Utes Faces Air Force Looking To Improve Their Tournament Seed

As the Utes continue to lose games, their focus moves to getting a better seed in the MWC tournament.  The (12-14,5-7) Utes are currently in sixth place in the MWC with a one game lead over TCU.  They are currently a half game back from Colorado State so the goal now must be to pass the Rams.

Fortunately for Utah they face the league's worst team, Air Force.  After an (8-5) start to the season, the Falcons have been just plain awful.  Since their decent start they have gone (1-11) with their only win over Wyoming at home.  Although the Utes have had their issues with poor teams, I would be shocked if Air Force wins. 

Earlier this season at the Huntsman Center, the Utes crushed Air Force 71-54.  In that win Marshall Henderson was lights out, scoring 22 points in just 17 minutes.  The Falcons must shut him down and Utah's three-point game if they want to have any chance of winning.

Following this game Utah will play Wyoming, BYU and Colorado State.  Colorado State will play TCU, San Diego State and Utah.  If both teams win out, there will be a tie for the 5th seed and the season series between CSU and Utah would be split.  More likely is Utah losing to BYU and CSU losing to San Diego State, which could result in another tie.  The tie breaker rules are as follows:

Two Way Tie. If two teams tie for a position, and one holds a win-loss advantage during regular season play, that team receives the higher seed. If the two teams split their games during the regular season, each tied team's record shall be compared against the team occupying the highest position in the standings, continuing down through the standings until one team gains the advantage, thereby gaining the higher seed. If two teams remain tied after all tie breakers have been exhausted, the last tie-breaker when determining seeds for the Conoco MWC Basketball Championships shall be team RPI, as determined by the most recent NCAA RPI available on Saturday, March 6, 2010.

As you can see, it gets a little tricky.  CSU does not have any wins over top teams in the conference and Utah does so it looks like Utah has to win out to get the 5th seed, or have a CSU lose as much as them.