Oh, so Sweet: Utes reach round of 16 with upset of Sooners

TUCSON, Ariz. — Andrew Bogut had just finished his interview with CBS-TV and came running up the tunnel beneath the McKale Center. As he approached a phalanx of media types camped outside the Ute locker room, the big Aussie exclaimed, "Sweet 16, put that in the paper," before disappearing to join his teammates in celebration.

Don't worry, Andrew. We will.

The Utes are indeed headed to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998, thanks to a 67-58 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon. They'll face old nemesis Kentucky on Friday in Austin, Texas.

Utah accomplished the challenging task in most unlikely fashion.

They committed 20 turnovers compared to just seven for the Sooners and only got 10 points, the lowest output total of the season, from Bogut, their all-American center.

But thanks to a long list of excellent things the Utes did Saturday, they've advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time since 1990 and 17th time in school history.

• Sophomore forward Justin Hawkins had a career game, scoring 20 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

• Marc Jackson had another stellar defensive performance as well as a hot shooting night with 4-of-5 3-pointers for 17 points.

• Bryant Markson scored 16 points, mostly on an array of rousing dunks.

• Bogut dished out a season-high seven assists as he consistently found teammates open for easy shots.

• Utah shot 59.5 percent from the field and held Oklahoma to 31.8 percent.

"It's the happiest day I've had in coaching," said Utah first-year coach Ray Giacoletti. "I'm so proud of these guys. Probably only 20 people believed, but it was the right 20."

"You can't really explain the feeling you have," said Jackson. "It's one of those things that doesn't come along very often. I'm excited to be playing for another week."

The Utes came into the game as underdogs — the No. 6 seed in the regional compared to No. 3 for Oklahoma. The day before, Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson had said seedings didn't matter at this point of the tournament. He also said whichever team shot best would win.

Sampson proved to be a prophet.

Right from the start, the Utes were hitting their shots and the Sooners were clanking theirs.