Finally had a chance to review some of the glossy predictions for the Utes in the annual preseason magazines, and they're just about as careful as you would expect of a team with a new coach coming off its worst season in 23 years.

None of them picked the Utes to reach the NCAA Tournament or win the Mountain West Conference, and CBSSports.com even said that "it would be wrong to think that they could contend" for the title in their first year under coach Jim Boylen.

Of course, that's the same mag that described forward Shaun Green as a "slasher."

Nonetheless, CBSSports.com suggested fans "watch out" for the Utes next season, when the team has absorbed Boylen for a year and includes more of his kind of players.

And while Sports Illustrated did not mention the Utes in its preview issue, The Sporting News expects Boylen "probably has the best chance of success" among the new head coaches in the league, because of the talented players he has returning from a team that "underachieved" last year. It picked the Utes to finish fourth, ranking Green as the best shooter in the league and center Luke Nevill as the best rebounder.

The Sporting News also rated guard Tyler Kepkay as among the top junior-college transfers in the country. Also on the five-player list in the West, though, are Gonzaga's Ira Brown, UNLV's Mareceo Rutledge and San Diego State's Kelvin Davis -- all players the Utes will meet this season.

It might have been hard to notice, there in between all of the Shaun Green three-pointers and defensive stops. But the Utes improved in yet another area in their 72-52 victory over the Weber State Wildcats last night:

Turnovers.

The Utes committed a season-low 11, continuing a downward trend from the season-high of 20 they committed in the opener against South Carolina Upstate. In between, they committed 14 against overmatched High Point, 18 against Washington and 13 against Santa Clara.

"Turnovers are a lack of focus and a lack of urgency," coach Jim Boylen said. "And I think we're doing a better job of being more focused and more urgent. Are we going to turn the ball over some games more than others? Yeah. Are we going to play against different styles of teams, and defenses? Yeah."

But still, fewer is always better.

Yet Boylen decided against instituting a specific goal for turnovers the way former coach Ray Giacoletti did. Giacoletti wanted his team to commit 12 or fewer turnovers per game, though the Utes wound up averaging 14.6 last season.

But Boylen believes it would have been meaningless to attempt to define a proper turnover goal, because "I didn't have any data to analyze it."

"We've got a more detailed, execution-style offense, so we're going to have a few more turnovers," he said. "We run more than we did last year, so we're going to have a few more turnovers. But I think the positives of those things outweigh the negatives. In time, our turnovers ... should come down, and it looks like they're trending down."

Guard Lawrence Borha easily is the most sure-handed of the Utes so far, having committed just three turnovers in 25.6 minutes per game -- third-highest on the team.

Boy, for a minute there, it looked like I was going to have to apologize for writing that article in the newspaper describing how the Utes are steadily improving from last season.

But then the Utes found their defense.

By shaking off a poor start and smothering the Weber State Wildcats the rest of the way in a 72-52 victory at the Dee Events Center tonight, the Utes showed another sign that they're starting to absorb coach Jim Boylen's message.

"We have to defend, we have to defend, we have to defend," Boylen said. "I've said all along, if we can keep defending, our offense will come around."

That hadn't really worked out terribly well through the first four games, when the Utes held opponents to 41.7 percent shooting but still had only an unsatisfying split to their credit.

But now they have honest-to-goodness proof that clamping down on defense can pay dividends that extend all the way to the final score, even if Boylen regarded the victory as only another baby step on the road to success.

"What this team has to do -- and I've said it a million times -- is we have to defend even though we're not scoring," Boylen said. "We have to play through adversity even when we're not playing well. That's where we have to grow. We're not out of the woods yet."

But they are getting closer.

The Utes held the Wildcats to 36.4 percent shooting, lowering their opponents' shooting percentage to 40.7 percent through five games. They also forced a season-high 18 turnovers, blocked a season-high six shots and made seven steals while holding the Wildcats scoreless for more than seven minutes while taking control in the first half.

Granted, part of that was because the Wildcats were outsized and overmatched. But you'd still rather do that to somebody than have somebody do it to you.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill played probably his best half of the season after halftime, scoring 14 of his 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting. He aggressively scored three straight baskets (two lay-ups and a dunk) to start the second half to fuel the Utes' runaway. "Coach told me that I wasn't playing strong and physical in the first half," he said. "He said I was taking fadeaway shots and wasn't going right to the hoop. ... I came out and I wasn't going to settle for any weak shots."

-- Guard Carlon Brown did not exactly light it up in his first start, in place of the injured Stephen Weigh. The freshman scored just two points with three rebounds, a steal, an assist and a vicious blocked shot in 22 minutes. Still, that wasn't bad, and not committing a turnover was a victory, in a game in which the Utes committed a season-low 11 of them.

-- Guard Lawrence Borha still has not enjoyed an offensive outburst nearly as monumental as the one he hung on South Carolina Upstate in the season opener. But once again, he smothered one of the other team's top players. While Borha scored just three points, he held WSU's Juan Pablo Silveira scoreless with three turnovers on 0-for-5 shooting. Silveira had been averaging 9.0 points per game. And Borha's stat line was hardly unimpressive; he grabbed five rebounds, handed out three assists, made two steals and blocked a shot -- all with only one turnover in a game-high 34 minutes.

Naturally, we didn't have enough room in today's newspaper article about the improvement of the Utes to mention everything former assistant coach Randy Rahe had to say about going against them tonight at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Now the head coach at Weber State, Rahe said the Utes will be a "good challenge" for his Wildcats, because they will test them in so many ways. Center Luke Nevill is the biggest problem, he said.

"We don't have anybody close to that," Rahe said. "We're putting 6-7 on 7-1. Normally, you double and stuff against him, but they shoot the ball so well that if you double, you're giving up threes. And if you don't, then you have to battle him one-on-one down there. So it's a double-edged sword."

Rahe was extremely complimentary of the job Boylen is doing with the Utes, saying he has them "guarding really well" -- the Utes are allowing opponents to shoot only 41.7 percent and score 67.8 points per game, far better than last year -- while playing a system that's "a little different than some other people play."

"They push you down to the baseline, keep you out of the middle," Rahe explained. "It's something you don't see every night. ... And once you get down there, there's not a whole lot of places to go."

The Utes, by the way, are 4 1/2-point favorites, though the folks at Covers.com give the Wildcats the edge on defense.

Ahhh ... remember the good old days of polarization under former coach Rick Majerus?

Yeah, well, looks like it's happening already in St. Louis, where Majerus is only a few months into his reign. And it's happening in spectacularly bad form, according to Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com -- with the father of one of the players ripping Majerus on a computer message board for fans.

Evidently, guard Tommie Liddell III has not played as well under Majerus as he did under previous coach Brad Soderberg -- who was fired after going only 20-13 last season, by the way. So his father, responding to a criticism of his son in a previous post by "The Torch," complained that "it's not Tommie, it's the coach."

