This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After playing one of the better games of his University of Utah basketball career, senior center Dallin Bachynski was left with regrets. He wanted another shot at Duke.
So how should the Utes feel now, with the Blue Devils facing Wisconsin in Monday night's NCAA title game? If Duke wins, the Utes can take consolation in having lost by only six points to the national champion. Then again, they'll be stuck with the realization that they could have gone a long way, if they just had played a little better in that Sweet 16 game in Houston, a 63-57 defeat.
A victory for Duke over Wisconsin would mark the 11th time that Utah lost in the NCAA Tournament to the eventual winner — counting the 1998 loss to Kentucky in the championship game. It happened most recently in 2000, when Michigan State took the title after beating the Utes in the round of 32.
Of course, there are multiple ways to view Utah's loss to Duke. The reality is the Utes trailed by 15 points in the last nine minutes before recovering. But they also know they were within six points at the four-minute mark, prior to Justise Winslow's three-point play, and anything better than 35-percent shooting from the field might have enabled them to pull off the upset of the No. 1 seed in the South Region.
The Utes have come much closer to Duke than any of the Blue Devils' other four victims in the tournament. Duke's toughest game otherwise was a 14-point defeat of Gonzaga in the Elite Eight.
So Utah fans obviously would have liked their team's chances against Gonzaga and Michigan State, if the Utes could have knocked off Duke. Then, they would be meeting Wisconsin for the championship. Yet somehow, you have to believe that Kentucky would be there, if the Utes had advanced that far, right?
The Wildcats beat Utah six times in a stretch of 13 tournaments, from 1993 to 2005. Other than the '98 title game, Kentucky went on to win the national championship in only one of those years, 1996.
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Facing the champ
Utah's NCAA Tournament losses to the eventual champion:
Year Opponent Stage
1945 Oklahoma A&M Elite Eight
1955 San Francisco Sweet 16
1956 San Francisco Elite Eight
1959 California Sweet 16
1961 Cincinnati Final Four
1966 Texas Western Final Four
1983 N.C. State Sweet 16
1996 Kentucky Sweet 16
1998 Kentucky Championship game
2000 Michigan State Round of 32