They were missing 6 starters. After that, it was mostly players who were transferring out or already injured.

They didn’t have a bunch of 2nd stringers vying to play this year who decided to sit out.

It’s ok to look at this critically and realize that it didn’t hurt them much. Utah wasn’t playing third stringers or even a banged up team. That was a team filled with massive talent and included the vast majority of their starting lineup and 2-deep.

No one wants to go through a season down 20+ scholarship players. But for that one game, the impact was pretty small.