Utah Utes guard Alfonso Plummer (25) and Colorado Buffaloes guard Tyler Bey (1) reacts after Buffaloes guard McKinley Wright IV (25) was charged with a foul against Utes guard Both Gach (11) as Gach shot for three in the last second of overtime with the Buffaloes up by one point at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 7, 2020. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
LAS VEGAS — Alfonso Plummer is suddenly a big part of the Utah basketball team as it heads into postseason play this week at the Pac-12 Tournament with a game against Oregon State on Wednesday at 1 p.m. MDT.
Plummer made his first start Saturday against Colorado and came through with a 21-point performance that included 5-of-11 shooting from 3-point range.
His play of late, which includes a 23-point game against Cal last week and 16 points against UCLA and 18 against USC, prompted Ute coach Larry Krystkowiak to second-guess himself after the Colorado game.
“Alfonso has been playing great,” said Krystkowiak. “He makes me look pretty silly that he hasn’t been out there a lot more during the course of a season. But better late than never.”
The 6-foot-1 Plummer came to Utah last fall as a highly-touted junior college player out of Arizona Western, where he averaged 18.6 points per game, while shooting 43.8% from 3-point range.
In just his second game, the 94-point rout over Mississippi Valley State, Plummer showed his shooting ability, scoring 17 points, including 5 of 11 from 3-point range. A few games later he topped that with a 7-of-12 shooting night with 18 points in a win over Central Arkansas, with 4 of 9 from long range.
Then, his numbers tailed off as the Utes’ schedule became more difficult. He didn’t even play in a couple of Pac-12 games in January. At the time, Krystkowiak indicated it was because of Plummer’s defensive liabilities and practice performances.
But the coach acknowledged that Plummer is one of those players who is better in games than practices and he’s happy he started giving him more minutes.
“I’m happy for my work, I feel like I’m getting better,” Plummer said. “I’m helping the team every day. I’m just blessed and happy for the opportunity right now.”
For the season, Plummer is averaging 7.4 points per game on 43.9% shooting, including 37.2% from 3-point range and 78.9% from the free throw line.
Whether he starts again this week at the Pac-12 Tournament will depend on the health of freshman Rylan Jones, who sat out last week’s game after suffering a head injury the previous week against Cal.
ALLEN HONORED BY PAC-12: Ute forward Timmy Allen was selected to the Pac-12 second team Monday as Utah was one of two teams, along with Cal, that didn’t have a first-team selection.
First-team selectees included Player of the Year Payton Pritchard of Oregon, Stanford’s Oscar da Silva, Washington State’s CJ Elleby, Arizona State’s Remy Martin, Arizona’s Zeke Nnaji, USC’s Onyeka Okongwu, UCLA’s Chris Smith, Washington’s Isaiah Stewart, Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle and Colorado’s McKinley Wright IV.
No Utah players made the five-man all-freshman team that included Nnaji, Okongwu, Stewart, Stanford’s Tyrell Terry and Arizona’s Nico Mannion.
The Utes also didn’t have any players named to the five-man all-defensive team.
GACH PLAYER OF WEEK: Following his outstanding game against Colorado on Saturday, Utah’s Both Gach was named Pac-12 player of the week.
It was the first honor for Gach, who scored a career-high 28 points, including the game-tying shot with 2.6 seconds left to force overtime and three free throws to win the game with 0.6 seconds left.
Allen is the only other Ute player to earn the honor this season, being selected on Dec. 9 and Dec. 23. Rylan Jones and Branden Carlson each won freshman of the week honors earlier this season.
UTE NOTES: This will be the second time Utah has played in the noon game in Las Vegas for the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament. In 2014, when the Utes were the No. 8 seed, they beat Washington in the opening round 67-61. That was also the last time Utah played in the first round, as they’ve had byes to the second round for five straight years. ... Allen finished the season fifth in the Pac-12 in scoring average at 17.47 and eighth in rebounding at 7.30 per game. ... Jones finished third in free throw percentage (86.3), sixth in assists (4.46), seventh in assist/turnover ratio (1.64), eighth in 3-point percentage (38.8) and 10th in steals (1.46), while Carlson finished fourth in blocked shots (1.48) and seventh in field goal percentage (55.1). ... Utah was second in the league in paid attendance behind Arizona at 10,561.
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