Coach Jim Boylen said he was satisfied with the shots the Utes took in their 61-59 loss to Gonzaga tonight, even though a season-high 27 of them were three-pointers.

The problem was, not enough of them fell.

And it wasn't the three-pointers that weren't falling. The Utes hit a season-high 12 of those, giving them a shooting percentage of 44.4 -- a rate that's actually higher than their solid season average, and one that would rank in the top 10 nationally if it was their season average. You probably can't fairly expect to hit many more than that in a game, no matter how open they are.

The real issue was inside the line.

The Utes made only 10 of 27 shots inside the arc, including just one of their first 11 shots. Had they shot their usual 50 percent or so, they might have changed the entire complexion of the game by enjoying a much larger lead throughout most of the first half.

Then, to start the second half, the Utes missed their only two shots and committed three turnovers in the first four minutes, while the Bulldogs ran off 10 unanswered points that forced the Utes to play catch-up the rest of the game.

"That run at the beginning of the second half hurt us a little bit," point guard Tyler Kepkay said.

For a player whose team scored all of 59 points, Kepkay was pretty bold after the game, saying the Bulldogs "definitely weren't the best defensive team we've played the whole year. A lot of times, we got what we wanted, -- we were running our offense, we got the shots we wanted. We hit a lot of them, and then we missed a couple that, if we had hit them, it would have helped us."

The two biggest examples came in the final three minutes.

Center Luke Nevill missed two free throws -- the Utes were 3-for-6 from the line, compared to 10-of-13 for the Bulldogs -- with 2:50 remaining, and forward Shaun Green rebounded the miss, only to miss a lay-up in a seven-point game.

Then, trailing by four with less than a minute to play, Green missed a three-pointer that would have changed everything about the way the teams played the final 45 seconds.

"We just didn't make enough plays down the stretch," said Green, who scored 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting, all but one a three-pointer. "We had a couple of careless turnovers, we missed a few shots. We just came up short. ... We had a lot of open looks all night. We were really happy with them, we just needed to make a few more of them."

Only a few hours remain until the Utes take on former coach Ray Giacoletti and the Gonzaga Bulldogs at an arena named after two of their biggest supporters, so it might be worthwhile -- or at least, entertaining -- to take one last look at the unusual scenario.

While we published our interview with Giacoletti in the newspaper on Sunday, popular columnist John Blanchette of the Spokesman-Review offered his take on the reunion today.

His most dead-on assessment?

"There is little point in revisiting the circumstances of his firing," he wrote, "except perhaps the comical insistence of athletic director Chris Hill announcing it as a resignation, as if it had been Giacoletti's idea all along."

That was ridiculous, indeed, and always made me wonder what Hill was trying to accomplish by attempting to perpetrate such a silly and transparent fraud. It's not as if he didn't have defensible reasons and widespread public support for the move, after all.

At any rate, the game tonight figures to be fascinating not only from the Giacoletti perspective -- how pleasant will the greetings really be? -- but also to see whether the Utes can manage a second straight road upset despite playing sluggishly against a much lesser Idaho State team back in the Huntsman Center a few days ago.

That's especially important because this is the last game for the Utes before they enter Mountain West Conference play next weekend against Air Force. A victory against a quality opponent in a virtually impenetrable arena -- the Zags are 34th in the RPI, and 44-2 at "The Kennel" -- would give them a serious confidence boost at a time when, despite their strong record, they're still only in the middle of the league pack.

The Utes are 10-point underdogs, however.

Oh, and one other thing. The Utes are now the only team in the league that has not a player selected as a league player of the week, now that UNLV's Wink Adams shared the honor for last week. Maybe a win over the Zags would help change that.

Having had more than a few minutes to talk with former coach Ray Giacoletti after his Gonzaga Bulldogs lost to No. 11 Tennessee here in Seattle yesterday -- here's the feature article about him that ran in the newspaper today -- I wanted to get his opinion on the Utes he left behind.

Especially since, you know, he recruited them all.

And Giacoletti was happy to oblige, having seen the Utes plenty as their game against the Bulldogs on Monday night has drawn closer. The biggest difference he has noticed, he said, was a greater sense of experience and maturity -- never mind the many different ways the Utes do a variety of things, such as defend ball screens.

Naturally, I asked him if the improved maturity was a product of last season -- disappointing though it might have been at the time.

"It's a product of the last two years," he said. "Kids that play that many minutes as freshmen get better. That's just the way it is. They've found ways to win close games, like the Cal game."

That's something the Utes could not do last season, losing six games by three points or less. I've always wondered how drastically different things might have turned out, had the Utes won even a couple of those games -- particularly the season-opener against Southern Utah at home and the double-overtime loss at Rhode Island.

Couple of early wins there, and maybe the confidence holds up a little more ... maybe the Utes survive a couple more of the close games ... they break about even for the season, maybe even win a game in the league tournament ... and Giacoletti remains with the Utes, starting this season with high hopes for a team that had almost everybody coming back.

But of course, that didn't happen.

Giacoletti said he's happy working as an assistant for close friend Mark Few and the Zags now, though, and that he's in no hurry to take another shot at head coaching. Two teams at lower levels tried to lure Giacoletti shortly after he was fired from the Utes -- "a guy, two days in a row, tried to talk me into it," he said -- but he said he "wasn't ready" to try it again.

Plus, he had already accepted a job offer from Few, in a state where he had spent years before joining the Utes.

"This is perfect," he said. "In the middle of your career, to have a chance to go learn a new system from a guy who has been as successful in the last 10 years as anybody in college basketball, it's very rare that you have that choice. I'm excited to have it."

I also asked Giacoletti about center Luke Nevill, particularly, knowing that most fans view the 7-foot-1 junior as an underachiever who -- despite his obvious skill -- still doesn't dominate or play as consistently hard as he should. That's not the way Giacoletti saw it.

"I see him just older and playing with much more poise," Giacoletti said. "He looks like, just the way he carries himself, his head's up a lot more, he looks like an older, experienced, college basketball player."

Guess we'll see how well he and the rest of the Utes hold up against the Zags, soon enough.

My apologies for going so long without a post today, but I just returned from watching Gonzaga play Tennessee here in Seattle -- the No. 11 Vols won, 82-72 -- and talking afterward to former coach Ray Giacoletti.

Of course, he's an assistant with Gonzaga now, and not exactly looking forward to the reunion with the Utes in Spokane on Monday.

Not that he doesn't want to see his former players; he said he's eager to say hello and wish them well. He's just weary of so many people hyping the game as some sort of revenge match-up -- something that's far from his mind.

"It's not about me and whoever," Giacoletti insisted. "It's about Gonzaga playing Utah."

The Utes have been saying the same thing, and Giacoletti -- as gracious and personable as he ever was, in the hallway outside the locker room after the game -- refused to complain about his firing, or the comments by new coach Jim Boylen about the "culture of mediocrity" that purportedly existed under Giacoletti. Took the high road, all the way.

"It's over," he said. "It's done."

We'll have a big feature on his view of the reunion and new life at Gonzaga in the newspaper on Sunday, so keep an eye out for that. Meanwhile, rest assured that the Zags are not nearly as good as they have been in some recent seasons. Of course, the Utes aren't nearly as athletic as the Volunteers, either, and have to play in a campus arena in which the Zags are 44-2 all-time ...

Just like coach Jim Boylen promised, the Utes were on the floor by 7 this morning. In fact, they started about 15 minutes early, as penance for their sluggish effort in the win against Idaho State last night.

Of course, it helped that Boylen had to catch a plane to go recruiting in California for the day. Palm Springs, I think -- which is about right. Middle of winter, 15 degrees outside ... no sense recruiting anybody in Michigan or Minnesota just now.

Boylen tried to argue that he's going to be stuck in a gym all day watching a series of games, before catching an evening flight home. But I wasn't having it.

Warm sun is warm sun.

At any rate, the Utes are quickly turning their attention now to their game against Gonzaga and former coach Ray Giacoletti up in Spokane on New Year's Eve. (Nice scheduling, guys.) Most of them said that while it will be weird to see Giacoletti on the opposing sideline, they still respect their former coach and aren't viewing the upcoming match-up as anything but another game.

"He was the guy who brought me here," forward Shaun Green said. "He gave me a chance to play in my hometown, so I have nothing but love for the guy. It's a business. Utah moved on, we've moved on. We have a new coach and we're just going up there to play."

Boylen said essentially the same thing, and that he understood from his own experience how emotional he expects the game will be for Giacoletti. Boylen had been with the NBA's Houston Rockets as an assistant for 11 years when coach Rudy Tomjanovich was diagnosed with cancer and resigned, and wound up joining the Golden State Warriors.

"When we went back to play Houston, it was very emotional," Boylen said. "I know it's a difficult transition, a difficult situation. I understand it, because I've been through it. I thought we had some unfinished business in Houston. It's always tough when you go back and play where you were. We're going there to play, but it's the same thing, it's tough."

Boylen also tried to emphasize that despite his frequent remarks about the "culture of mediocrity" that existed under Giacoletti and the need for the Utes to get tougher than they were under him, "it has never been about Ray and I."

"It's about us getting better, us getting tougher, and us growing as a team," he said. "Ray recruited these guys. We've got talent, we've got skill level, we've got some guys who can shoot the ball. I think he did a nice job with the talent he recruited. But there's no argument that this group needs to get tougher, more accountable, take more ownership and play defense. That's what I'm here to do."

Most impressive thing I heard today was not that the Utes are going to practice early in the morning tomorrow, as penance for their inexcusably torpid start in the 68-51 victory over Idaho State tonight.

Though that was pretty amusing.

No, the best thing was learning that the players cut out of the newspaper the old photo of coach Jim Boylen that we ran with a feature article the other day -- you know, the one of him as a player at Maine, circa 1987, with a full head of hair -- and pasted it up in the locker room on the wall behind where Boylen typically addresses them.

Rascals!

But I suppose we should talk about the game a bit, drudgery though it may have been to watch. Have to say, I was surprised at how long the Utes were able to go without hitting an outside shot there through the middle of the game -- they missed 12 straight three-point attempts, in one stretch -- considering they rank fourth nationally in shooting (obviously, that includes a lot of inside shots) and were hitting an admirable 41 percent from long range entering the game.

Of course, they hit them when they needed them midway through the second half, thanks in no small part to Johnnie Bryant.

The senior guard basically has saved the Utes the past two games, after watching his minutes dwindle severely in the previous three. Against Cal, he scored 14 points and made two crucial three-pointers that helped the Utes win, while he scored 17 against Idaho State -- including the bomb that snapped the three-point drought and ignited the game-winning 11-0 run.

"At the end of the day, we didn't play well, but we got the win," Bryant said.

True enough, even if coach Jim Boylen still was disgusted with the effort early in the game, and said the defense was "not what we expect for our program."

"This team has to learn how to handle success," he said. "I sound like a fool by saying we didn't handle it when you win by 17, but ... we're not there quite yet, at handling success. It's going to be a process, I've said it from day one."

Among the other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Forward Shaun Green continues to embrace his role as a do-everything player, scoring 12 points with four rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block against one turnover in 34 minutes. "He was pretty good down there, anchoring our defense and just being smart," Boylen said. "He's a solid, winning player."

-- Center Luke Nevill endured another unspectacular offensive game, with 14 points -- eight from the free-throw line -- and six rebounds. Yes, he was swarmed by the collapsing zone defense all night, helping account for his 3-for-9 shooting, but it would be nice to see him go stronger to the hoop even when he draws contact, instead of losing the ball and flailing his arms desperately whenever they so much as get slapped. He did block two shots and alter a bunch more on defense, however.

-- Coach Boylen emphasized that for as disappointed as he was with the effort at times, he was still pleased to see progress in the form of winning a game in which the Utes did not play well offensively. They shot a modest 44 percent and committed what seemed like a lot more than the 13 turnovers that showed up on the stat sheet. "Last year, this team, when it didn't score, didn't win," he said. "This year, we've been able to not score, go through droughts, and win games."

-- Guard Luka Drca committed his standard couple of traveling infractions and coughed up five brutal turnovers, but otherwise had a pretty strong line. In 20 minutes, he scored five points, grabbed four rebounds, handed out six assists and made three steals and a block. Drca has led the Utes in assists the last two games, handing out 10 in 35 minutes combined, compared to three in 57 minutes for starting point guard Tyler Kepkay.

-- Forward Stephen Weigh finally scored his first points since getting hurt Nov. 19, but he still hasn't made a basket. His two points came from the free-throw line, and he missed his only shot from the field, making him 0-for-9 since returning to the lineup. And for all the increased opportunity he was supposed to have had against a zone team like ISU after not playing against Cal, he sure didn't take much advantage, playing absently in the first half and earning only one of his nine minutes after halftime.

-- Forward Morgan Grim tried to make a contribution, with forward Kim Tillie out for at least a month with a stress fracture in his leg. But he had a hard time, picking up three fouls within 44 seconds and playing a total of six minutes. But Boylen made sure to mention him before he wrapped up his post-game address. "He battles and he competes," Boylen said. "That's what I asked him to do, that's what he does." Boylen said Grim is physical enough despite his thin body that he doesn't often realize he's committing fouls. "He's like, 'What, what, what? I didn't touch him,'" Boylen said. "He just likes to hit people."

Don't anybody panic.

Yes, you might have heard that the NBA's Chicago Bulls have named Jim Boylan their interim coach for the rest of the season, after the firing of Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve.

But of course, that's the other Jim Boylan -- note the different spelling.

Though both were assistants who briefly worked together under coach Jud Heathcote at Michigan State and both began their NBA careers as video coordinators, the other Boylan worked for Cleveland Cavaliers, Vancouver Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks and the Bulls, while our Boylen worked for the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks before returning for his second stint at Michigan State and then taking the Utah job last spring.

The other Boylan has previous head coaching experience, too. He guided New Hampshire for a few years before entering the NBA.

Tough news for the Utes ... it looks like forward Kim Tillie is not going to play tonight -- and could be out awhile, presumably -- after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his leg.

Tillie twisted his ankle in practice a couple of weeks ago, but continued to play and only today learned the severity of the injury. His long-term prognosis is uncertain, but stress fractures usually keep guys out awhile -- even though coach Jim Boylen is hopeful that Tillie can return sooner rather than later because the injury occurred in a bone that bears less weight than others in his leg.

The 6-foot-9 forward had become a productive reserve for the Utes this season -- he's the best rebounder, per minute, on the team -- averaging 5.9 points and 4.1 rebounds and shooting 62.5 percent in barely 15 minutes per game. He had played in all 10 games this season, after missing the last 18 last season with a broken ankle.

His absence means an even larger opportunity for forward Stephen Weigh, who did not play against Cal last weekend because of match-ups but already figured to get more of a chance against the Bengals.

Perhaps lost amid the massive celebration of the Utes' thrilling victory over Cal last weekend was the fact that former starting forward Stephen Weigh did not play.

And not because he's hurt.

Though the 6-foot-6 sophomore had been battling back from a rib injury that cost him a couple of games nearly a month ago, coach Jim Boylen said Weigh did not play because Boylen didn't think he matched up well with the athletic, man-to-man Golden Bears.

What's more, guard Carlon Brown and Luka Drca have been solid in picking up minutes for the Utes, and both were exceptional against the Golden Bears -- combining for 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting in 37 minutes, with six rebounds, five assists and two steals against just two turnovers.

Boylen did say he expects Weigh to get more of a chance against Idaho State at home on Thursday night, in part because the Bengals are more of a zone team than the Golden Bears. But Weigh still has not scored a point since he was hurt in a fall against Santa Clara on Nov. 19, having gone 0-for-8 from the field in three games since then.

Happy Holidays, everybody!

Hope you don't mind that I took a few days off from the blog, to enjoy Christmas with the family and finish working on the feature article on coach Jim Boylen that appeared in the newspaper today.

But we're back on the case (having happily beaten the oncoming storm home), and as often happens with big articles like the one I wrote today, I still have piles of great material from Boylen that still did not fit in the article. So I'll try to drop some of those tidbits in here along the way, just because so many of them were so interesting and amusing.

One of the most touching, in the spirit of the season, came from Helen Boylen -- the wonderfully friendly mother of the coach back in Michigan. She was describing the tough times the family endured after her husband abandoned them when coach Boylen was a boy, and remembered one Christmas when she only had about $10 in her purse.

So she gave the boys -- Boylen and his two brothers -- a choice. They could buy a Christmas tree or order a pizza.

Any guesses?

Yeah, they chose the pizza. Another year, they could not afford a tree but received a poinsettia as a gift from the father of a girl that Boylen had been dating.

"We called that our Charlie Brown Christmas tree," Helen recalled. "But you know what? That's the Christmas that all of the boys remember the most. The year we had our Charlie Brown Christmas tree that was only a poinsettia."

I tried to evade it, really I did. But there was no denying coach Jim Boylen when he came bursting out of the locker room with sweat still beading down his forehead following the Utes stunning 67-65 victory over Cal tonight.

As the only reporter standing in the hall, I got caught in a victory hug.

"That was great, wasn't it?" Boylen said.

You have to admit, it was pretty impressive. The Utes played solid defense, holding the Golden Bears to a season-low 65 points, and held together down the stretch amid the crucible of a deafening Haas Pavilion. Even coach Ben Braun of Cal was impressed -- at least with Boylen's post-game speed.

"He ran off there fast," Braun said. "Only the refs ran faster."

Braun said he would have liked to ask the referees a question, but never had the chance. We can guess what it might have been about, considering that Braun hinted that he thought Utah's Shaun Green traveled before flinging up the final miraculous shot that won the game. "Maybe [he] shuffled a little bit," Braun said. Later, he flat-out said that center Luke Nevill "took a train to get there," for most of his baskets.

"Or a bus," Braun added. "Whatever."

Nonetheless, the victory was surely one on which the Utes will look back and cite as a major accomplishment in their rebuilding effort.

Even before the game, Boylen had said privately that the thought the Golden Bears were better than either Oregon or Washington -- he said so outright, after the game -- and the Utes respectably held their own inside against a monstrous rebounding team, after having struggled in that department against the Ducks and Huskies.

The Utes actually lost the rebounding battle, but only 31-26 -- not bad against a team that had pounded some opponents by double-figures this season. And they again were outshot at the free-throw line, 18 to 7, but they made all seven of their shots, making them 24 of 25 over the last two games.

What's more, they won despite those statistical shortcoming, in a building where Cal had been 57-7 in the last nine seasons.

The best part, though, was definitely watching Green get mauled by his teammates at halfcourt after making the game-winning shot -- then watching the way the Golden Bears reacted. Forward Ryan Anderson called the shot a "prayer," which certainly was not inaccurate, while adding that "lucky stuff like that happens in basketball. That's why it's such a fun game to watch. You never know what's going to happen."

Center Devon Hardin was better, still, smiling and shaking his head -- almost laughing -- at the idea that Green's shot actually fell while he was preparing to rebound it.

"You throw something up like that," he said, "I figured it was coming off."

Not this time.

Just a quick update on how the Cal Golden Bears remained perfect at home last night, in advance of their game against the Utes at Haas Pavilion on Saturday.

Evidently, the 7-1 Bears showed little rust, from an 11-day lay-off, with 6-foot-10 leading scorer Ryan Anderson making almost every shot he tried in a 74-57 victory over Delaware State.

None of which bodes well for the Utes.

While they're no Delaware State, the Utes have had trouble with their inside game against Pac-10 opponents so far this season. Against Oregon and Washington, the Utes have allowed 24 offensive rebounds while grabbing just 12, and managed just 14-for-23 shooting from the free-throw line while the Ducks and Huskies combined to make 40-of-59.

Naturally, the Utes lost both games down the stretch.

"I think we've been physical with those teams," coach Jim Boylen said, "and we've gotten called on being physical with those teams, and they haven't. ... But the offensive rebounds are bad, and that leads to more fouls. That's part of that free-throw differential."

Looks like we've found the key to the Utes beating Cal this weekend, and -- surprise! -- it has a lot to do with center Luke Nevill.

Turns out, the Golden Bears are a whole lot less intimidating if center DeVon Hardin isn't on the floor, suggesting that Nevill could make a huge contribution if he can get Hardin in foul trouble.

That's what Kansas State did to the 6-foot-11 Hardin last week, and the effect was striking.

The Golden Bears had started 6-0 by not allowing only one opponent to shoot better than 40 percent, holding everybody to fewer than 74 points, and outrebounding opponents by about 10 per game.

But with Hardin limited to 20 minutes against KSU, the Golden Bears gave up 22 offensive rebounds and 21 turnovers, allowed the Wildcats to shoot 46 percent in the second half, and lost 82-75, albeit on the road.

"We were disappointing in our rebounding, and those are numbers that are very concerning," coach Ben Braun said.

The Golden Bears get a chance to fix their problems when they play Delaware State at home tonight. Alas, even if the bowl game gets boring, fans won't be able to watch; the game is not on television.

By the way, has anybody noticed how point guard Tyler Kepkay seems to talk to himself briefly before shooting free throws?

Turns out, he's talking to his father.

The junior-college transfer said that somebody once told him that as part of a good free-throw routine, a player should have a word or a phrase to repeat to himself. "So I just say my dad's name, Dave."

Must work.

Kepkay is one of the team's best free-throw shooters, having hit 18 of 21 for 85.7 percent. And after making eight in a row to help the Utes beat Missouri State last weekend, he said his personal record was 18 in a row during a game -- and an amazing 130 straight in practice, while he was still at the College of Eastern Utah last year.

Maybe we know now why center Luke Nevill played so well against Missouri State last weekend.

His mom is here.

Nevill's mother is visiting from his native Australia, and a fleet of other friends and family are expected to join her within the next week -- including Nevill's dad, brother and two family friends -- and stay until at least late January.

One of those friends has kept in pretty regular contact with us here the past couple of years, and joked in an e-mail today that she has told Nevill "that he better play great, as I have paid $1,500 US to fly to see him. I will tell him at the end of the game if I got my money's worth."

Meanwhile, things are pretty slow today, with the Utes having canceled practice while coach Jim Boylen and his assistants are out recruiting.

Boylen, of course, went to Texas, while assistant Jeff Smith visited Michigan -- probably to watch signee Jason Washburn, among others -- and Marty Wilson went to California. Assistant Chris Jones stayed behind to hold down the fort and monitor film and weight-lifting sessions.

The Utes are working out twice today, but coach Jim Boylen won't be attending the second workout.

He'll be on a plane.

Boylen is headed off to recruit in Dallas, where he plans to watch a trio of prospects over the next two days. The targets? Small forward Roger Franklin of Duncanville High School -- the powerhouse that brought you Greg Ostertag -- power forward Jeff Georgatos of the Episcopal School of Dallas and shooting guard Marshall Henderson of Bell High School in Hurst, Texas.

All three are big-time targets who appear on ESPN's RecruitTracker national list, though Franklin and Georgatos are the highest rated by that service. The 6-foot-5 Franklin is rated as the 26th best small forward in the country, with the 6-7 Georgatos rated the 32nd best power forward.

In other words ... Boylen ain't recruiting the outer reaches of Serbia, anymore.

The coach is expected to catch Henderson in action tonight, and watch Franklin and Georgatos in a doubleheader at SMU on Wednesday.

The highlight is the clash-of-titans nightcap, in which Franklin and his Duncanville team -- a perfect 39-0 last season, with a mythical national championship -- take on Oak Hill Academy, the legendary basketball factory that went 40-1 last season and was unbeaten this season until losing back-to-back games last week.

We discussed the latest RPI ratings quite a bit here last week, when the Utes were preparing for their game against a Missouri State team with a surprisingly impressive ranking.

Now, we can see what their victory did for them.

The Utes had been ranked 189th in the RPI before playing the Bears, according to RealTimeRPI.com. But once they beat the Bears 66-54 at home -- the Bears had entered the game ranked 38th in the RPI -- the Utes soared to 149th.

Not bad for one game.

Now, we can watch and see what happens if the Utes can knock off Cal on Saturday. The 6-1 Golden Bears are 29th in the RPI -- ahead of both Oregon (38th) and Washington (170th), the two Pac-10 Conference teams that beat the Utes earlier this season.

Oh, and just because I know a few folks might be interested, Brigham Young is ranked only 107th, with a strength of schedule that ranks 242nd -- 24 places behind the Utes.

Ahhh, yes, the silent majesty of a winter's morn, the clean, cool chill of the holiday air ... and no limits on practice time when the kids are out of school.

That's what coach Jim Boylen is most looking forward to during his Christmas Vacation.

With the Utes having wrapped up final exams last week, they're out of class until next month. And with no time limits on practice while school is out of session, they'll be practicing twice a day for much of this week in advance of their game at Cal on Saturday.

The Golden Bears, by the way, are 6-1 -- they're coming off their first loss of the season, an 82-75 decision at Kansas State -- with a home game against Delaware State on Thursday. They're among the top 30 shooting and scoring teams in the country, but not especially good on defense.

The best moment of Utah's 66-54 victory over Missouri State today, for me, came only after the game was over. Standing outside the Missouri State locker room, we asked one of the Bears players if he could fetch coach Barry Hinson out of the locker room.

And within moments, Hinson appeared in the doorway ... without a shirt on.

Clearly, the player must have told his coach only that a couple of guys outside needed to talk to him -- making Hinson think it was an urgent matter, and not just a couple of schnook sportswriters waiting to talk to him about the game.

Realizing his mistake, Hinson asked for a couple of minutes to change, and of course we obliged. It was worth the wait, too, because the gregarious and engaging coach had plenty to say about the Utes.

"There's no tax deductions for this, but we really gave them a lot of charity," he said. "They scored 22 points off our turnovers, 15 in the first half, and I really think that was the tell-tale sign of the game. And you have to give them credit, because defensively they forced us to do a lot of those turnovers."

Then, Hinson launched into a sermon that would make coach Jim Boylen proud.

The Utes are so hard to prepare for, Hinson said, because "I don't know who's going to show up from the perimeter. I really don't. Every one of them can score. Every one of them. I watched Santa Clara, Oregon, Washington, and every night, one of those guards is the best player.

"I'm serious," he continued. "They've got six perimeter players that can all score, either off the shot or off the dribble, and you've got Green that can score from the perimeter, which makes it that much better. And then you've got the beast inside" in center Luke Nevill.

The Bears wanted to contain Nevill and let the Utes have the three-point shot, Hinson said, and "for the most part, I thought our guys did a good job on him" even though Nevill wound up with 18 points, six rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots. The Utes made only 5 of 13 three-pointers, too, but forced the Bears into a slower game than they would prefer because "they didn't guard us."

By that, Hinson meant that the Utes packed their defense into the key -- "they had five guys in the paint" at one point during the first half, Hinson said -- and forced the Bears to play from the outside. They responded by making just 41 percent of their shots in the first half, when the Utes built a 17-point lead, and hitting just 5 of 15 three-pointers overall.

"We had a hard time adjusting to them," Hinson said.

"I like this team," he added, noting that the Utes play an NBA style on both offense and defense. "I really do. I really think, when they get Weigh back, they're going to be special. I'm impressed with what coach is doing, too. ... I just think they're unique. I'm really impressed with what he's doing. And what's so impressive about it is, it's just starting. I can only imagine what it's going to be like once he gets his system in."

High praise, indeed.

Among other tidbits from the game worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill was the story of the game, as far as coach Jim Boylen was concerned. Though he made a few of his usual mistakes, and seemed more effective offensively the more he stepped away from the basket (counterintuitive as that seems), the 7-foot-1 junior center scored 18 points, grabbed six rebounds, handed out three assists and blocked three shots while also helping the Utes make 17 of 18 free throws. "He competed for all 33 minutes he played," Boylen said. "He was more physical than he has been all year. He had a great week of practice. He was focused. You guys know I think if Luke Nevill plays for us and plays competitive basketball, we can be very good."

-- The Utes returned to holding an opponent to less than 50 percent shooting, after allowing Oregon to fare better than that last weekend. They held the Bears to 44.2 percent shooting, although they made 14 of 30 shots after halftime, when they made a run at the Utes. The Bears also outrebounded the Utes 17-13 in the second half.

-- Guard Johnnie Bryant continues to get less playing time than he did earlier in the season, seeing only 14 minutes against the Bears. The senior has averaged just 13.7 minutes the past three games, after playing 20 in the five six. He's scoring just six points per game since his role became more limited, too, which might have something to do with the steady emergence of junior point guard Tyler Kepkay.

-- Forward Stephen Weigh played 17 minutes, the most since he returned from a two-game absence because of a rib injury. But he still hasn't scored. Weigh missed all four shots he attempted, making him 0-for-8 in the three games since he returned to the lineup. He didn't do much else, either, handing out one assist and grabbing just one rebound.

Coach Jim Boylen calls Missouri State -- today's opponent at the Huntsman Center -- the best team the Utes have faced at home this season.

But the Bears figure to have a lot of obstacles to overcome.

For starters, they're undersized, and will be pitting 6-foot-9 senior center Drew Richards against Utah's Luke Nevill. Not only that, but they're not a great rebounding team, having won the battle of the boards only once in seven games while the Utes have done so seven times in eight games and rank second in the Mountain West Conference in rebounding margin.

What's more, the Bears are playing their first game in 10 days (at altitude), and have guards Spencer Laurie, Justin Fuehrmeyer and Shane Laurie playing major minutes because of an injury to teammate Lamont Austin.

"We're about to find out a lot about our basketball team," coach Barry Hinson said.

The Utes, too.

Boylen said the Bears would be an "upper-echelon team" in the Mountain West, and present a challenge because they're tough and physical. Their biggest weapon is 6-5 senior forward Deven Mitchell, their leading scorer and rebounder at 16.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game whom Utah's Shaun Green and Kim Tillie will have the responsibility of guarding.

"They're just really solid," Boylen said.

The RPI ratings certainly suggest as much. Though the Bears are not especially heralded, they rank an impressive 38th in the ratings, mostly because of a schedule that has included Toledo, Winthrop and Arkansas. The Bears beat only Winthrop among that group, however.

Fans going to the game against Missouri State here in a little while might notice somebody missing from behind the Utah bench.

Point guard Curtis Eatmon has left the Utes, having finished his final exams and headed home for the holiday break -- in advance of the surgery next week to repair the hip problem that has kept him out all season.

Which makes me wonder ...

Will he ever return?

After all, Eatmon has been with his teammates at practices and games all season, even though he has not been able to play. So it seems odd that coach Jim Boylen would allow him to leave early and miss a game, unless perhaps Eatmon essentially was leaving the program for good. And we do know that Eatmon -- nice a kid as he is -- did not exactly impress the coaching staff when he had a chance to play during the exhibition tour of Australia over the summer. We shall see ...

So, I presume I wasn't the only one who was a little mystified that the Utah State Aggies were not up to their usual standard when the Utes played them last week?

Turns out the Ags are helping kill the Western Athletic Conference's ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index.

The WAC ranks a miserable 26th, while the Aggies are 196th, according to RealTimeRPI.com. By comparison, the Mountain West ranks 12th as a league -- right there between the Mid-American Conference and Conference USA.

The Utes might be happy to know that while they're a pretty dismal 189th, those rival Cougars -- for all of their supposed impressiveness -- are only 101st. The Cougar schedule strength ranks only 220th, in fact, despite playing Louisville, North Carolina and Michigan State.

The team with the real tough schedule, evidently, is UNLV.

The Rebels are 6-2 overall, and rank 26th in the RPI with a strength-of-schedule that ranks 22nd. Why? Not so much because they played a bunch of elite teams -- Louisville, UC Santa Barbara and UTEP are their top opponents so far -- but because they don't play any real dogs.

