Utah, Lynne Roberts Elect To End Season

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – After a disappointing loss to Washington, Utah head coach Lynne Roberts has decided to end the season and not play in any postseason tournaments. The Utes finish the season with a 20-10 record.

In their loss to No. 11-seed Washington on Thursday night in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, Roberts had seven players available as they hit the injury bug.

“We are not in the discussion for the NCAA tournament at this point, but looking at anything else postseason, I think we are tired,” Roberts said. “We are worn down, and you can just see it. We played with eight for a long time, and then we were down to seven. As a program, we have always strived to play in the postseason and we have a lot of respect for the WNIT, but this season has turned into a numbers game and although I am a competitor and we want to play as much as we can, we also want to protect our student-athletes.”

2018-19 Season:
✅ 20-wins
✅ Most Pac-12 Wins in program history (9)
✅ Highest Pac-12 Finish in program history (6th)
✅ Highest AP Poll Ranking (#14)
✅ Set new Pac-12 record for Freshmen of the Week Honors (9)
✅ 5 Players named to All Pac-12 Teams #GoUtes #Elevate pic.twitter.com/EWP8o7yupj

— Utah Women's Basketball (@UTAHWBB) March 8, 2019

The 20-win season is the most under Roberts since she became the head coach and the first time the Utes won 20 games since the 2012-13 season. Utah finished sixth in the Pac-12 standings with nine wins, it’s the highest total of conference wins and the highest finish since joining the Pac-12.

The Utes accomplished a lot during and at the end of the season, they have the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in Dre’Una Edwards and five players were named to All-Pac-12 teams.

“When we came into the season, we said we wanted to do things that Utah basketball hadn’t done in the Pac-12, and we did. We won more games than we’ve ever won in the conference, we were ranked as high as No. 14 at one point, we beat Stanford for the first time in program history, we have a player in Megan Huff who was first-team all-conference who will get drafted, we have the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, we have three players on the all-freshman team and we played with seven people,” Roberts said.

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MORE:

• Utah’s Season Ends With First Round Upset Loss To Washington
• Five Utah Women Earn Pac-12 Honors
• Lynne Roberts’ Vision For Lady Utes: ‘Do Things That Have Never Been Done’

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Roberts mentioned that she is pleased with the season that they have had.

“I am incredibly proud of our team and their resiliency throughout the year. They have been an absolute joy to coach. This group has been one of the most fun, most rewarding groups I have ever coached. We are laying the foundation and our seniors took this program to another level. I don’t think we are going anywhere. We finished sixth which is the highest we have ever finished in the Pac-12 and we intend to keep climbing. So, it is closure on this season, but the program is headed in the right direction. I am really proud of our team.”