The elder Liddell later posted that he had allowed someone else to use his password at Billikens.com, which sounded an awful lot like backtracking after the heat started to come down. Either way, the damage was probably done. As one subsequent post in the thread replied:

"Uh-oh. Not good."

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the latest addition to the Utes' intense practice sessions:

Boxing gloves.

Yep, they sit there on the scorer's table, two pair -- one with "Right" written on the top of each glove and the other with "Wrong" written there -- that coach Jim Boylen uses to try to break his players' habit of making excuses for their mistakes.

"Everybody wants to be right," he said. "They'd rather be right than win. They'd rather have their stance validated than win. They want to have somebody tell them they're good for what they do than win. So if you believe you're right that much, tell the guy that you think is wrong. Put the gloves on and let's ... go at it, if you really think being right is that important, to put it above the team."

Indeed, having his players deny accountability for their missteps and resist his emphasis on the team over the individual has been one of the ongoing frustrations for the new coach. He grew so angry at forwards Kim Tillie and Morgan Grim during practice last week that he yanked the gloves off the table and threw them at the players, screaming a dare for them to lace 'em up.

Both refused, and none of the players have thrown down with the gloves so far (though guards Tyler Kepkay and Chris Grant did get into a brief fight during a scrimmage drill that same day).

Boylen wouldn't mind seeing it happen, though, especially if the player insisting he's right is the one whose opinion supports the team over the individual. "The day that happens, we're going right to the top," he said.

"It might not make sense to everybody ... but it makes sense to me," Boylen added. "If you believe in your stance so much, fight for it."

He was recruited specifically to solidify a wobbly backcourt, and point guard Tyler Kepkay has had his moments. But the junior-college transfer clearly is still adjusting to Division I basketball -- as illustrated by his unspectacular assist-to-turnover ratio.

In four games, he has 13 assists and 15 turnovers.

That's not good.

But coach Jim Boylen believes Kepkay is simply going through the growing pains that come with making the big jump to the big time from the College of Eastern Utah. He calls Kepkay a "developing player" who's tough and competitive and destined to play well once he gets truly comfortable, something at which he will get another chance when the Utes play Weber State at the Dee Events Center in Ogden on Wednesday night.

"He has never played in a system before, he's never played with players better than him before or guys of equal talent that he has to share with," Boylen said, "and it's going to be an adjustment. He has improved every day. He has to handle his frustration level when things don't go his way, and he's working on that."

Kepkay figures to get a good test from WSU's Juan Pablo Silveira, a sophomore point guard from Uruguay whose assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly 2-to-1.

Having led the nation in junior-college scoring last season, Kepkay is averaging only 8.3 points for the Utes as he focuses on running the offense and setting up his teammates in the traditional point-guard style.

But to do that better, Boylen said Kepkay has to improve his decision-making in the area between halfcourt and the free-throw line, a zone that Boylen calls "the pocket" from which point guards do most of their distributing, either on the fast-break or in a halfcourt set.

"That decision-making area, he has struggled with," Boylen said. "When he takes it all the way and makes a lay-up, he has been terrific. ... In that pocket area, he has been about 12 percent on his decisions, so he's got to get better."

Just saw the e-mail announcing that Brigham Young's Trent Plaisted is the Mountain West Conference player of the week, which reminded me of something that occurred to me over the weekend:

He is the best center in the league, hands down.

Frankly, I didn't think all that much of the 6-foot-11 junior the past couple of seasons, and viewed Utah's Luke Nevill as the player with the more promising upside -- especially when Nevill tended to dominate their head-to-head meetings.

But having watched Plaisted erupt against Jackson State last week before absolutely abusing No. 6 Louisville and No. 1 North Carolina in Las Vegas over the weekend -- 45 points, 29 rebounds and 20-for-36 shooting combined -- it's pretty clear that he has left Nevill behind in his development as a premier post player. He works hard, plays physically, defends well and runs the floor like a small forward. Did you see the way he caught a behind-the-back pass at full speed on the fast break against Louisville and turned it into a thunderous one-handed dunk?

Amazing.

Meanwhile, the 7-1 Nevill continues to lumber down the floor as if he's out of shape, searching for a way to handle physical opponents without letting foul trouble or his own frustration take him out of games.

Coach Jim Boylen has given him credit for creating opportunities for teammates like he did in the game against High Point at the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament, but also said Nevill has "tried to do it by himself" at times, such as in the loss to Santa Clara last week.

"We had open people, we had people in spacing positions, he forced the ball to the rim and didn't make enough plays," Boylen said. "That's where he played poorly. ... But his biggest problem has been foul trouble, and he's letting physical play take him out of, mentally, what he needs to do."

While Plaisted averages 17.4 points and 7.0 rebounds and shoots 60 percent from the floor and 73 percent from the free-throw line, Nevill is averaging 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds (albeit with six blocks and four steals) while shooting 46 percent from the field and 61.5 percent from the line. He's actually playing two more minutes per game than Plaisted, too.

Of course, Nevill has been known to privately chafe at the comparisons to Plaisted, ever since he lost to his counterpart in voting for the league's freshman of the year away two years ago -- even though Plaisted had better credentials then, too.

So who knows?

Maybe another round of comparisons -- once again, not so favorable -- will help Nevill fire up for the rest of the season the way he fired up and so famously owned Plaisted in the league tournament after losing that freshman award to him.

Now that football is basically over, coach Jim Boylen held the first of his weekly press conferences today at the Huntsman Center, although there was little new for him to report.

Except bad news, anyway.

Forward Stephen Weigh remains questionable to play at Weber State on Wednesday, because of his lingering rib injury -- and Boylen made it sound like his third-leading scorer could be out awhile. He still has not practiced since the last game a week ago.

"I'm not sure when his return will be," Boylen said. "I don't want say it's a day-to-day thing, because that's not correct. But it is a thing that hopefully he can snap out of it soon and recover. But it's a very difficult injury to gauge."

Weigh often can loosen up as a day goes on or he warms up on a stationary bicycle, Boylen said, only to stiffen back up "like it was the first day." Weigh had been bothered by a rib injury during the preseason, but suffered the latest flare-up when he was undercut and fell hard on his shoulder during the loss to Santa Clara a week ago.

If Weigh can't go against the Wildcats, freshman guard Carlon Brown will take his place in the starting lineup -- basically giving the Utes a three-guard look with point guard Tyler Kepkay and shooting guard Lawrence Borha alongside Brown. Backup guard Luka Drca also would see more time off the bench.

Don't get him wrong. Coach Jim Boylen would love to see the Utes play Brigham Young in the annual football rivalry today at Edwards Stadium in Provo. After all, most of his players were pretty excited about it.

But duty calls.

With more than a week between games, Boylen is heading out of town this morning to watch three players the Utes are recruiting in a tournament in California. Meanwhile, assistant coach Jeff Smith is spending a couple of days in Texas to watch signee Chris Hines of Klein Forest High School in Houston and about 20 other players in whom the Utes are interested.

