He started the season with two terrific games off the bench, endured a midseason lull, then erupted for two more big games.

But since then?

Forward Stephen Weigh has been missing in action.

The 6-foot-6 freshman from Australia has scarcely done a thing in the Mountain West Conference season, earning less and less playing time as his production has waned.

In the six games since going off for 22 and 16 points in back-to-back games against Albany and UNLV, Weigh has averaged 1.7 points and made just 2-of-12 shots. He has grabbed just five rebounds and handed out only four assists — none in the past five games.

His playing time has dwindled to almost nothing, too. After getting 45 minutes in the overtime loss to the Rebels, he has watched his minutes fall from 25 against TCU to a season-low four against Wyoming. He played nine minutes at San Diego State last weekend, and actually made the only shot he took.

Things don’t look good for him, either, with the Utes having enjoyed better contributions recently from guys like Ricky Johns and Lawrence Borha at his position.

Shooting guard Carlon Brown watched the Utes play San Diego State last weekend - and it's a shame he was wearing his maroon letter jacket from King High School in nearby Riverside and not a red-and-white uniform with high-tops.

The Utes could have used him.

They shot just 2 for 17 during a 15-minute span of the second half in which they blew an 11-point lead and wound up losing 63-53 at Cox Arena, just the latest in a series of discouraging losses that have all but wasted the season. The Utes keep saying they can put things together in time to make a run deep into the Mountain West Conference tournament next month, but then keep right on giving no reason to believe them.

Meanwhile, Brown is having a having a fine year.

One of three recruits who will join the Utes next year, the 6-foot-4 senior is averaging some 16 points per game for the high-scoring, 21-2 King Wolves. He's also one of the area's top three-point shooters.

Yet Giacoletti seems almost resigned with this current team anymore, which is perhaps an outgrowth of his Christmastime decision not to kill himself worrying about the external pressures surrounding one of the worst seasons in school history.

He's not bludgeoning his young team with fury, either, saying he has hardly raised his voice at the players in about a month, believing their collective psyche is too fragile to endure it. A cynic might even think that he's been reassured that he's not going to lose his job anytime soon, allowing him to take a more measured and long-term approach with his team.

Incidentally, athletic director Chris Hill also attended the San Diego State game, and spent a few moments in the locker room after the game.

That victory over No. 13 Air Force was great and everything, but the Utes did not get a lot of benefit from it in the national rankings - what with their dozen losses and all.

Even after stunning the Falcons 85-79 a few days ago, the 6-12 Utes remain mired far down the list in both the Sagarin Ratings and the Ratings Percentage Index.

In the RPI, the Utes rank 163rd, though the rankings reveal part of the reason for that. The team's strength of schedule is rated the 20th most difficult in the nation - tougher than nine teams in the top 20, including Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio State and Kansas.

In the Sagarin Ratings, the Utes rank 149th, one spot below Southern Utah, which beat them 76-73 in the season-opener at the Huntsman Center.

Guard Lawrence Borha thought he had done something wrong when the Utes played at New Mexico last week, sitting on the bench the entire game for the first time all season.

Naturally, he made up for it against Air Force.

The sophomore guard enjoyed his best game of the season, coming off the bench to score 13 points with four assists and two rebounds against two turnovers in the 85-79 victory at the Huntsman Center.

"I was mad that I didn't get to play in the last game," he said. "So I wanted to prove to everybody that I can play."

Coach Ray Giacoletti said he did not use Borha against the Lobos simply because he was going with other options - though Borha had hardly been all that effective most the season. He was shooting just 42.6 percent, averaging 5.1 points and sometimes seeming to clash with his teammates on the floor.

But against the Falcons, he made 6 of 7 shots, including two long jumpers and a putback in a three-minute span near the end of the first half that helped the Utes build a 15-point lead.

"They just left me open, and it was just like they disrespected me," Borha said. "I just had to knock down shots. This didn't feel like a career-high for me, it just felt like I was out on the court playing."

Center Luke Nevill acknowledged he has not been at his best the past few games, and he believes he knows why:

His diet.

Nevill said he has been feeling "kind of tired" and "worn out quite a bit" lately - perhaps in part because he has been eating too far in advance of games and winding up hungry and listless by the time tipoff rolls around.

"I think I'm maybe not eating close enough to game time," he said. "Maybe my metabolism or something like that, it works pretty fast. So when I have a pre-game meal three hours beforehand, I'm hungry and hour before the game. ... Maybe that's why I've had a lack of energy."

Nevill said he also has been "kind of banged up a little bit. I have some injuries here and there. So once we get a couple of those fixed - or even get one of the problems fixed - I should be back to full strength."

The Utes certainly hope so.