While the Utes and Cougars played a combined eight teams whose RPI ratings are 273rd or worse (and two more with ratings at 192nd and 224th), the Rebels have not played anybody whose RPI is lower than 166th. Of course, that will start to change soon, when the Utes meet Missouri State (38th), Cal (60th) and Gonzaga (25th) before the end of the month.

Looks like former coach Ray Giacoletti is getting a lot of mileage out of the surge in production from Australian players this season.

First, we noted his role in bringing Vanderbilt's A.J. Oglivy to the college ranks -- the Utes had a bead on him, but did not have a scholarship -- and now he gets some good pub in a piece that examines more broadly the phenomenon of the Australian players succeeding in the United States.

Naturally, the piece explains the role of the Australian Institute for Sport that produced Andrew Bogut, Luke Nevill and Stephen Weigh, among many others, and profiles coach Marty Clarke, who has been instrumental in the development of these young players.

And speaking of coaches who helped develop young Aussies ...

The man who had been Nevill's personal coach back in Australia, Warren Kuhn, has been attending practice this week while he's in town visiting. An American who now lives Down Under, Kuhn spent a lot of time with the Utes when they visited Nevill's hometown of Perth during their exhibition tour of Australia last summer, and this week has observed the team's workouts and occasionally huddled with the coaches.

"Terrific guy," coach Jim Boylen said. "He suggests, he helps, he asks questions. He has been very supportive."

Coach Jim Boylen decided long ago that the only way he will allow any of his players to leave town and miss summertime conditioning next year is if they're playing for their national teams.

And it looks like that will happen with at least one guy -- Tyler Kepkay.

Boylen said he already has spoken with coach Leo Rautins of the Canadian national team, who wants Kepkay at the tryout for the team that hopes to play at the 2008 Beijing Games in China. The Canadians have not yet qualified for the Olympics, but will if they finish among the top three at the 12-team FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament from July 14-20 in Greece.

How cool might that be for Kepkay, potentially backing up a guy by the name of Steve Nash?

The Utes have four other international players on their roster, but only Australians Luke Nevill and Stephen Weigh have even a remote chance at playing at the Olympics. It seems unlikely, since neither has played for the Australian national team, but at least the Australians have qualified for the 12-team field at the Beijing Games.

The same cannot be said for France and Serbia, two nations that will not qualify. That means forward Kim Tillie and guard Luka Drca won't be playing in Beijing, even if they are good enough to earn a spot on their national team.

A year ago, the Utes were going through finals week worried about the academic fortunes of freshman forward Daniel Deane. They even held him out of the Mountain West Conference opener last season, out of fear that he might wind up ineligible.

But coach Jim Boylen said he has no such concerns about any of his players this season.

While the Utes spend the week finishing up the semester in advance of their home game against Missouri State at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, Boylen said he's not worried about the eligibility of any of his players for the second half of the season.

"I don't have any guys that I'm worried about that won't be eligible," he said. "I'm a big believer in 'preventative maintenance,' and I think we've done a lot of that. Do I have a couple of guys who I'm on to do better and to not be average students? I do."

Of course, Boylen did not name names, but the question I asked allowed him to yet again make his point about the culture of mediocrity that he's trying to overcome.

"We are still fighting a culture in this program where my players were allowed to be average, and it was accepted," he said. "And we're going to change that. We have changed it. It's not where it needs to be, but we're fighting that on all levels. And I'm going to keep fighting the good fight, and we're going to build this thing with guys who think that an A is acceptable, not a C. That think winning is acceptable, not just playing hard."

Deane, of course, was thrown out of the program shortly after Boylen took over last spring, and has since transferred to Oregon State. The Utes said he was released because he did not "buy into" their emphasis on academics and graduation.

"My guys are doing well in school," Boylen said, "and we need to finish it off, similar to a game. We've done enough to be in the game, academically, now we have to finish it off. Again, I think that's a big part of this process. My guys are students first, and they're young men who go to school."

Coach Jim Boylen had been planning to travel to Kansas on his team's day off from practice yesterday, to watch signee Jordan Cyphers play for Southeast High School in Wichita.

But he didn't go.

Knowing a massive ice storm was pounding much of the Midwest, Boylen canceled his trip and stayed home. Good thing, too, since dozens of games in Kansas were postponed -- including the one in which Cyphers was scheduled to play. That game has been rescheduled for tonight, but Boylen is staying in town to oversee the Utes in practice.

Athletic director Chris Hill was about the first person many fans thought about when they heard that his counterpart at the University of Washington will leave his job next month.

After all, Hill nearly took the Husky job 3 1/2 years ago.

But it doesn't seem to make much more sense for Hill to jump to the Huskies now that Todd Turner -- the guy the Huskies hired after Hill turned them down -- has been forced out, even if the Seattle Times joined the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in listing him among the potential candidates, along with Oregon's Bill Moos and Kentucky's Mitch Barnhart, among others.

Why not?

For starters, Hill already has turned the Huskies down once -- would the Huskies risk a second rejection? -- and it hardly sounds like the atmosphere on Montlake has grown much more welcoming for a guy like Hill.

Back in 2004, the Huskies were digging out of a scandalous era. Now, Turner has complained loudly that he's leaving because of a "win-at-all-costs" mentality, and it strikes me as extremely doubtful that Hill would want to step into a potential snake pit like that, which might well include firing football coach Ty Willingham among his first major moves.

He hardly needs that kind of pressure, at this stage of his career.

Additionally, this might not be a good time -- on a personal level -- for Hill to contemplate career decisions.

According to a school spokeswoman, Hill left town on a red-eye flight last night to attend to his ill mother back in New Jersey. There was no specific word on the gravity of the illness, but with that situation in mind, we did not attempt to contact Hill directly about the UW job, though we all know he would not have said anything about it, anyway.

Regardless, here's sending best wishes to Hill and his family. Hope everything turns out as well as it can ...

So it appears that the Utes once had a line on both a junior-college All-American and another Australian star-in-the-making ... yet managed to wind up with neither one of them.

Perhaps that's how you wind up with a program in need of rebuilding.

At any rate, the Utes evidently had a great shot at Vanderbilt's A.J. Ogilvy, whom former coach Ray Giacoletti discovered through his connections to the Australian Institute for Sport. And that could have been a huge score for them, judging by the way the 6-foot-10 freshman is leading the unbeaten Commodores by averaging 19.6 points and 6.3 rebounds and shooting 70 percent from the field.

But according to an article on ESPN.com -- thanks to the gang over at Utefans.net for calling my attention to it -- Giacoletti and the Utes had no room for Ogilvy because they had committed to using their final scholarship last year on a "junior-college post player," which would have been 6-9 power forward Nemanja Calasan.

Now, Calasan was hardly a slouch, having been a junior-college All-American who had led Midland College in Texas to the national junior-college championship last season.

But once new coach Jim Boylen arrived and inherited a glut of juniors who presumably will all depart the program at the same time after the 2008-09 season, he decided he could not afford to add yet another one that could leave the program seriously depleted heading into 2009-10.

So he cut Calasan loose.

Of course, Calasan wound up at Purdue (he turned down Kentucky), where he's off to a fine start with the Boilermakers. Meanwhile, the Utes did not use the scholarship that had been reserved for Calasan to recruit another player -- instead using it along with the one that had been occupied by departed Daniel Deane on senior guard Chris Grant and senior forward Sayre Brennan. Both former walk-ons will be gone after this season, again freeing the scholarships for Boylen to recruit new players.

What if Giacoletti had valued Ogilvy over Calasan, though?

Given that Ogilvy is only a freshman, it's easy to presume that Boylen would have honored his letter-of-intent obligation and added him to the team. You think the Utes couldn't use a big man to be scoring nearly 20 points per game right about now? Just a thought ...

The Utes have today off in deference to finals week, and coach Jim Boylen is taking advantage by hopping on an airplane to go watch one of his most talented recruits play.

Shooting guard Jordan Cyphers is in action tonight for Southeast High School in Wichita, Kansas, hoping to continue his torrid early-season pace.