"I have to use the 10 days off to get my team better," Boylen said.

The Utes do not play again until meeting Weber State at the Dee Events Center in Ogden on Wednesday night, and have not played since losing to Santa Clara at home last Monday. In between, Boylen also has watched signees Josh Sharp of Lone Peak High School and Jace Tavita of Brighton play high school games during the week.

Not coincidentally, Provo's Brandon Davies and Kyle Collinsworth -- a junior and a sophomore, respectively -- also were on the court to upset Sharp and teammate Tyler Haws at Lone Peak on Tuesday night. The Utes are keeping an eye on all of them, and Boylen went out of his way to explain to football coach Kyle Whittingham why he would not be attending today's big game.

"I apologized I wasn't going to be there," Boylen said. "But I have to build my program, you know?"

Good thing the Utes still have five days before their next game at Weber State. That gives forward Stephen Weigh a chance to get healthy enough to play.

The 6-foot-5 small forward has not practiced since the Utes lost to Santa Clara, on account of the bruised ribs that have been bothering him since the preseason. And coach Jim Boylen said he's not sure whether Weigh will be ready to meet the Wildcats at the Dee Events Center in Ogden on Wednesday night.

"He's got a severely bruised rib cage, and they say his cartilage has been displaced," Boylen said. "The problem is they're healing, but they're getting stiff. ... It almost hurts more now that they're healing, because they're stiff and all that. You can tell he's hurting."

Certainly can.

Weigh moved gingerly while riding a stationary bicycle, doing some biceps curls and undergoing treatment while his teammates worked out Friday. If he can't go -- or if he can play only sparingly off the bench -- Boylen said he probably would move freshman guard Carlon Brown into the starting lineup in place of Weigh.

"I don't mind doing that," he said.

Brown has impressed coaches with his driving and athletic ability, and has averaged 4.5 points and about 12 minutes off the bench in the first four games. Meanwhile, Weigh has started all four games, ranking third on the team by averaging 11.8 points per game in about 25 minutes per game. He's also among the best three-point shooters on the team, having hit 8-for-14 for 57 percent.

For as much as coach Jim Boylen mentions how thankful he is for his job and his players, Thanksgiving surely must be his favorite holiday -- especially now that he has his Indian back.

It's a modest statue of a proud native warrior that Boylen and his brothers admired "as a sign of toughness" around the house while growing up, their father having won it in a golf tournament 45 years ago. That was three years before Boylen was born, and Boylen remembers the statue always enjoying a prominent place in the family room or his father's office.

"We've had it forever," Boylen said.

Over the years, the statue had a habit of disappearing yet showing up again. When his parents divorced, Boylen said he and his brothers found the statue among their dad's belongings. It cropped up again when their father died and the brothers sorted through his estate. Naturally, it disappeared again after that.

Then, Boylen took over the Utes -- one of the few remaining college teams named after a native tribe -- and one of his brothers called.

"I found the Indian!" his brother told him. "I found the Indian!"

"My brother Bobby had it in his garage with my dad's stuff," Boylen gleefully recalled. "So I said, 'You know what, Bobby? Send that Indian, that's going to be our mascot. So we named him, and he's our guy. It's not a disrespect thing, it's a symbol of toughness, it's a sign of personal fortitude, all those kind of things."

Now, the statue occupies a place in the Utah team room, as a reminder of the characteristics -- toughness and pride, foremost among them -- that Boylen is trying to instill in his players. It has watched at least one practice from atop the sideline scorer's table.

Athletic director Chris Hill was wary of the statue being perceived as culturally insensitive, Boylen said, but the coach insisted that it's a symbol of honor and destiny -- "we're proud of the Utes," he said -- and not a caricature.

"We've had it forever," he said, "and it just kept coming back up. It was packed away and it came back up. It disappeared, my dad died, and it came back up. To me, it just kind of means that I was meant to be a Ute."

"Kind of cool," he said.

One other thing ... remember Josh Sharp?

The Utes signed the 6-foot-7 forward from Lone Peak High School to a letter of intent last week, even though Sharp had averaged only about seven points and six rebounds a game for the defending Class 5-A champions.

But in the first game of his senior season, Sharp led the Knights with a game-high 26 points in their surprising-but-narrow home loss to defending Class 4-A champion Provo on Tuesday night. Sharp plans to walk-on with the Utes for a season before serving an LDS Church mission.

So, the good news is the Utes don't have to play Oregon right away.

They still have a couple of weeks for the No. 12 Ducks to get over stunningly losing to St. Mary's last night, lest they take their certain frustration out on the them the same way Utah State -- another upcoming opponent -- took its embarrassment out on Austin Peay last night.

The Utes play the Aggies at home on Dec. 5, then travel to play Oregon on Dec. 8.

Oh, and just because we know that coach Jim Boylen keeps tabs on his old pals at Michigan State ... tough news, learning at the Spartans -- already shocked by an exhibition loss to Division II Grand Valley State in an exhibition game before the season -- couldn't quite handle No. 2 UCLA in the final of the CBE Classic in Kansas City.

It was nearly 11:15, and the Huntsman Center was empty and quiet some two hours after the Utes lost to Santa Clara last night. I was preparing to head home after finishing my work for the newspaper, when a solitary figure started down the steps from the portal near the basketball office.

Still in his uniform shorts and undershirt, it was Carlon Brown.

"What are you doing here so late?" I asked when he reached the floor.

"Gonna shoot," he said.

In spite of the hour, I can't say it sounded like a bad idea.

If there's one thing missing from Brown's game at the moment, it's outside shooting. Coach Jim Boylen acknowledged as much after the game -- "he's not a three-point shooter yet," he said -- and Brown no doubt was bothered by the three-point attempt he embarrassingly airballed from the corner with the Broncos ahead 44-41 and beginning a game-clinching surge.

"That's a play where he's got to drive it in and make a play," Boylen said.

Just a freshman, Brown has made a good impression with his athleticism and driving ability; he's 9-for-12 shooting on the season, mostly because he takes most of his shots from close to the basket. He might be on the verge of earning more playing time, too, considering that for the first time, he was the first player off the bench against the Broncos.

So I joked with Brown that he must not have class in the morning, if he was going to stay up so late working on his shot. Shaking his head, he said, "we have practice in the morning."

Indeed, the Utes worked out at 5:45 a.m. ... and THEN went to class.

"Maybe I'm practicing too hard, maybe I'm driving these guys too hard," Boylen said after the game. "But you know what? That's the way we're going to do it here. We're going to practice hard, we're going to drive 'em hard."

Say what you will about the Utes last season, but if there was one thing they could do, it was make free throws.

Now, maybe less so.

The Utes are shooting an unspectacular 67 percent from the free-throw line after four games, ranking seventh in the Mountain West Conference after hitting 74 percent to rank second in the league and 31st nationally last season.