The 7-foot-1 sophomore averaged 19.6 points and 8.8 rebounds while shooting 70.3 percent during the first 11 games, of which the Utes won five (and lost four by a combined eight points). Since then, the Utes have lost six straight games, and Nevill has averaged just 12.8 points and 6.7 rebounds while shooting 51 percent.

Of course, there's a flipside to the theory about starting freshman center David Foster over sophomore Luke Nevill when the Utes play the nationally ranked Air Force Falcons at the Huntsman Center on Tuesday night - or beyond.

Foster is leaving.

Not right away, mind you.

But he's still planning to serve a two-year LDS Church mission after this season, meaning that cultivating his talents now at the expense of Nevill probably won't serve the Utes very well next season, when they will be under serious pressure to perform without the mitigating circumstances of youth, inexperience and NCAA sanctions.

True, they have nothing to lose at the moment, since they're 5-12 and showing no signs of pulling out of their historic slump. But nor are they likely to somehow turnaround the season, no matter who plays center - while they're going to need Nevill to get better down the line, and might not want to risk alienating him or impeding his improvement.

In other words?

Short-term pain for a long-term gain, probably, and hope Nevill regains the look that had him averaging impressive double-doubles earlier in the season.

Time now for the question you might never have thought you would be asking:

Are the Utes better without Luke Nevill?

It certainly looked that way in the 86-82 overtime loss at New Mexico on Saturday night. The 7-foot-1 sophomore — the leading scorer and rebounder — gave the Utes awfully little for the second straight game, and the Utes fell behind by 15 points at The Pit in Albuquerque.

But when 7-2 freshman backup David Foster entered the game, he provided an immediate spark that helped the Utes rally in the second half and ultimately send the game into overtime.

“We had some guys step up,” coach Ray Giacoletti said. “David Foster was unbelievable. He gave us a great lift.”

Foster finished with eight points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot in 17 minutes — Nevill had nine and three with no blocks before fouling out in 18 minutes — and provides the coaches an interesting question:

Should they start him?

After all, Nevill has been increasingly lackluster as the Utes’ losing streak has stretched to six games, longest since 1950. Maybe it’s time to keep him on the bench until he can show a little more than he has lately. It’s not as if the Utes have much to lose, with nationally ranked Air Force visiting the Huntsman Center on Tuesday.

And speaking of players who made an impact, freshman point guard Curtis Eatmon had his best game of the season by far, scoring 11 points with five rebounds and five assists. He did so off the bench in relief of first-time starter Luka Drca, who did not exactly take advantage of his opportunity after an apparent breakout game at Colorado State last week.

The freshman missed all five shots he took, and played only five minutes after halftime — none in the overtime. Fellow guard Lawrence Borha did not play at all for the first time all season, something Giacoletti said was simply a coaching decision.

Didn't see it myself - my seat was nearly on the baseline at the other end of the court - but radio broadcaster Bill Riley said guard Lawrence Borha did not play almost the entire second half of the Utes' 73-57 loss at Colorado State after getting into a heated exchange with his teammates on the bench at Moby Arena.

Borha appeared to be barking primarily at center Luke Nevill, in an apparent dispute over how much or whether Borha should be getting the ball to the 7-foot-1 center. Borha left the game with 17:15 remaining - moments after making a steal but then committing a turnover - and did not return.

He had two points, two rebounds, two steals and three turnovers in 13 minutes.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Nevill later blamed the loss on guard play - even though he was plenty culpable for allowing the Rams to hammer the Utes on the boards and shoot 52 percent.

Anyway, if the account is accurate, it wouldn't be the first time that Borha has traded words with his teammates. Several times this season, I've seen him in animated - albeit brief - exchanges with others on the floor, seemingly as the result of confusion about where to go or what to do.

Unfortunately for the Utes, it might also be a sign of the growing frustration of a team that has lost five straight games, and eight of their last 10.

It's getting increasingly hard to believe that the Utes actually pounded a Washington State team that has gone on to reach the AP Top 25, or a Virginia team that blasted Gonzaga.

Their performance in a 73-57 loss at Colorado State on Tuesday night recalled the shockingly absentee effort in the loss to Northwestern in the San Juan Shootout last month.

And that's not good.

Several things we've learned, though:

- If center Luke Nevill isn't effective or interested, the Utes are going to get ripped. He had his two worst games of the year against Northwestern and CSU, yet he somehow managed to exclusively blame the guards for the loss to the Rams, even though he was a big part of the reason the Utes gave up 31 free-throw attempts and 35 rebounds.

- The guard play is atrocious, with the occasional exception of Johnnie Bryant. Bryant can heat up the offense with his shooting, but I'm not sure I'd say he makes his teammates better. And everybody else? Let's just say that there's a reason the Utes rank last in the league in steals, turnover margin and defending the three-point shot.

- Forward Stephen Weigh is a typical freshman. Yes, he's talented, but he has yet to learn how to bring it every night. He scored 22 points and 16 points in close losses to Albany and UNLV, but has managed just one point and one rebound in each of his last two games. He hasn't made a basket since in those two games, either.

While the Utes have been surprised by how much difficulty they have endured this season, the UNLV Rebels have been surprised the other way.

The Rebels expected to have a solid team. But they're 13-2 already, with a nine-game winning streak going into tonight's meeting with the Utes at the Thomas & Mack Center to open the Mountain West Conference schedule. The Rebels also have received votes in the AP Top 25, and rank ninth nationally in the power ratings at collegerpi.com.

According to an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the reason is defense.

The Rebels have allowed just 57.5 points per game since coach Lon Kruger inserted 6-foot-8 senior Gaston Essengue into the starting lineup. That's a vast difference from the Utes, who have strained all season to manage a consistent defensive effort.

The Utes, by the way, are a ghastly 183rd in the Ratings Percentage Index that is reproduced at collegerpi.com. That ranks far below every other team in the state - including Weber State (147th), Southern Utah (148th) and Utah Valley State (152nd). And if they lose tonight, they will have their worst record at this stage of the season since 1972-73.

Coach Ray Giacoletti looked like he had swallowed a frog.
Not only are his Utes mired in their worst start since 1982-83 - it will be the worst start since 1972-83, if they lose at UNLV on Wednesday night - but now he had to tell reporters that they have lost freshman forwards Daniel Deane and Kim Tillie, perhaps for the rest of the season.
Giacoletti spoke haltingly, as if even he could not believe what he was saying. He'd just hung up the phone with the doctor informing him of the severity of Tillie's broken left ankle, and appeared utterly shell-shocked. He clearly had not planned on addressing the possibility that Deane might be academically ineligible for the rest of the season, either, until I asked him about Deane's sputtering progress so far this season.
"We need to talk about Daniel," he said, choosing his words carefully. "Daniel, right now, as it looks, will not play" against the Rebels. "Academically, he's trying to get himself - he has this week to try to get himself eligible for the second semester."
Now, losing the players might not be that huge a blow in the strictest sense, considering neither Deane nor Tillie yet has contributed as much as the Utes would like - they have played only 221 minutes combined, and averaged 4.8 points and 3.8 rebounds - and that starter Shaun Green has shown the capacity to play major minutes and still be effective.
But the psychological impact might be devastating.
Enduring yet another painful blow on top of all of the devastating losses might only serve to further bury the Utes in a hole of self-doubt and uncertainty. They play three of their first four league games on the road, too, and could be out of the Mountain West Conference championship chase before it even really begins.
It's perplexing, too, how Deane could be coming up academically ineligible.
Giacoletti said he's not allowed to talk about the details, because of privacy matters involving academic records. But Deane is a pre-engineering major who graduated Judge Memorial High School with honors and a 3.75 grade-point average.
To me, that suggests he simply has not been attending class enough - rather than being unable to earn passing grades or keep up with the work.
The 6-foot-8 forward already has endured a rough start to his college experience, having looked almost frantic much of the time he's on the floor, almost as if he's trying so hard to play well that he can barely keep his balance or make smart decisions.
It has been a strange development, indeed, considering how heralded a recruit Deane was - he chose the Utes over Stanford, Gonzaga and Kansas - and how much Giacoletti gushed about him in the preseason being so tenacious in practice that the rest of the Utes could not rebound against him.

Having received an e-mail recently from a newspaper columnist in North Dakota who used to cover coach Ray Giacoletti when Giacoletti was in charge at North Dakota State, I went to look up some of his work - especially considering that columnist Mike McFeely was asking whether fans in Utah were getting aggravated with what sounded to him like the same problems that plagued Giacoletti at NDSU.

Fans might wince at what I found.

A column that McFeely wrote when Giacoletti landed the Utah job back in 2004 suddenly sounded awfully foreboding, in the wake of the disastrous 77-44 loss to Northwestern at the San Juan Shootout last month. Nearly everything he mentions in the column has some bearing - at least potentially - on Giacoletti's difficult situation with the Utes right now.

Of course, it's also fair to cut the coach some slack, understanding that he's working this season with eight newcomers and 10 players who are either freshmen or sophomores. Theoretically, they're bound to improve as they continue to play with one another - even if they're looking a lot like inconsistent young players at the moment.

If the Utes are in a similar situation next year, however, watch out ...