sborov averages 8.0 points, 4.3 rebounds per game and 1.3 steals per game.

The Buffs have four other players who average more than ten minutes per game:

• #40, 6'4" senior center Rachel Hargis is the fifth starter for the Buffs. She can provide a strong, physical presence in the post, although she's not always as tough as Coach Lappe would like. She averages 4.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game.


• #12, 5'8" senior guard Ashley Wilson is Brittany's twin sister and an equally aggressive defender. She averages 6.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Her assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.8


• #2, 6'1" freshman guard/forward Lauren Huggins has taken over as the Buff's leading 3-point shooter this season. She takes almost all of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 39% of them for an average of 2.0 per game. (No other Buff averages more than 1.2 3-pointers per game.)


• #50, 6'2" sophomore forward Jamee Swan joins Rachel Hargis in the frontcourt. She averages 4.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game.

Colorado's win-loss record (10-2 overall, 1-1 conference) places it 6th in the Pac-12, its RPI (19) places it 4th, and its strength of schedule rank (80) places it 9th.

Here are Colorado's statistics and roster.