Not to pile on, but center Luke Nevill has been among the worst offenders.

Historically a strong free-throw shooter, the 7-foot-1 junior is only 16-of-26, and he missed three in a row at one point in the first half of the 72-57 loss to Santa Clara last night. He also had a stretch against High Point at the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in Seattle during which he missed three of four while the Utes were straining to pull away from the Panthers, and the Utes as a team made only 11-of-18 in an 83-77 loss at Washington last week.

And that could be a problem, considering how often Nevill should be able to get to the free-throw line against defenses that will foul him to keep him from making easy dunks and lay-ups.

Strangely, though, fellow Australian Stephen Weigh is even worse.

The sophomore forward is just 3-for-7 this season, after making 68 percent last season. Guard Lawrence Borha has been probably the best free-throw shooter so far, making 10-of-12 for 83 percent -- though guard Johnnie Bryant, guard Luka Drca and forward Morgan Grim have yet to miss on a combined eight attempts.

When the Utes began the second half of their game against Santa Clara at the Huntsman Center tonight, the students sitting courtside began a loud chant in support of their new coach.

"We love Boylen!" they shouted.

Good thing, because Boylen could probably use some love right about now.

After agonizing for days over his team's loss at Washington last week, he sounded almost as if he was trying to talk himself out of becoming despondent after watching the Utes wilt in the second half of a 72-57 home loss to the Broncos.

"I'm not discouraged," he insisted. "I'm not down. We're going to keep working and get better and better and better."

Yet while there were plenty of reasons to be encouraged about the loss to the Huskies, the loss to the Broncos provided few such opportunities. It came at home, for one thing, and with the Utes scoring a measly 57 points despite having Santa Clara's leading scorer -- 6-foot-10 center John Bryant -- in foul trouble all night and limited to 87 seconds of the first half.

What's more, the Utes allowed the Broncos to shoot 59 percent in the second half, while themselves going nearly 8 1/2 minutes without a basket. Center Luke Nevill failed to assert himself again -- in fairness, he was swarmed almost every time he touched the ball and received little outside shooting support -- the Utes were outrebounded for the second straight game, and allowed the Broncos to score 15 points off 13 turnovers.

But perhaps the promising performance against the Huskies was part of the reason.

"We're going to have to handle adversity," Boylen said. "What I don't think we handled real well -- and we talked about it -- was handling playing well and losing. We played pretty well up north and lost, and then came back and acted like we won. Again, we talked about it, but it's going to be a process with us."

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Forward Stephen Weigh has been ill, Boylen said, which accounted for him playing just 18 minutes and managing just three points and a rebound with two turnovers. "Gave him that start to try to see if he could get him going," Boylen said, "and Stephen never really got going at either end."

-- Forward Shaun Green went scoreless for the second straight game, after never having done so before in his Utah career. He did attempt two shots, though both came with the shot clock about to expire, while contributing four rebounds and two assists in 33 minutes.

-- For the first time, guard Carlon Brown was the first substitute Boylen brought off the bench, and the freshman provided six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes. "I thought we needed some energy," Boylen said. "I thought we needed some drive-and-pitch. I thought we needed a guy to create something. He can do that. ... I just felt that we needed a guy to get in the lane and make plays, and I thought he did that."

While the rest of us no doubt always zoom directly to the points column in a basketball box score, coach Jim Boylen says that's not a category he even considers.

"Who was our leading scorer?" against Washington last week, he asked.

For the record, it was forward Stephen Weigh, who had 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting. But the point Boylen was trying to make is that there are other statistical categories that he believes are better indicators of a team's success.

"I look at how many assists we got," he said. "I look at our defensive [shooting] percentage, and those are the things I look at. If the ball is moving around, we're playing the right way on the offensive end. If we're holding people down on the defensive end, that's what I look at."

All of which came up during a discussion about forward Shaun Green, who has scored only seven points in three games after ranking as the team's leading scorer last season -- but has thrilled Boylen with the other contributions he has made on the floor.

What's more, the Utes have four players averaging in double-figures -- they have had a different leading scorer in all three of their games so far -- which "to me, is more important than having one guy averaging 30 and three guys at seven."

"That's the way I think the game should be played," Boylen added, "and that's the good thing about this team as we get better here. We could have balance. We can have a different leading scorer every night. ... that's a hard team to prepare for, and I like a team like that."

Much has been made about the defensive effort that center Luke Nevill managed -- or didn't manage -- against Washington's Jon Brockman last week, and coach Jim Boylen has gone so far as to print out copies of criticisms that appeared on computer message boards (as well as this blog, I believe), so he can show them to his 7-foot-1 junior in hopes of motivating him to improve.

But to the extent that Nevill's performance in the 83-77 loss to the Huskies illustrated poor defense by the Utes overall, Boylen isn't having it. He still believes the Utes are vastly improved over last season defensively, and did a good job by holding the Huskies to 43 percent shooting on their home floor.

"Who else scored for them?" Boylen asked.

Freshman guard Justin Dentmon had 16 points and junior guard Joel Smith added 11. But nobody else reached double-figures while Brockman erupted for 31 points and 18 rebounds.

"He made guarded shots over a defense," Boylen said. "I'll live with that, all day long. Guarded shots, over a defense. He's a good player. We made open threes against their defense. Does that mean their defense was good or bad? I don't know. You know what I mean? ... It's easy to second-guess that we should have doubled him, we should have done this. We're up three in the last five minutes, we're up two with the ball with two minutes to go. You have to win those games."

Boylen then was careful in how he characterized Nevill's play so far, acknowledging that "he needs to play with more grit, needs to play with more toughness" but also saying that "he's not getting enough credit for situations he does create."

Specifically, Boylen said the Utes were able to start penetrating to the basket more easily against the Huskies because they began to double-team Nevill in the post.

"We exploited that in the second half," Boylen said.

Nevill finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds against the Huskies, and is averaging 14.7 points and 7.7 rebounds going into a matchup with 6-foot-10 John Bryant and the Santa Clara Broncos tonight at the Huntsman Center.

"I'm happy with the way Luke's playing," Boylen said. "Does he need to play better? Yes. Does he need to play tougher? Yes. Does he need to rebound better? Yes. Has he helped us win games? He has. Has he improved from last year? He has. Has he improved from the Australia trip? He has."

"If we hold people to 43 percent on their home floor, you think we should have a chance to win," he added. "I do."

Looks like the Utes can fairly expect to bounce back from their painful loss to Washington last week when Santa Clara visits the Huntsman Center on Monday night.

After all, the Broncos could not handle Nevada in their first real game after two embarrassingly easy opening games.

"We have to grow up and mature and count on guys," first-year coach Kerry Keating said.

The Broncos lost 67-54 to the Wolfpack, and committed 21 turnovers. They're a bit shorthanded, too, playing without 7-foot center Josh Higgins, a back-up who averaged 4.4 points last season but is out with a knee injury, and 6-9 freshman forward Andrew Zimmerman, who's battling a back problem.

