Just returned from watching the Utes practice and address the media, and came away with just the slightest sense that they're taking a more intense an approach to the game. The Arizona Wildcats seemed, somehow, just a little less interested in the whole thing.

But who knows?

My feelings lately – that the Utes would be only a No. 7 seven seed, but with a chance to stay out west in the NCAA Tournament – haven't exactly panned out precisely. But the Utes did say all the right things, from center Luke Nevill not needing to score but to play good defense for the Utes to win, to coach Jim Boylen insisting that all of the talk about favored seeds is meaningless.

"What I try to do as a head coach is prepare my team, no matter who we're playing, no matter where we're playing," he said.

Boylen seemed downright giddy at being a coach at the tournament for the first time, too, happily bouncing from interview to interview and back-slapping with some old friends from his NBA days.

Meanwhile, his players insisted that they were here on business, and not distracted by the flamboyant city, the predictions that they will be upset victims or the prospect of carrying the water for the Mountain West Conference -- which now has only one team left in the tournament after what had been described as the best season in its history.

"We don't really have to worry about what anybody else is doing," forward Shaun Green said. "Our conference spoke up for how good our conference is in the preseason and everything, when we competed against the teams in the nonconference. Now, it's just all about us, really, and we're just out here to prove that we're a good team."