One of the more interesting things I learned at the Mountain West Conference's annual preseason meeting -- aside from the facts that Air Force's Jeff Reynolds used to run marathons and UNLV's Lon Kruger has learned to eat smaller meals to accompany his medication after six-bypass heart surgery in the offseason -- is why coach Jim Boylen passed on bringing power forward Nemanja Calasan into his program.

It's a question I'd been meaning to ask Boylen for some time, but kept forgetting. After all, Calasan was considered a pivotal player on the Midland College team in Texas that won the national junior-college championship last season, and I couldn't figure out exactly what about his game "didn't fit" with the Utes.

Now, we have an answer.

Boylen said the decision to release Calasan from the letter of intent he signed was not based on the player or his talent. In fact, Calasan "would have helped us win" this season.

But adding him also would have given the Utes five players scheduled to graduate in 2009 -- including guards Lawrence Borha and Tyler Kepkay, forward Shaun Green and center Luke Nevill -- and Boylen did not feel as if he could risk such a massive turnover in what will be his third year on the job.

"It just didn't sit well with me," he said.

So Boylen allowed Calasan to wind up at Purdue, where he's expected to play a role for coach Matt Painter and the Boilermakers, who finished 22-10 last season. That decision, and the one to drop forward Daniel Deane from the team during the offseason, are "outward statements of an inward commitment to build this thing the right way," Boylen said.

In other words?

Boylen envisions himself rebuilding the program and sticking around for awhile, rather than patching it together briefly so he can move on again. "I felt in my heart that wasn't what I signed on for," he said.

And now we know.