Coach Jim Boylen doesn't want his players getting complacent, even though they're getting something of a breather before their harrowing finishing stretch.

"What I've asked my group to do is take every day, every practice, every minute, and try to get better," he said at his weekly press conference today. "And to respect the fact that we're in first place. Don't rest on it -- build on it. We're hoping we can do that. I'm coaching them to do that, and that's what we're trying to do."

The Utes play at slumping Colorado State -- the Rams have lost six of their last seven -- at Moby Arena on Wednesday night, after trouncing last-place Air Force on Saturday. Then, they get the weekend off before taking on UNLV at home, Brigham Young and New Mexico on the road in advance of the reguarl-season finale against TCU at the Huntsman Center.

Call it Murderer's Row, and the biggest threat to the Utes' dream of winning the Mountain West Conference.

"We haven't talked about it as a team, but some of the guys on the team have talked about it, to where this is the last game where, on paper, we're supposed to really win, and then we do start the really hard stretch of conference," forward Shaun Green said. "But we also look at it as a great challenge. If we want to be an NCAA team and make a run in the tournament, we have to be able to handle games like this and stretches like this."