Back around the time the Utes were suffering their last loss a month ago, turnovers were a big problem. Coach Jim Boylen continually worried about his team being too careless with the ball, and it showed when it committed a season-high 18 turnovers in the loss at UNLV.

Since then, though, the Utes have made a drastic improvement.

Though they committed 15 turnovers in an overtime win against Brigham Young that started its current seven-game winning streak, they have averaged only 10.3 turnovers in the six games since then -- which is pretty good for a group that had been averaging nearly 14 before that. And it's a trend that Boylen said must continue if the Utes are going to exact revenge against the Rebels at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night.

"That will be a big part of this game," he said.

Boylen always has said he would be happy with a dozen or less turnovers per game; any more than that, and the number of "shots on goal" that the sharp-shooting Utes miss out on gets to be too overwhelming to endure. He added that the improvement has come simply from an increased attention to the problem in practice.

"We've showed them to our team, we've grouped them, we've analyzed them, we've talked about them," he said, chuckling at the number of ways he has examined the issue. "Every turnover in practice has been emphasized more and examined more. Holding my team to better practice habits, as far as turnovers, I think has been a big part of it."