It's arguably the most challenging stretch of the season until the league tournament, when the Utes get only today between their last game against Weber State and their next one at Utah State.

But you have to fit the games in, somewhere.

That's basically what coach Jim Boylen had to say about the unusual scheduling, in the wake of finals week last week. The Utes really couldn't play a game during that week -- they had played mid-week games the previous few weeks -- and needed to wedge the Aggies in before Christmas.

"It's just hard to fit them in," Boylen said. "I can't play a game, legally, during finals week. And other people have scheduling conflicts and they have different finals weeks, and you just try to fit them in."

Boylen said the Aggies did not want to play the game Tuesday because they wanted a chance to have a little longer break for Christmas -- not really a concern for the Utes, Boylen said, since many of their players live too far away to go home, anyway -- so they settled on Monday.

And it's not as if the Utes aren't getting a slight benefit out of it.

While they played the Wildcats on Saturday, the Aggies played at Idaho State -- they easily did what the Utes could not do, beating the Bengals 67-57 -- a couple of hours later than the Utes, and had to bus home late in the night. Plus, the Utes get the Aggies on a day when school is not in session, potentially mitigating the home-court advantage by reducing the number of raucous students who will attend the game.