This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
"We would like a redo, really," Bachynski said after a Sweet 16 loss to the Blue Devils.
So how should the Utes feel now, after Duke beat Wisconsin 68-63 in Monday night's NCAA title game? The Utes can take consolation in having lost by only six points to the national champions. Then again, they're stuck with the realization that they could have done some great things, if they just had performed a little better vs. the Blue Devils.
That has to be the prevailing feeling among the Utes and their followers. Utah played the best defense against Duke of any tournament opponent. The Utes can always say they held Jahlil Okafor and Grayson Allen to a combined nine points. But thanks to Utah's 35-percent shooting in that game, and everything Duke went on to do, the 63-57 loss in Houston feels like a missed opportunity.
If you think was haunting for the Utes to see Wisconsin fall similarly short against Duke, imagine being Gordon Hayward, watching Monday's telecast. The Jazz forward relived another Duke championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where his hometown Butler team fell to the Blue Devils five years ago.
In any case, Duke's victory marked the 11th time that Utah lost in the NCAA Tournament to the eventual winner — including Kentucky in the 1998 championship game.
Some of Utah's other losses to the champs came in the early years of the tournament, when far fewer teams were involved than in the modern era. But that remains a remarkable record. Prior to Monday, it had 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 any bigger offensive production might have enabled them to upset the No. 1 seed in the South Region.
Wisconsin blew a nine-point lead in the second half Monday. In the end, the Badgers almost lost by the same margin as Utah did against Duke, which otherwise beat every tournament opponent by 14-plus points.
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 have met Wisconsin for the championship.
Regardless, Duke's freshmen deserve credit for the poise they have displayed.
"They've been so good in this tournament," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said during the weekend in Indianapolis. "Except for a few moments against Utah, to start the game, they have not been nervous. The lights and the stage have not been too big for them."
The same was true of Hayward, then a Butler sophomore, and his Bulldog teammates against Duke in 2010. More than the half-court attempt that he almost banked in at the buzzer, Hayward remembers his baseline shot that bounced off the rim on the previous possession in a one-point game. That's what he has emphasized in interviews ever since, and did so again in a recent blog.
"To be that close to winning and still lose hurts more than anything," Hayward wrote. "I think I'll always feel like we had a chance, and that we should have won. I wish I could shoot it again and get another chance to win the game. That's something I'll always carry with me."
The Utes had no such game-winning opportunity at the end against Duke. Same story with Wisconsin. Both teams came just close enough to know Duke was not unbeatable in this tournament, but the Blue Devils certainly were unbeaten.
Twitter: @tribkurt —
Facing the champ
Utah's NCAA Tournament losses to the eventual champion:
Year Opponent Stage
1945 Okla. A&M Elite Eight
1955 San Francisco Sweet 16
1956 San Francisco Elite Eight
1959 California Sweet 16
1961 Cincinnati Final Four
1966 Texas West. Final Four
1983 N.C. State Sweet 16
1996 Kentucky Sweet 16
1998 Kentucky Final
2000 Michigan St. Rnd of 32
2015 Duke. Sweet 16