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Denver • For a kid who got cut from his high school basketball team in Montana, playing his first minutes in the NCAA Tournament is a big deal.
Even if it is in a 82-59 loss.
But in the locker room afterward, senior walk-on Austin Eastman had a hard time putting all that in perspective. All he could think about was his career — unlikely and unforgettable — had now passed into the rear view.
"It's not the way I wanted to go out," Eastman said. "I can't say enough about this team and what they mean to me. I'm going to miss the game of basketball, but more than anything I'm going to miss these guys sitting here in the locker room and spending every day with them."
All of the Utes experienced the shock of a season stopped short when Gonzaga rolled them, but no one more than the seniors. Brandon Taylor, Jordan Loveridge and Dakarai Tucker — Utah's scholarship fourth-year players — didn't perform well, and they weren't ready for the emotional consequences of a loss.
The trio had 15 combined points on 5-for-19 shooting. They got frustrated as Gonzaga's lead continued to grow.
The emotions poured out afterward. After a career of building up a program from the bottom, each senior seemed stunned by the gentle upward arc to spike down in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
It was tough to reconcile themselves as the group that had gone 89-48 in four years, reviving a moribund program, but also the group that had just gotten whipped by Gonzaga.
"I'm down, real down," Tucker said. "It's hard. We had to figure out how to stop them. They came to compete, and we didn't bring our A game."
But once the loss had set in, the grieving started. Taylor walked into the locker room, weaved around the press, and hugged each of his teammates. Krystkowiak said he would take some time to dwell on the 27-9 season, and the seniors who helped put the program in that position.
"Some seniors [gave] us their heart and soul for four years — probably bought into something that they didn't see the vision ahead of time," he said. "I was extremely proud of those guys."
They didn't save their season Saturday. And they didn't come close. But the loss of the game was secondary to the finish of their careers.
There are no Utah games left to play. And the company the seniors kept this season made that news hard for them.
"I'm not going to war with guys like [Kyle Kuzma] anymore," Taylor said. "I'm not going to war with Coach K being my coach. That's the most hurtful thing out of the whole thing. Other than that, we've had a hell of a year."
Twitter: @kylegoon