Perhaps somewhere in the depths of numerology there’s an all-encapsulating explanation of the significance of the number eight to the Utes women’s basketball postseason hopes. They finished the season with eight conference win, earned the No. 8 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and likely will go into the postseason with eight healthy players available.
The number of players available plays most significantly into the plans of Utah coach Lynne Roberts, who has prepared as though the team’s two leading scorers — all-conference forward Megan Huff (14.5 points per game) and junior wing Daneesha Provo (13 ppg) — will not be available due to injury when Utah (17-12, 8-10) begins tournament play against ninth-seeded Colorado (14-15, 5-13) at 12:30 p.