Utah’s season extended with College Basketball Crown invite

The 2024-25 Utah men’s basketball season lives on.

On Monday, the Runnin’ Utes found out they will play in the College Basketball Crown, a new 16-team postseason tournament played in Las Vegas that features many teams from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East.

Utah (16-16) will take on Butler in a first-round matchup on March 31 (1 p.m. MDT, FS1) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Four other Big 12 schools — Arizona State, Colorado, Cincinnati and UCF — will also participate in the inaugural College Basketball Crown.

Utah basketball’s 2024-25 season

The Utes’ first season in the Big 12 was rife with challenges, including a coaching change when Craig Smith was fired Feb. 24. The team has gone 1-4 since then under interim coach Josh Eilert.

There were highs, too. Before Smith’s firing, Utah beat BYU, a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, and blue blood Kansas, which earned a No. 7 seed in the NCAAs.

Utah has already named Smith’s successor — former Ute great Alex Jensen was named the program’s 17th head coach.

Following the Utes’ loss to UCF in the Big 12 tournament’s first round, Eilert and fifth-year senior Gabe Madsen expressed interest in continuing the team’s season if an invite came from a national postseason tournament.

“I’m excited about it. I know players have to make decisions, but I think it would be special to have another opportunity to battle with these guys,” Eilert said.

What is the College Basketball Crown?

The College Basketball Crown, or CBC, is a new national postseason basketball tournament meant to give teams that don’t make the NCAA Tournament field a chance to continue playing.

It is designed to be in direct competition with the long-established NIT, which revealed its 32-team bracket Sunday.

Three conferences — the Big 12, Big Ten and Big East — partnered with the CBC and Fox, which holds the broadcast rights to the tournament.

That partnership ensured that at least two teams from each of those three conferences would make the College Basketball Crown field.

In the inaugural edition of the tournament, there are five Big 12 teams, two Big Ten teams and four Big East teams playing in the CBC.

The CBC will be played at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in between the Elite Eight and Final Four rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

All games will be televised on either Fox or FS1.

Big 12’s ties to the tournament

The College Basketball Crown came up several times last week at the Big 12 tournament when discussing postseason options for teams in the back half of the conference who weren’t considered to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was bullish on the concept of the new tournament and the conference’s tie with Fox.

“We’re excited to be part of the Crown. We think it’s going to be a first-class opportunity for our student-athletes to showcase their talents, our teams,” he said during a pre-tournament press conference.

“Fox is a wonderful partner of ours. As you probably know, they’ve been doing football with us for quite some time. And next year, they distribute basketball games for the first time in the year. So we’re excited to be in the Fox family and I think their tournament is going to be off the charts. I will be there in Vegas to kick things off.”

It’s unsurprising, then, that the Big 12 has the highest number of teams in the CBC field.

All together, 13 of the 16 Big 12 teams will be playing in postseason tournaments.

That includes seven in the NCAA Tournament — BYU, Houston, Arizona, Texas Tech, Kansas, Baylor and Iowa State — as well as Oklahoma State in the NIT.

Only West Virginia, TCU and Kansas State won’t be participating in one of these tournaments. The most notable is West Virginia, the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament field.

The Mountaineers’ snub from the NCAAs sparked an outcry from the college basketball world.

In a statement, West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said, “Obviously, we are extremely shocked, saddened and disappointed with not being selected for the NCAA Tournament. We strongly believe that we have a resume that is worthy of an NCAA Tournament team. I am incredibly proud of this team and what they accomplished. They poured their hearts into this season and put all their collective efforts into making the NCAA Tournament, and I believe they did that.”

What to know about Utah’s draw in the College Basketball Crown

Like Utah, Butler is heading into the CBC on a losing streak. The Bulldogs (14-19) lost five of their last six games and went 1-1 at the Big East tournament.

The Utes also compiled a 1-5 record in their last six games, including the last five with Eilert as interim coach.

Butler is led by senior forward Jahmyl Telfort, who averages 16.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game.

If Utah wins its first-round matchup, the Utes would face the winner of the Atlantic 10’s George Washington (21-12) and the Mountain West’s Boise State (24-10) in the second round.

If the Utes advance to the semifinals, they could potentially face former Utah guard Rollie Worster, who transferred to Nebraska last offseason.

If Utah made it to the championship game, it could be an all-Big 12 final, with Cincinnati, UCF and Colorado all on the other side of the bracket.

At the very least, the College Basketball Crown will give this tight-knit group of Utes, which includes six seniors, one last run together.

Will there be any player opt-outs?

The College Basketball Crown runs from March 31 to April 6, and teams could deal with players opting out of playing in the tournament, especially considering that the NCAA’s basketball transfer portal window opens March 24.

One Utah player, Jake Wahlin, already announced he has entered the transfer portal, though he also committed to playing for the Utes in the postseason and isn’t ruling out a return to Utah.

“I’m excited to continue my conversations with Coach Jensen and to learn more about his vision for the program,” Wahlin said in his announcement.