The 6-foot-4 Cyphers is averaging 28.8 points per game for his unbeaten team, having scored 33 in its season-opener and 32 in his last game -- an 80-60 victory last weekend in which he scored 14 of his points in the second quarter alone.

News reports in the Wichita Eagle have noted his "highlight-reel dunks" and at least one "NBA three-pointer."

He's not the only future Ute who has enjoyed a hot start, either.

Center Jason Washburn had a modest season-opener amid foul trouble for his Central High School team in Battle Creek, Mich. But the 7-footer whom several recruiting services rank among the top 100 prospects in the country erupted with 22 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocks in his second game last weekend.

Similarly, Brighton's Jace Tavita and Lone Peak's Josh Sharp each is averaging 18 points after a handful of early games -- though I haven't been able to track down much information on guard Chris Hines of Klein Forest High School in Houston. Still, judging by all of that, you'd have to think the Utes indeed have landed a pretty strong recruiting class.

Coach Jim Boylen sounded almost exasperated at his weekly press conference today, where he acknowleged his team's improved competitiveness but again bemoaned its lack of toughness and winning desire.

"We are still fighting a culture in this program where my players were allowed to be average, and it was accepted," Boylen said. "We're going to change that. We have changed it. It's not where it needs to be, but we're fighting that on all levels. And I'm going to keep fighting the good fight."

The Utes will be going relatively easy this week because of final exams, in advance of their only game of the week against Missouri State at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

Yet it's easy to understand why Boylen is so aggravated.

The Utes have had chances to win big games at Oregon and Washington, but faded down the stretch both times. They're just 5-3 so far, which puts them sixth in the Mountain West Conference. And for as much as their defense seems to have improved from last season, they still rank last in the league by allowing 42.8 percent shooting and 38.8 percent shooting from three-point range.

Having watched the Utes show their capacity for strong play, particularly against Oregon and Washington, I asked Boylen what it is that he believes keeps his players from making key plays down the stretch when they have shown they can make them at earlier points in games. After all, they rallied from 11 down at Oregon over the weekend.

"It comes down to toughness," he said. "Mental toughness, understanding that at that point in the game, you have to play it a little tougher. Be a little tougher. Grit your teeth, but be mentally tough.

"Everybody thinks I talk about toughness as ..." he said, putting up his fists like a boxer. "It's not that. It's some of that -- physical toughness is important, conditioning is very important. Our conditioning is 10 times better than it was last year. But it's a mental approach to the game that you understand what needs to be done, you understand how to get it done, and then you make the adjustments through the adversity in the game to do it. We have to learn that."

Obviously, it's not happening quickly enough for Boylen.

His good friend and former boss was in town over the weekend, but coach Jim Boylen was on the road with his Utah Utes and unable to see him.

Still, Michigan State's Tom Izzo had some good things to say.

Izzo said he has been telling his former assistant about the pressure he will feel from himself, fans, the media and the university president and alumni to turn the Utes around quickly.

"Jimmy is doing it the right way," Izzo said while in town with his No. 9 Spartans to defeat Brigham Young on Saturday. "It will take a little time and it should. Anything good takes a little bit of time."

Indeed, Boylen has talked frequently about how he's trying to build the program "the right way," though he also has acknowledged that even his wife teases him about how anxious he gets to turn things around immediately.

Izzo said he's doing just fine, though.

"You hope it is now rather than later, of course," Izzo said, "but I think he's already off to a really good start, and I think you will like him, and I think he is going to stay with the same philosophy that he had here, and we won pretty quick. And yet I think when we won, it was solid enough that it has lasted."

Looking for bright spots, in the wake of the Utes' 75-64 loss at No. 19 Oregon yesterday?

Dont worry, we found one.

His name is Tyler Kepkay.

Having been brought in to help steady a poor backcourt, the junior-college transfer had spent much of the first few games finding his way and holding back from showing the scoring talent that allowed him to lead the nation last season.

But against the Ducks, with none of his teammates willing or able to step up, the point guard erupted with easily his best game of the season. He scored 23 points, outdueling Oregon's Tajuan Porter, and grabbing four rebounds with two steals -- reminding the Utes what a valuable weapon they possess.

"That's how I envisioned him playing when we recruited him," coach Jim Boylen said. "Toughness. He had two steals, he was on the floor. He's making plays and getting to the paint. He's shooting behind screens, shooting when he gets over screens. He's got that game -- that off-the-dribble game -- that I think is special."

Kepkay scored almost as many points against the Ducks as he did in the previous three games combined, and kept the Utes in it. He also has improved his decision-making, averaging about one fewer turnover the past three games. He's shooting 50.8 percent for the season, too.

Naturally, though, he shrugged it all off.

"I'm just getting more comfortable within the offense," he said. "Just playing and taking what the defense gives me. I thought for the most part, when we didn't run sets and were just playing the game and playing off each other, was when we were at our best" against the Ducks.

Earlier in the week, Kepkay said he's steadily finding his way in a new role.

"I'm getting put into situations as a point guard that I wasn't in last year, to really run the team and control things," he said. "I didn't really have to do that last year. It wasn't really my role. So I just keep learning how coach wants me to play ... and I think I'm just going to get better as the year goes on."

Not to put a hex on it or anything, but there's a way in which Kepkay reminds me of former Jazz guard John Stockton. He obviously doesn't want to be the scoring star, typically passing up opportunities in order to try to get his teammates involved. But when it's really necessary, when his team really needs a basket and nobody else seems willing or able to provide it, he can step up with a killer instinct and a deadly aim and make things happen.

And that's bound to help the Utes as they driver further into their season.

Coach Jim Boylen said it flat-out, you can't expect to win on the road against a good opponent if you shoot only five free throws and allow 22 -- even if the other team makes a miserable 59 percent of them.

But was it the Utes' fault?

Or did they get jobbed by hometown referees?

After all, the refs called them for 21 fouls against them in their 75-64 loss to Oregon at the Rose Garden today, compared to just 10 for the Ducks, resulting in that massive free-throw discrepancy and putting center Luke Nevill and forward Shaun Green into foul trouble. That was especially damaging in a game in which nobody off the bench could score -- 11 points combined on 5-for-17 shooting -- and the Utes were forced to rely on guard Tyler Kepkay for so much of their offense (however much he as able to handle it, with 23 points).

But having watched the game live, I'm inclined to say the the Utes really did commit more fouls, as a result of the Ducks' superior athleticism and quickness. The Ducks enjoyed an advantange in that department at every position, and it seemed like the Utes simply could not keep up with them. That happens sometimes.

"We just have to play through calls," Green said.

And it's a credit to the Utes that despite the foul trouble, they were able to stay so close to such an explosive team. By slowing the tempo, they were able to avoid getting run out of the gym and hang around until crunch time -- when, unfortuantely for them, they wilted away once again.

But still ...

"I have a team that's young in the game and needs to grow and get tougher, and develop," coach Jim Boylen said. "We had plays we could have made that would have tightened things up a little bit. We didn't make those plays. We had those opportunities. We didn't make those plays, and that's where we have to grow."

It was also interesting that the Utes talked so much after the game about their shortcomings on defense, having allowed the Ducks to shoot 53.7 percent.

Yet it seemed to me that it was their offense that betrayed them late, when they failed on six of seven possessions after cutting the lead to four points late in the game. While the Ducks pulled away during that stretch, it wasn't entirely because the Utes couldn't stop them; the Utes did force two misses and make a steal, which gave them opportunities to stay close.

Alas, they couldn't take advantage.

Of course, it's also true that they might have led instead of trailed by that point, had their defense earlier in the game been able to force the Ducks into more missed shots and turnovers.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Coach Boylen said the Utes wanted to hold the Ducks to 75 points, well below their average of 91.3, and they did that, right on the nose. But they also wanted to hold the Ducks to 20 free throws (they average 27) and commit fewer than 15 turnovers, yet they allowed 22 free throws (the Ducks stunningly made only 13) and committed 17 turnovers, which led to 21 points.

