Just got off the phone with UNLV's Joe Darger, the former Riverton High School star who once teammed with Utah's Morgan Grim and almost became a Ute himself.

"I was real close to committing there," he said.

That was back when Darger was a junior at RHS, and Rick Majerus was still coaching the Utes. "I was looking there and for some reason, I had a feeling not to commit yet," Darger recalled. "And then he ended up quitting like a week later, and I was like, 'Whoa, that was crazy.'"

Darger said he met new coach Ray Giacoletti, with whom he did not feel much of a connection. "He was a nice guy, but I just didn't feel like it was a good match for me," he said.

So Darger joined coach Lon Kruger at UNLV, and the Utes ultimately signed forward Shaun Green -- a similar player from Olympus High School who was the Class 4-A Most Valuable Player the same year that Darger was leading Class 5-A by scoring 22 points per game.

It's hard to know whether Giacoletti and the Utes would have preferred to land Darger -- they didn't want to discuss his recruitment this week, beyond acknowledging they recruited him "a little bit" -- but certainly any choice between the two must have appeared to be a no-lose proposition.

Both are about the same size, both are deadly outside shooters, and both had great success in high school. And though Darger has grown into a starring role for a better team the past two years, Green has been a productive starter from the moment he joined the Utes -- though the Utes have not beaten the Rebels in five tries since Green and Darger started college, going into another meeting at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday.