Obviously, the Utes aren't exactly tearing it up these days, but at least they're not taking their slow fade to the bottom of the Mountain West Conference standings lightly. Coach Jim Boylen was among several coaches and other team officials who slept in the office after working late into the night before an early-morning workout and film session.

In fact, Boylen emerged from the film session still wearing the same pants and shoes that he wore while the Utes lost to Wyoming 69-64 at the Huntsman Center last night.

"This is a process," he said, echoing many similar comments from weeks gone by, "and again, I'm not giving up. I'm not over here feeling sorry for ourselves. We're going to keep grinding this thing out. This is what it is. This is what makes those trophies worth so much. It is, you know? It's a learning process. We have a young team."

Agreed, but when is it going to grow up and act like it wants to win?

Once again, the Utes played most of that game against the Cowboys as if they were bored and would rather have been somewhere else. As a result, they have lost four of five, and driven Boylen to offer reminders that the Utes at least have improved enough defensively -- they held Wyoming to 38.6 percent shooting -- that they had a chance to beat the Cowboys.

"Last year, from what I've heard, and what I've been around, this team would have lost that game by 20, because we would have given up 46.6 [percent shooting] or whatever it is," he said. "I don't like comparing it to last year, but my point is, I have to look for things where we're growing. The fans and everybody wants it in wins and losses, and I understand how this works. You get paid to do this job to win. But I'm going to evaluate my team on a game-by-game basis on what we're doing and not doing. We were not good offensively last night because we didn't make shots."