-- Until the final few minutes of the first half, I was ready to wonder whether the Utes are better without center Luke Nevill on the floor. After all, they trailed 10-7 when the 7-foot-1 junior went to the bench with his second foul, and the Utes responded by finding a nice rhythm and outscoring the Ducks 22-15 over the next 10 minutes or so. But while backup Morgan Grim did a nice job drawing a couple of charges, he was also physically overmatched. And though Nevill scored a season-low nine points, he did affect the Duck shooting and start to get going a bit after halftime, before suffering a bloody nose. Still, just for the heck of it, I asked Boylen after the game if he thought the Utes were better with Nevill on the bench. His answer was simple and definitive: "No."

-- The Utes were annoyed to have let the Ducks shoot 53.7 percent and become the first team to hit more than half its shots against them this season. But that has to be especially discouraging when you realize that the Utes held the Ducks to 7-for-19 shooting in the first 12 minutes of the game. From that point on, the Ducks made 22 of 35 for 62.8 percent. "We're very disappointed in that," Boylen said.

-- Guard Johnnie Bryant committed two agonizingly dumb plays in the first half, making bad situations exceedingly worse. First, he threw away a pass and then committed a silly, slapping foul trying to get it back. Then, beaten badly along the baseline by Oregon's Bryce Taylor, he reached out half-heartedly from behind as Taylor rose for a monster dunk, committing his third foul without stopping the shot. Result? A three-point play that allowed the Ducks to retake the lead, and a seat on the bench for Bryant (he played only three minutes in the second half). Far from what you're looking for out of your senior captain.

The Utes are going to enjoy a little extra support when they face Oregon here in a few minutes, since Andrew Bogut has arrived to watch them play from behind the bench.

The former All-American center now plays for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, of course, and they're in town to play the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. So he called one of the assistant coaches, scored some tickets and showed up to see the Utes for the first time this season.

Bogut said he has not met new coach Jim Boylen yet, but he hopes to do so after the game. Naturally, the Utes hurried to find a warm-up jacket for Bogut to wear -- and joked that it's too bad they couldn't fit him with a uniform, too.

When coach Jim Boylen and his Utah Utes take the floor today to meet the No. 19 Oregon Ducks, he will see a couple of familiar faces preparing to do their best against him.

Oregon's Tajuan Porter and Malik Hairston.

The 5-foot-6 sophomore point guard and 6-6 senior forward are among the five Duck starters who average double-figures -- Porter averages 15.7 points and Hairston averages 17.9 -- and both are from Renaissance High School in Detroit, where Boylen became familiar with them during his time as an assistant coach at nearby Michigan State.

"You always keep an eye on the kids from your area," he said.

Though Boylen said the Spartans did not recruit either player -- which seems dubious, considering how heralded they were in high school -- he said he knows first-hand that they're awfully dangerous.

Porter and Hairston played together on the 2004 Renaissance team that went 27-0, won a state championship and ranked No. 3 in the nation by USA Today. Two years later, after Hairston had left as one of the nation's highest-profile recruits, Porter led the team to another state title. He made an Oregon record 110 three-pointers last season, and was named the most outstanding player in the Pac-10 Conference tournament.

"Tajuan Porter was terrific," Boylen recalled. "I saw him in the state finals and, you know, big-time player and athlete. Played in our gym in the summer. He's a great kid, and I wish those guys success."

Except today, anyway.

"They're good players," Boylen said. The Ducks "have a lot of guys with ball skills, a lot of guys who can shoot. Multiple ball-handlers. They play loose -- not in a negative way, in a good way. They play loose and they play off each other and they do a really good job."

Don't look now, but it feels like the Utes are back in Australia again.

Just like when they practiced twice a day and even before games during their summertime exhibition tour, the Utes have been getting in plenty of extra work before today's challenge against No. 19 Oregon at the Rose Garden.

Director of operations Jonathan Dykema reports that the Utes arrived even a little earlier than expected yesterday -- they had been scheduled to work out before leaving -- and went through an hour-long workout at the arena in the evening. They were back there again this morning, Dykema said, going through another 60 minutes of preparation.

So, they shouldn't lack for understanding of the game plan.

Meanwhile, the Ducks are bracing for what they expect to be a serious challenge posed by center Luke Nevill and the Utes' size, and coach Ernie Kent compared the Utes favorably to Pac-10 powers Washington State and Stanford.

The Ducks, by the way, are favored by 11 1/2 points.

Had the pleasure of sitting next to a Utah fan on the flight to Portland tonight, and he had a good question (several, actually) -- whatever happened with Nemanja Calasan?

Except to say that he wound up at Purdue, I didn't have an answer.

But now, I can provide details.

Seems the former junior-college All-American who had committed to join the Utes but was cut loose from that commitment by new coach Jim Boylen already has made quite an impression with the Boilermakers.

The 6-foot-9 forward missed the first two games of the season while his eligibility was verified, but has averaged 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in about 20 minutes in each of four games since then.

Calasan turned in a particularly strong performance in a 71-60 victory over Indiana State last weekend, helping the Boilermakers improve to 5-1 overall going into a game at Missouri while the Utes take on No. 19 Oregon on Saturday.

Boylen has said that he believes Calasan could have helped the Utes win this season, but decided against adding him to the program because that would have given the Utes five major contributors who would have departed the program at once after next season.

Four is problematic enough, Boylen believed.

So there you have it -- one in-flight question answered. Have more? Drop me an e-mail!

Just noticed something that warrants a slight correction on my part.

While backup point guard Curtis Eatmon told me he planned to have his season-ending hip surgery on Dec. 18 in Colorado, the Utes in their pre-game media release note that the surgery is actually scheduled for Dec. 20. Not a big deal, I suppose, but we probably should get the date straight.

Eatmon said he will need at least six weeks recovery, and doesn't expect to return this season.

The Utes are leaving today to play the No. 19 Oregon Ducks on Saturday in the Pape Jam event at the Rose Garden in Portland in their first huge test of the coach Jim Boylen era.

And while have been tuning up with three games in the last nine days, the Ducks have not played since Nov. 29 -- an impressive victory at Kansas State -- on account of their exam week. And they evidently are viewing the Utes as presenting the same kind of strong test as the Utes see the Ducks providing.

"We like the challenge," forward Maarty Leunen said.

Leunen is one of five Oregon starters averaging in double-figures, and he probably will be the guy charged with defending Utah's Luke Nevill. Ordinarily, that would be a big advantage for Nevill, since Leunen is only 6-foot-9 -- some four inches shorter than Nevill.

But it doesn't take much of a memory to remember how 6-7 Jon Brockman of Washington worked Nevill over in Seattle last month, and Boylen was annoyed at how many opportunities Nevill missed (with a similar size advantage) in the 72-48 victory over Utah State on Wednesday night.

Not only that, but Leunen fared pretty well against Kansas State's Michael Beasley, the freshman sensation who had been leading the nation in scoring, so he's no slouch.

The Ducks will severely test the Utah defense, still playing their trademark push-the-pace style even after the departure of star guard Aaron Brooks, who led the team to a 29-8 record and the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season. The Ducks are averaging 91.3 points per game -- that's fourth in the nation -- and twice have scored 100 this season.

Coach Ernie Kent is shooting for his 200th victory at Oregon, by the way, which would pull him within a dozen of Hall of Fame predecessor Howard Hobson, the winningest coach in school history.

We should have a little story posted on our web site soon, and it will appear in the morning newspaper, as well ... but just so you can say you heard it here first, it looks like backup point guard Curtis Eatmon is going to miss the rest of the season.

Eatmon said he has to have surgery to repair the injury that has kept him on the sideline since the preseason, and won't likely recover in time to return this year.

Eatmon originally was believed to be suffering from a groin injury, but visits to several doctors revealed that the pain Eatmon feels when his body absorbs a lot of basketball pounding is actually the result of a problem in his left hip.

Surgery is scheduled Dec. 18 in Colorado, Eatmon said.

