#730 ASA PLAY ON 8* Stanford -1.5 over Utah, Saturday at 4 PM ET - Must win here for the Cardinal. They sit at 0-3 in Pac 12 play and after this game they head out on a 3 game road trip. Stanford is coming off a home loss to Colorado 73-70 in a game they led at half and most of the 2nd half. CU’s first lead of the 2nd half came with 2:00 minutes remaining. It was a game Stanford still led with under 20 seconds remaining and a game they should have had at home making this one even more important. Stanford is just 5-8 on the season but they’ve played a brutally tough schedule (12th SOS) already facing 8 top 100 teams and only 1 team ranked outside the top 300. Utah has the better record but they’ve also played the easier schedule (191st SOS). This will be the Utes 2nd road game in 3 days after beating a 1-13 Cal team on Thursday night. In their other Pac 12 road game Utah topped Washington St by 2 in OT and the Cougars were missing one of their better players in that game. Stanford is just 3-3 at home but 2 of those losses came vs top 25 teams in our power ratings (UCLA & San Diego St) and the other the down to the wire setback vs Colorado on Thursday which we talked about. Their wins have all come by double digits at home and they’ve shot it really well here averaging 75 PPG on 48% from the field. The Utes are averaging just 63 PPG on 41% shooting in their road games this season. The host in this series has covered 11 of the last 13 and we like the desperate home team to get a win on Saturday.