That led to some fatigue among the remaining Broncos, Keating said -- the bench scored only five points -- which should give the Utes an edge if they can push the ball and run as much as they would like when the Broncos come to town. No line has been set yet, but one online oddsmaker gives the Utes the edge in every category.

Finally had a chance -- that is, finally remembered -- to ask coach Jim Boylen about why he kept point guard Tyler Kepkay on the bench for so long in the second half of the loss at Washington last week.

Naturally, he was sending a message.

Boylen said he was upset with Kepkay for not acting as more of a floor leader for the Utes -- setting up the offense, directing traffic and communicating with his teammates. Kepkay played only five of his 23 minutes after halftime of the 83-77 loss in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament.

Of course, it didn't hurt that the Utes fought their way back into the game without Kepkay on the floor. But Boylen wants Kepkay to take a more active role in running the show, and he doesn't have any plans to replace the junior-college transfer in the starting lineup when the Utes play Santa Clara on Monday.

Coach Jim Boylen did not want to get caught up in trying to guess which of his new recruits is more likely to make an impact sooner rather than later, but did offer a capsule review of all five of the players who signed binding letters of intent during the early signing period this week.

-- Guard Jordan Cyphers, 6-4, Southeast HS, Wichita, Kansas

"Cyphers is the best long-range shooter I saw this summer. Shooting is a big part of what we're doing. He's long, he can run, and he's athletic. ... He can catch-and-shoot, and also defend. That's a hard combination to find."

-- Center Jason Washburn, 6-11, Central HS, Battle Creek, Michigan

"Washburn can block shots, run and rebound. That can get him on the floor here. ... Has an unbelievable motor, and is a runner and shot-blocker."

-- Guard Chris Hines, 6-0, Klein Forest HS, Houston, Texas

"Hines has the toughness and the ability to create and also receive. He's a good shooter to get him on the floor here. ... A tough nut, who can guard."

-- Guard Jace Tavita, 6-4, Brighton HS, Sandy, Utah

"Tavita can push the ball. He's the best guard I saw in the summer at getting into the paint and creating, and then pushing the ball in transition. We want to run, he has length and a nose for the ball and some toughness."

-- Forward Josh Sharp, 6-7, Lone Peak HS, Highland, Utah

"Sharp is the best-conditioned guy I've seen in high school. He's a runner, he's long and he's athletic. That fits into what we're doing. We want to run and we want to push the ball. He can guard three positions, maybe four. ... That fits into what we're doing."

In sum, Boylen said he's especially encouraged by a class that was rated second-best in the Mountain West Conference by the Rivals recruiting service. He also singled out Brighton's Lindon Johnson and Lone Peak's Quincy Lewis as being coaches who helped develop their players to the point that they can play for the Utes (though Sharp is expected walk-on before serving an LDS Church mission).

“To me, they all fit into what we’re doing,” he said. “Toughness, defense, running and shooting are kind of our four things. ... That’s what I want. That’s what I think can win here, that’s what we’re going to recruit to, and I feel like I got five guys who value the defensive end of the floor and then they all have their individual strengths."

So, could this be the next guy to work over center Luke Nevill?

The Utes hope not.

Santa Clara's John Bryant looks like a freakin' cabbage-patch doll in that photo, but the junior center also checks in at 6-foot-10 and 305 pounds -- presumably more than enough to shove Nevill out of the way when the Utes play host to the Broncos at the Huntsman Center on Monday night.

After all, Washington's Jon Brockman is only 6-7, and he absolutely obliterated Nevill in the Utes' 83-77 loss to the Huskies last night in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in Seattle.

Brockman scored 31 points and grabbed 18 rebounds -- his six offensive rebounds were three times as many as the two the Utes corralled -- despite giving up six inches and about 20 pounds, mostly because he was far stronger and more athletic than his counterpart.

"I knew I could reverse-pivot and fake at him and get him leaning one way and kind of use my strength to keep him off," Brockman said.

Nevill, for his part, said he knew Brockman would use spin moves on him, but that the All-Pac-10 forward "used the rim real well to protect him" and said Brockman benefited from the predictable home-court advantage with the referees to get Nevill in foul trouble. He also complained about how frustrating it is when "I can't get touches, and I can't get catches."

And that's a problem.

For starters, offense and "touches" were hardly the problem; Nevill got worked like a medieval slave on defense. And more to the point, though he's averaging 14.7 points and 7.7 rebounds, Nevill has yet to look this season like the player who spent an offseason getting bigger, stronger and tougher in his effort to satisfy new coach Jim Boylen.

Rather, he still is prone to getting both juked and manhandled in the post -- he perpetually looks as if he's begging the refs for help, and frequently seems disgusted or pouty when he's on the bench -- and continues his maddening inability to rebound outside his area (which seems to extend only about as far as his lap). Many of his points against the Huskies came when the defense abandoned him to help guard another player, leaving Nevill alone for an easy pass and uncontested shot.

In short, he's not dominating the way a player with his size and talent should.

Now, maybe that's asking too much of him, but I doubt Boylen thinks so. (Boylen did praise the Utes for playing good defense, which overall they did, holding the Huskies to 43 percent shooting on their home floor.)

For a player who dreams of reaching the NBA, Nevill certainly isn't proving to scouts -- some of whom were in attendance last night -- that he's a guy on whom a team could count for a workmanlike effort every night during a long season.

Instead he looks like a player that other teams can actually target with physical play, knowing that he doesn't respond well to it -- in part, in my opinion, because he's simply not strong enough (especially in his lower body) to hold off opponents willing to take it right at him.

The Utes need that to change, if they're going to improve as much as want.

By the way, while seemingly everybody else in the country announced their early signees, the Utes plan to wait one more day so they can announce all five of their new recruits at the same time.

Jordan Cyphers of Kansas is the reason for the holdout.

The shooting guard from Southeast High School in Wichita evidently wants to hold a press conference announcing his signing with the Utes on his birthday Friday, so coach Jim Boylen will wait until then to finally comment on his first recruiting class -- which also includes guard Jace Tavita of Brighton High School and Chris Hines of Klein Forest High School in Houston, forward Josh Sharp of Lone Peak High School in Highland, and center Jason Washburn of Central High School in Battle Creek, Michi.

Well, that was certainly a maddening performance.

Do you get encouraged that the Utes could rally so well against the Washington Huskies in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament, or frustrated that they wasted a spectacular start and ultimately lost 83-77 at the Bank of America Arena?

Do you get excited that they were about one possession from stealing a huge road win despite missing seven free throws, committing 18 turnovers, getting absolutely blasted on the boards and nearly falling apart at the end of the first half -- or angry that they did all of that in the first place?

Coach Jim Boylen sounded like he was all of the above.

"We hung in there pretty damn good," he said. "But we have to get better. We have to get tougher and we have to get better."

Having faced its first big test of the season, though, Boylen said he's convinced that the Utes are much better on defense -- even though Washington's Jon Brockman ravaged the Utes for 31 points and 18 rebounds. Much of that damage was done against center Luke Nevill, who had a six-inch height advantage but could hardly keep up with the quicker, tougher Brockman.

"Our defense is good," Boylen said. "Our defense is solid. To hold them to 43.3 [percent shooting] on their home floor" on the second night of back-to-back games "I think is pretty damn good. I'm proud of my guys. But we have to make plays. We have to be tougher. I thought a lot of our turnovers were wimpy, soft turnovers. And we can't do that."

The Utes committed 18 turnovers in all, some of them remarkably bad -- like forward Stephen Weigh throwing the ball out of bounds across the corner of the court on an inbounds pass, or guard Lawrence Borha not paying attention to an oncoming pass on the fast break and missing it entirely.

Curiously, too, Nevill blamed turnovers for the loss -- he committed a team-high five of those -- while Boylen, Bryant and fellow guard Tyler Kepkay all cited the rebounding discrepancy as the most damaging shortcoming. Aside from Nevill, only forward Shaun Green had more than two rebounds ... and he had only three.

"They were getting tip-ins and second and third chances," Bryant said. "And that gave them more shot opportunities and more shots to win the game."

Of course, the Utes had their shots, too. They missed four straight three-pointers in the final two minutes or so, which would have been painful enough had they not been 8-for-15 from beyond the arc until then.

"You have to make plays at the end of games," Boylen said.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Spectacularly stupid fifth foul by Nevill, who threw down a Washington player after teammate Luka Drca made a basket to give the Utes a 70-69 lead with 4:49 remaining. "I've never seen anything like that," Boylen said.

-- Forward Kim Tillie did not enjoy nearly as strong a game as he did against High Point, fouling out in nine minutes of trying to guard Brockman, having scored just two points and grabbed two rebounds.

-- Within that rebounding disaster, the Utes grabbed only two offensive rebounds, but only partly because they shot 54.7 percent. The Huskies hauled in 14 offensive boards, six of them by Brockman.

The Utes have been drawing a lot upon their summertime exhibition tour of Australia, and they plan on doing so again in order to reach a far different destination:

The Big Apple.

Coach Jim Boylen and his team can reach the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City next week if they can beat Washington on its home floor tonight, which Boylen said is going to require summoning the effort the Utes delivered while playing six games in eight days in Australia.

Just like then, the Utes planned to practice today before the game.

"We've been in this situation," Boylen said. "We've talked about Australia paying dividends for us and so I think this is a situation that we've been in and we're going to, obviously, try to make the most of it and be ready to play."

The Utes will meet a Washington team that clobbered the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the first round of the tournament. That was the season opener for the Huskies, some of whose supporters already have bought plane tickets to the next round of the tournament in New York.

"We have to perform or they are going to New York without us," Washington forward Jon Brockman said.

The Huskies won their opener 88-47 after blowing open the game late in the first half. Eleven players scored, with guard Tim Morris leading the team with 16 points off the bench. Brockman and guard Joel Smith each added 12 points.

The Utes figure to have an advantage inside again, with 7-foot-2 center Luke Nevill towering over most of the Huskies. Washington's only real big man is 7-foot sophomore center Luke Wolfinger, but he played only 11 minutes off the bench in the opener after missing the last two seasons with a foot injury.

"We've talked about playing big games ... and being ready to play big games," Boylen said. "This will be a big game for us."

"It's a goal of ours is to get to the Garden," Boylen added. "But our first goal is to come ... ready to compete and take that step and play against a good opponent in their home arena. It's a good test for my team. We haven't been in that situation yet together this year. We're looking forward to the challenge."

By the way, the Utes are listed as a 7.5-point underdog against the Huskies, after they were favored by 1 before their 77-64 victory over High Point in the tournament opener.

The Utes expect to have all but one of their incoming recruits sign letters of intent today, the first day of the early signing period for basketball.

The lone holdout?

Guard Jordan Cyphers of Southeast High School in Wichita, Kansas, who evidently wants to wait until Friday so he can hold a press conference on his birthday. Otherwise, director of basketball operations Jonathan Dykema said that the Utes expect to receive letters today from all their other recruits.

That list includes guards Jace Tavita of Brighton High School in Sandy and Chris Hines of Klein Forest High School in Houston, forward Josh Sharp of Lone Peak High School in Highland, and center Jason Washburn of Central High School in Battle Creek, Mich.

The USA Today reports that Rivals.com has Washburn ranked 86th in the nation on its list of the Top 150 recruits.

The recruiting service also names Washburn the top incoming center in the Mountain West Conference, though the Utes are ranked only seventh amid "mid-majors" on the strength of their recruiting class -- behind Nevada, Southern Illinois, Xavier, Gonzaga, New Mexico and Memphis.

Senior guard Johnnie Bryant enjoyed an outstanding performance for the Utes in their 77-64 victory over High Point in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in Seattle tonight.

Then, he enjoyed lavish praise from his coach.

Just two games into the season, coach Jim Boylen anointed Bryant a "sixth-man of the year candidate" after Bryant erupted for all 10 of his points in a 2:07 span that helped the Utes bury the Panthers and set up a meeting with Washington in the second round of the tournament tonight.

"Johnnie has embraced coming off the bench," Boylen said. "He has shown great leadership, supporting me in what I think is best for our team. Tonight, I think it proved why he's an effective player off the bench. He can score anytime. He can play the one, he can play the two. ... He was terrific."

Center Luke Nevill was pretty good, too, although pretty soft and off-balance in the first half. (Frankly, it drives me nuts that he never seems able to post up with even one foot in the paint, and he has a maddening tendency to spin and awkwardly fling up shots without squaring his shoulders, in the hope that he can draw a foul.)

The coaches "talked to him" at halftime -- which is probably code for screamed him senseless, since Nevill later vaguedly mentioned "trying to prove them wrong" -- and he finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds (though he was only 6-for-10 from the free-throw line).

However hard he might have been on Nevill on the bench or in the locker room, Boylen wound up complimenting Nevill for contributing to more plays than his one assist would suggest.

"To me, he had five to seven to 10 of what I call 'hockey assists,'" Boylen said. "Where it came from him, he created the situation, and then it goes to somebody and then somebody else. So to me, that assist total for him is wrong, the way he creates for us."

Among the other tidbits from the game worth mentioning:

-- Forward Kim Tillie was fantastic for the Utes, going 4-for-4 from the field as well as the line to finish with 12 points, two rebounds and two steals while helping keep High Point's Arizona Reid from taking over the game.

-- Attendance at tip-off, by official and exact media count, was 131. That just barely outstripped the crowd that greeted the Utes at any of their games last season at the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico.

-- And after mentioning how High Point's Cruz Daniels might have a chance to slow Nevill, he came up a bust. Daniels sat out the last 12:46 of the first half in foul trouble, did not score until the Panthers trailed by 23 with 3:40 remaining, and finished with four points, five rebounds and a block in 25 minutes. Ugh.

We've talked a lot about High Point's Arizona Reid in advance of the Utes' game in the NIT Season Tip-Off tonight, but another player might have just as big an effect on the game:

Cruz Daniels.

The 6-foot-11 sophomore is the starting center for the Panthers, and figures to match up against Utah's Luke Nevill. But how well? That's the big question.

The only High point player taller than 6-8, Daniels led the Big South Conference with 65 blocked shots last season -- despite playing only 13 minutes per game and starting only 13 games. But in the Panthers' season-opening loss to Charlotte, he managed only seven scoreless minutes after getting the start, while committing five fouls.

Clearly, his performance against Nevill is going to dictate a lot about how the Panthers can play. And remember, Nevill picked up two quick fouls himself that limited him to less than two minutes in the first half of the season-opening win against South Carolina Upstate last week.

So keep an eye on the rival No. 50's ...

Looks like we were pretty tight in the newspaper today, what with a few tidbits getting edited out of our preview of the Utes' game against High Point at the NIT Season Tip-Off here in Seattle tonight.

So let's get up to speed.

In addition to having forward Shaun Green start out on defense against High Point's Arizona Reid, coach Jim Boylen said the Utes probably will have to "throw a couple of guys at him and have help" to slow Reid (a player he compared to the NBA's Paul Pierce or Antawn Jamison), who attempted nearly half his team's shots in a season-opening 61-55 loss to Charlotte last week.

But the Utes also are hoping to cut down on their turnovers, maintain their composure on the road and keep center Luke Nevill out of the foul trouble that limited him to less than two minutes of the first half of a season-opening 86-52 win over South Carolina Upstate.

"It was disappointing," Nevill said.

The Utes have beaten High Point all three times they have played in the last nine years, by an average of 25 points. But none of those teams figure to be as talented as the one the Utes face tonight, particularly with experienced guards Mike Jefferson and Eugene Harris helping Reid.

"They have some really capable guys who are veteran guys," Boylen said. "Battle-hardened, good basketball players. I think that's what we're going against."

Utah's Tyler Kepkay missed practice over the weekend with an ankle injury, but is expected to play, while fellow guard Lawrence Borha is coming off a career-high 20 points in the win over South Carolina Upstate and expected to provide some of the help on Reid -- along with guard Luka Drca and forwards Stephen Weigh and Kim Tillie.

But Boylen and his players have talked the most about seeing what they can do away from the comforts of home, especially considering they have lost their last four games away from the Huntsman Center.

"It's a good test for us," Boylen said. "We need it. We need it to get off of our home court and see what we can do."

The Gonzaga Bulldogs have lost two of their most heralded players to injury, but both junior forward Josh Heytvelt and freshman guard Steven Gray are expected to return in time to play the Utes on Dec. 31.

"Just a little setback," Heytvelt said.

Heytvelt -- one of two Zags suspended earlier this year after their arrest on drug charges for allegedly possessing marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms -- is scheduled to have surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot, the Bulldogs said, while Gray will have surgery on a broken right wrist.

Both are expected to be out from four to six weeks, which would put them back in the GU lineup at least a week before playing host to the Utes in Spokane, Wash. The 6-foot-11 Heytvelt was averaging 15.5 points and 7.7 rebounds when he was suspended, while Gray was the player of the year in Washington last year.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to recently describe High Point of North Carolina as likely "overmatched" in their match-up with the Utes in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in Seattle on Tuesday.

After all, the Panthers are the favorites to win the Big South Conference.

Coach Bart Lundy is 70-52 in four seasons at High Point, and has three starters (plus four of his five leading scorers) back from the team that went 22-10 last season and finished second behind Winthrop in the league. His most dangerous weapon is reigning league player of the year Arizona Reid -- is there a cooler name in college basketball? -- who averaged 21 points per game and shot 50 percent last year.

Reid is a 6-foot-5 forward who figures to give Utah's Stephen Weigh one of his toughest defensive match-ups of the season. In the words of one opposing coach, Reid is "pound for pound, the most productive player in the America." Others have invoked comparisons to Antawn Jamison and Charles Barkley.

The Panthers suffered a big loss before the start of practice, though, when would-be starting forward Jerald Minnis suffered a torn Achilles tendon that will keep him out for the season.

Point guard Tyler Kepkay did not practice with the Utes today, on account of the ankle he injured during the season-opening victory over South Carolina Upstate.

But coach Jim Boylen said the junior-college transfer is still expected to play against High Point in the opening game of the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament in Seattle on Tuesday -- which is basically the same thing Kepkay said after the game.

"It's not serious," he said. "I'll just ice it."

Kepkay injured his left ankle in the final minute of the first half, when he crash-landed along with an Upstate defender after making a lay-up. "I don't know what happened," Kepkay said. "The guy just fell on it after I laid it up."

Kepkay was helped off the floor and retreated to the locker room before the half ended, but returned and played 12 of his 25 minutes in the second half. He scored only two of his 12 points after halftime, however, and did not appear quite as aggressive driving to the basket as he did before the injury.

Looks like the Rick Majerus Era got off to as good a start in St. Louis as the Jim Boylen Era did in Utah.

Majerus led the Billikens to a season-opening victory over North Carolina A&T in their first game with the former Utah coach in charge ... though as you would expect, it was a rugged defensive battle far from the run-and-gun excitement the Utes provided.

Still, the Billikens seemed pretty pleased with how the opener went, though Majerus predictably poor-mouthed his new team.

"You can see our size, athleticism, lack of depth, lack of practice," he said. "We've got a lot of problems."

In his first game for the Utes, point guard Tyler Kepkay was all over the place.

Pushing the pace and driving into the heart of the South Carolina Upstate defense from the start, the junior-college transfer whom the Utes hope will transform their backcourt finished with 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals in their 86-52 season-opening victory last night.

Of course, there was also the five turnovers.

"We had a couple of lapses and stuff, and we had too many turnovers," Kepkay acknowledged. "That was partly my fault, I had a couple of stupid ones that I have to work on. Part of it was I was a little amped up and anxious to play, so I kind of expected that in my first Division I game."

That's probably to be expected of such a heralded transfer, and Kepkay is also probably right when he says that "every time we play, we're getting a bit better" and that the Utes played better against Upstate than they had in their two exhibition games. The Utes look to be steadily finding their way in new coach Jim Boylen's system, and they will have one more chance against an overmatched opponent before stepping up the competition next week.

The Utes play High Point in the NIT Preseason Tip-Off in Seattle on Tuesday, with Washington -- in all likelihood -- awaiting them on Wednesday if they win.

