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Sometimes, a do-over is precisely what a team needs, especially a team that betrayed itself badly the last time around, and knew it, and this time moved, at least at times, toward the peak of its powers, and it knew that, too.

Yeah, it's good to be king, and that's exactly what Utah's Utes were against Stanford on Saturday. They hammered the Cardinal hard, by the count of 96-74, reestablishing the truth, in their minds, as to who is the superior team.

Last time, nobody was sure.

This time, a blind man could see it.

"We got a little revenge on them," Kyle Kuzma said, afterward. "… Sweet revenge."

The Utes won their fifth Pac-12 game in a row, defeating the visitors and rinsing away the aggravation of their overtime loss on the road against Stanford at the start of the month, simultaneously shouting to everyone in the building — and in the conference — that they are well past the early slump — when they lost three of four league games — that once troubled them. Playing in front of its home crowd, Utah did what it couldn't manage before — it took care of the basics and finished with a vengeance.

It was far from a flawless performance, but the Utes handled the ball a bit better, and shot free throws more precisely and frequently here — the 19 turnovers that vexed them earlier and the 11-for-24 foul shooting were improved upon — to the tune of 15 fumbles and 32-for-42 shooting from the line.

Down the stretch, holding onto their double-digit lead, it was just a matter of whether the Utes could make those free throws, as Stanford — quite painfully — hacked away, leading to a Utah season-high for charity trips. The Utes made enough, but the ploy was brutal to watch.

Utah also clamped down on the players who killed them late in the first game, limiting Rosco Allen to 5-for-17 shooting and Marcus Sheffield to 13 points. Helping the Utes' cause was their ability to dial in in the second half, avoiding an overabundance of fouling, a tendency that hampered them at Maples.

Proficiency and efficiency from the floor also were most impressive, the Utes hitting 28 of 47 field goals. In the first half, they made 71 percent of their shots and 60 percent from beyond the arc.

That's stupid good, but came all in the flow.

By game's end, those shooting percentages rested at 59.6 and 47.1.

Open looks were the result of unselfish, crafty ball movement, and that strong defense getting stops and into transition. Fifteen of Utah's points came off of turnovers. Brandon Taylor finished with 15 points, Dakarai Tucker with 17, Kuzma with 16, Lorenzo Bonam with 14. Jakob Poeltl, who has been dominant of late, dropped 23 on the Cardinal, although he was held to just six points in the first half.

Stanford found the fire early, as well, but the intensified Utah D cooled the Cardinal, causing them to make just 31 percent of their attempts over the last 20 minutes.

All told, after their sluggish Pac-12 start, the Utes now are rounding and rolling into the kind of team optimists projected them to be and opponents feared they would be. Those consecutive wins — over Oregon State, Washington State, Washington, Cal and now Stanford — have demonstrated the positive evolution for which Larry Krystkowiak had preached and worked and hoped.

"If you're committed to playing defense and guarding, good things happen," he said, adding: "If we defend like we did in the second half, we can be good," and "I think there's a sense of confidence."

Nobody is celebrating yet, as Taylor reminded everyone: "We still have a long way to go. It's a good feeling, but we know we still have a lot to prove."

Prove it, then.

The Utes have some difficult upcoming road games to manage. But actually drawing the profile now of what they pictured themselves to be is a whole lot better than slopping through ugly images earlier that seemed to portray them as something they aren't.

That correction specifically aimed at Stanford — Kuzma's sweet revenge — may not have been the Utes' absolute theme for Saturday, but being as good as they really are, and making sure not to betray themselves today and tomorrow, this week and next, is a useful portrait they're happy to paint.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.