Utah Wins the Right to Meet Kentucky

Except for the viral infection that knocked the zap out of their All-American, and the shooting slump that plagued their second-best player, and the knowledge that all in-roads made in the Midwest Regional lead to Kentucky, it wasn’t a bad weekend for the Utah Utes.

Overcoming a worse-case scenario, Utah (27-6) advanced to the Sweet 16 on Saturday with a 73-67 victory against Iowa State (24-9) in a second-round Midwest tournament game before 15,469 at Reunion Arena.

The Utes survived mostly without star forward Keith Van Horn, who watched Thursday’s opening-round game against Canisius from his hotel sick bed and played only 23 minutes Saturday because of fatigue and foul trouble.

“If someone would have told me we’d get to the Sweet 16, and Keith would play only 20 minutes, and score 11 points, I would have not thought that possible,” Utah Coach Rick Majerus said.

What’s more, the Utes’ one-two scoring punch of Van Horn and Brandon Jessie, who account for 36 points of Utah’s per-game offense, totaled 18 against Iowa State.

The Utes survived because of sophomore center Michael Doleac, who had a career-high 23 points and 12 rebounds, clutch shooting by point guard Andre Miller and free-throw shooting.

The downside was having to witness next week’s Midwest Regional semifinal opponent, Kentucky, shred a first-rate Virginia Tech team, 84-60, in the second game at Reunion.

Majerus, who watched most of the Kentucky game at press row as he munched on popcorn, made his exit once the game was in hand.

“They’re not bad,” he said in tongue-in-cheek understatement. “I think their second five guys could get to the Sweet 16.”

Majerus had little time to savor his team’s impressive victory, in which Van Horn played only six minutes after the half.

Lunging on defense because of fatigue, Van Horn picked up his third and fourth fouls within the first two minutes after intermission. He returned with 9:34 left, but fouled out with 6:05 remaining with the Utes leading, 57-54.

Jessie was doing a solid job defensively, but his jump shot was as sick as Van Horn.

But others, Doleac and Miller in particular, responded.

Miller, who had taken a hard spill on the play in which Van Horn fouled out, returned to the game for its most important play. After Dedric Willoughby’s basket cut the Utah lead to 64-62 with 1:14 left, the Utes worked the ball to guard Mark Rydalch, who came off a screen at the top of the key and put up a jump shot that was blocked by Iowa State center Kelvin Cato.

The swat, though, landed right in the hands of Miller, who, with the shot clock winding down, made a three-point shot with 43 seconds left.

The Cyclones had to foul, but Utah is the best foul-shooting team in the nation at 78%. Doleac made the Utes’ last two free throws in a nice finishing touch. Teammates had joked that Cato, a shot-blocking machine, might block 10 of Doleac’s attempts.

But it was Doleac who dominated, making nine of 12 shots attempts, while limiting Cato to 11 points and six rebounds.

“I couldn’t pick a better time to have a game like this,” Doleac said.

Kentucky 84, Virginia Tech 60--Doleac might want to save something for Thursday in the Midwest semifinals. The Wildcats (30-2), putting to rest suspicions that they are flawed, ransacked Virginia Tech after leading at the half, 38-30.

The Hokies had one glimpse at victory, with 15:18 left, after Shawn Smith’s basket cut the Kentucky lead to 45-38.

But then the Wildcats outscored the Hokies, 25-12, in an 8 1/2-minute run of frenetic full-court defense, alley-oop passes and thunderous dunks.

“Sometimes I’d rather have a bounce pass and a layup,” Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino said of his team’s method of destruction. “But it [dunks] gets them fired up and they play better defense.”

More impressive, though, was Kentucky’s inside game, a supposed weakness. The low-post tandem of Walter McCarty and Antoine Walker combined for 40 points. Walker led all scorers with 21 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, while McCarty had 19 points and four assists.

It wasn’t all run-and-gun.

“They put a clinic on us in the half-court offense,” said Hokie Coach Bill Foster, whose team finished at 23-6.

Kentucky, the team that was outrebounded by San Jose State in the first half, outrebounded Virginia Tech by 16, 43-27.

Ace Custis, the Hokies’ star, was reduce to a Jack of diamonds, finishing with eight points and five rebounds in 33 minutes.