Until then, the Utes will be working on eliminating the turnovers (the Utes had 20, altogether) and continuing to push the pace -- something Kepkay and his teammates all said they prefer to do, even if it sometimes takes Boylen frantically reminding them from the sideline to do it.

"If we can run and get a lay-up, get it into Luke [Nevill], get an open three, we'd rather do that than run a set and run time off the clock every time," Kepkay said. "I think that makes the game fun for the players and for the fans.

"Sometimes, we'll feel like we're busting and running hard," Kepkay added, "and then [Boylen] will say, 'You guys aren't running!' and stuff. That's his job, never be satisfied. And it's only going to make us better and make us run harder."

So the turnovers probably weren't in the game plan. Neither was the foul trouble.

But considering those two factors, the Utes probably should be doubly encouraged by their 86-52 victory over South Carolina Upstate at the Huntsman Center tonight. Not only did they blow out the Spartans, as was expected, but they did it basically without center Luke Nevill -- held to precisely 1 minutes and 43 seconds in the first half, before heading to the bench with two fouls -- and while committing 20 turnovers.

"We did accomplish something tonight," coach Jim Boylen said.

It was more than a victory. It was a sign of what exciting things could be on the horizon.

With Boylen exhorting them from the sideline in his first game as coach, the Utes ran at seemingly every opportunity, even if the possessions sometimes turned out badly. They also crushed the Spartans on the boards -- again, without Nevill most of the game -- held them to 28 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers.

It's games like these -- even if the Utes can't count on such wide margins every night -- that figure to draw fans back to the Huntsman Center after the last dismal season, even if Boylen was busy trying to find things to complain about in his post-game press conference. He succeeded, too, taking his players to task for being "casual" and "soft" on offense, letting up on defense at the end of possessions, and committing silly fouls.

"But it's hard for me to get all over my team when they shoot 28 percent and we win by what, 34?" he said.

Still, praising them too much for beating a team playing its first season in Division I is probably not the way to keep improving. Instead, Boylen is going to keep the hammer down, as the Utes prepare to play in the NIT Season Tip-Off next week in Seattle.

"We have to get better every night out," he said. "We have to become a defensive team, and I think we're making stride to become a defensive team. We have a lot of work to do, at both ends."

The season-opener and official start to the Jim Boylen Era is now just a couple of hours away.

You ready, coach?

"We're ready," he said. "We're sick of practicing. We've been going pretty hard. We're sick of going against ourselves, we're sick of me driving us. We need to play a real game, a big game -- no disrespect to our last two opponents, but they were exhibitions. ... Hopefully, we'll have a good crowd."

The Utes meet South-Carolina Upstate at the Huntsman Center at 7 in their only home game until Nov. 19. They're playing a team that is making its transition to Division I in the Atlantic Sun Conference after going 17-11 as a Division II team last season.

The green-and-white Spartans look a lot like green-and-white Spartans that Boylen left behind at Michigan State, but they don’t figure to be quite as talented. Coach Eddie Payne has returning senior starters Jeremy Byrd and Luke Payne on the guard line -- they combined to average 22 points per game last season -- but also two new starting forwards in 6-foot-6 junior transfer Bobby Davis and 6-5 freshman Mezie Uzochukwu and a center who played sparingly last season.

Sophomore Nick Schneiders averaged just 2.1 points and 2.4 rebounds last season, but he's 7-2 and figures to give Utah's Luke Nevill a rare chance to play against somebody his own size.

The Spartans "have very good guard play," Boylen said. "They're an athletic team that runs. They're very well-coached. They are going to present some challenges in our transition defense, rebounding and guarding the ball."

Now, then, let the game begin ...

You could make a pretty good argument that none of the Utes are more excited for the season to start tonight than forward Kim Tillie.

He's healthy.

He's better.

And his family is in town visiting from France.

"It's really exciting," Tillie said. "It's probably the only time I will see them this year."

The 6-foot-8 sophomore power forward has been among the most pleasant surprises for new coach Jim Boylen. Boylen has said he loves Tillie's toughness and rebounding ability, and envisions him as a "double-double" kind of player, coming off the bench as the top back-up to both center Luke Nevill and forward Shaun Green.

"I feel like I've improved a lot defensively," Tillie said, "because we have been working a lot on the defensive part. Also, I feel like I'm tougher. We do a lot of drills with the pads, and we have to finish and get hit and those drills really helped me a lot."

Tillie said he put on 15 to 20 pounds in the offseason (he also has essentially solved a lingering toe injury that had bothered him, after missing the last 19 games of last season with a broken ankle) while spending some two months of the summer working out with his national team and playing at the Under-19 World Championships in Serbia. Tillie earned a bronze medal there.

"I got a lot of experience out of that," he said.

Tillie is thrilled to be back with a new regime, too. He said life with the Utes is "a million times better" this season. He said the Utes are far more competitive during practice -- every drill features a definitive winner and a loser, a hallmark of former football coach Urban Meyer's tenure with the Utes -- enjoy better support from more trainers and managers, and are in much better shape.

"We run so much more than last year," he said. "I've never been in such a great condition. I'm excited to come to practice every day because I know coach Boylen is always excited. ... I expect a great season for me and for this team."

The season finally opens tonight for the Utes, but fans might also have an eye on a few other openers around the country this weekend that feature some prominent Utah figures from the recent past:

St. Louis.

Gonzaga.

Louisiana Tech.

All of those schools feature former Utah head coaches in new jobs, with Rick Majerus having taken over at St. Louis, Ray Giacoletti joining the Gonzaga staff as an assistant and Kerry Rupp finally getting a shot with Louisiana Tech.

Majerus is easily the most prolific of the bunch, having joined the Billikens after spending several years as a broadcasting analyst and embarrassingly flip-flopping on the USC job a few years ago. The Billikens open the season today against North Carolina A&T, hoping to improve on a 20-13 season in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

"It's going to be an interesting year," Majerus said.

The Billikens have four returning starters, and seem to share with the Utes a new excitement for their new coach.

Meanwhile, after being fired from the Utes seven months ago, Giacoletti landed at Gonzaga under good friend and head coach Mark Few. He has kept a low profile since then, but finds himself in the midst of one of the most intriguing issues for the Zags this season, as part of an uncommon turnover in the ranks of assistant coaches.

"Adding someone with the experience of Ray was a great thing for the program," Few said. "He knows us, he knows our style and we've had a longtime association, so I don't think we'll miss a beat."

Indeed, the Zags are ranked 14th in the preseason AP Top 25 and the favorite to win their eighth straight West Coast Conference title. Three starters return from a 23-11 team, including forward David Pendergraft, who will have a chance to bang with the Utes when the teams meet in Spokane on Dec. 31.

Gonzaga opens its season on Sunday against Montana.

The night before, Rupp will have enjoyed his first opener as a full-time head coach -- he was an interim coach at Utah after Majerus left in 2004, and was not retained when Giacoletti was hired -- on the road against Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs are not expected to