The diagnosis probably won't change much for the Utes, since they have been playing all season without the 6-foot-3 sophomore -- who probably was not going to see a lot of playing time, anyway, behind junior Tyler Kepkay and senior Johnnie Bryant. He didn't exactly impress coach Jim Boylen on the team's summertime exhibition tour of Australia, either, so it will be interesting to see what becomes of his future with the program.

All of that having been said, though, Eatmon has always seemed like a great kid, and it's too bad he has to endure such an drastic solution to his injury problems. Here's hoping he gets well soon.

Talk about coincidence.

Just the other day, I was asking coach Jim Boylen what he thought of forward Kim Tillie so far. After all, he had heralded the 6-foot-9 sophomore forward from France as a "double-double" type of player for the Utes based on his strong summertime performance, yet Tillie had been averaging a modest 5.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Then came last night.

Tillie erupted in the 72-48 victory over Utah State, scoring a career-high 16 points on 7-for-7 shooting and grabbing six rebounds in a mere 18 minutes -- which only emphasized the point Boylen made when I asked the other day, that Tillie has been one of the team's most productive players.

"He has helped us win," Boylen said.

The coach pointed out that Tillie has been the Utes' best rebounder per minute, and he still ranks in that position after the Aggie game by averaging 0.31 boards per minute. By contrast, center Luke Nevill averages 0.28 rebounds per minute.

Tillie also has made 19-of-28 shots for 67.8 percent, and already has played more minutes than he did before ending his season prematurely with a broken ankle last season. He has played 96 minutes in seven games so far, after playing just 81 in 11 games before his injury last year.

"He has been ready to play," Boylen said. "I'm sure he wants more minutes, but he has helped us when he's in there -- not with things that always appear in the stat sheet. At Weber, he tipped that ball out for that three-pointer to Johnnie when we were down 16-6 or whatever. He tipped that ball out. It doesn't show up, but I know that it matters."

So, it's not impossible.

The Utes will be able to enter the McCarthey Athletic Center in a few weeks knowing that winning on Gonzaga's home floor at least is within the realm of possibility -- having seen Washington State stun the Zags 51-47 in a riveting game last night.

Granted, it took the eighth-ranked team in the country to hand No. 17 Gonzaga second loss in 44 games in their new arena, while the Utes were dispatching the much-less intimidating Utah State Aggies at the Huntsman Center. But the recipe is one the Utes will want to follow -- defense.

"As long as we can get back and set up our defense, we can give any team trouble," WSU's Derrick Low said. "We got back every time."

That's exactly the kind of team coach Jim Boylen is trying to build on the hill, and he no doubt will reference to his players the kind of grinding defense the Cougars used to stop the Bulldogs. After all, the Cougs held the Zags to their fewest points since a 71-47 loss to Southern Utah 11 years ago, and their worst shooting night -- 15 for 58, for 25.8 percent -- since a loss to Wyoming in the NCAA Tournament five years ago.

Coach Jim Boylen acknowledged that guards Lawrence Borha and Luka Drca did a remarkable job in holding Utah State's Jaycee Carroll to just seven shots and 11 points in the Utes' 72-48 victory over the Aggies at the Huntsman Center tonight.

But he also gave credit to somebody you might not expect:

Chris Grant.

The seldom-used former walk-on imitated Carroll so well in practice, Boylen said, that the Utes were as prepared as they could have been to shut him down.

"We just gave the game ball to Chris Grant," Boylen said after the game. "Chris Grant was Jaycee Carroll in practice, and he was a great Jaycee Carroll. Those guys took turns guarding him, Chris was high-energy, he played very well in practice. He tried to duplicate Jaycee the best he could; I thought he did a good job.

"That really helped us, to have that guy on our scout team to make that happen," Boylen added. "To me, that falls in line with us becoming a team -- every guy is valuable, every practice is valuable. We have a senior captain who doesn't play a lot who helped us win this game, and to me, that's what it's all about."

The 11 points that Carroll scored, by the way, was barely half his average this season, and the least he has scored in four games against the Utes. He entered the game having averaged 21 points against them in his career -- including the 27-point performance (and game-tying three-pointer) that killed the Utes last season.

Among the other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill had 20 points and 14 rebounds, but Boylen seemed practically disgusted with him after the game. He said Nevill should have had closer to 30 points and 20 boards, for as many chances as he had. "He had opportunities all over the place," Boylen said. "He had rebounds that he missed. I have a high standard for Luke Nevill, and he didn't reach it tonight."

-- Forward Kim Tillie enjoyed the best game of his career, scoring 16 points on perfect 7-for-7 shooting and grabbing six rebounds, all in just 18 minutes. "He has wanted to play more, I wanted to play him more, and tonight he got his opportunity," Boylen said. "He made the most of it." Tillie already has played 96 minutes this season, 15 more than he did before breaking his ankle last season.

-- Forward Stephen Weigh returned to the lineup after missing two games with a rib injury, and did not exactly stand out. He missed all three shots he took (all from three-point range) and contributed only one assist with a turnover in 12 minutes. Boylen said it's unfair to have expected a lot, though, considering Weigh had returned to practice only two days before the game after missing two weeks.

-- Hate to say it, but the fans wearing red were vastly outperformed by the small but stunningly loud group of Aggie fans crowded together in blue shirts in the upper bowl. The Ags easily drowned out the majority of the 10,829 fans, often making it seem as if the game was being playing in Logan and at one point rocking the arena with a chant of, "We are louder! We are louder!" To which a smattering of Utah fans responded by pointing -- silently, for the most part -- to the scoreboard. Lame.

When coach Jim Boylen looks down the sideline at counterpart Stew Morrill of Utah State tonight in the Huntsman Center, he knows exactly what he will be seeing:

The perfect role model.

The Aggies exemplify everything that Boylen wants out of his own program -- they win, they don't get in trouble, and they graduate. "I want us to win with class and lose with class," Boylen said, "and those guys do it."

The Aggies are 218-79 in nine seasons under Morrill, who has 436 wins in his 21-year career.

"And I've got four," Boylen said. "It's kind of funny. But I have so much respect for him. And the thing about him is, he has so much respect around the country. He's a national name in coaching. He's a respected national name in coaching, and it's an honor to play against him."

Boylen and Morrill did not know one another until Boylen became the Utes' coach last spring, but both said they already have forged a blossoming friendship. They had an easy place to start, having both worked closely with legendary coach Jud Heathcote -- Morrill at Montana and Boylen at Michigan State -- and visited during the offseason.

"He just seems like a really good guy," Morrill said. "He's easy to be around."

One thing Morrill said he counseled Boylen about was the chronic sense that coaches share that they're doing everything wrong.

"He's going to think he's losing his mind at times," Morrill said. "And he really won't be, it will just seem that way. He got a kick out of that, but that's coaching. ... You just kind of accept that that's a normal feeling."

Morrill also chuckled at the way Boylen gets so fired up on the sideline during games.

"I can't do that," Morrill said. "I'm too damn old. But I get a kick out of watching him on film. He's in a defensive stance, he looks like a linebacker, he's all charged up, and good for him. That's great. Now, if he can do that for 22 years, I really respect him, because I can't do that anymore. I used to have some of that going."

"He gets up, though," Boylen countered, with a laugh. "He gets up. I saw him on film against us last year, and watched a few other games, and he gets up and rips a little ass. Tucks his pants up and chews somebody's ass. And it's amazing, he's a big man. Just a big, impressive man."

Boylen said he feels honored that coaches like Morrill and Randy Rahe of Weber State -- a former Morrill assistant at Colorado State and Utah State -- have accepted him into the state's basketball community so warmly.

Morrill "has been great to me," Boylen said. "He has been honest to me. He's been up front. Him and Randy Rahe have been unbelievable. They don't have to be that way to me, but I think they genuinely want us to do well. Obviously not [tonight], but they want us to be successful and they have been very open."

"For a first-year head coach at a new school and a new part of the world," he added, "I couldn't ask for more."

No doubt you noticed the way guard Johnnie Bryant missed a three-pointer and the front end of a one-and-one from the free-throw line in the waning minutes of the Utes' game against UC Irvine last weekend.

Coach Jim Boylen certainly did.

Even though the Utes wound up beating the Anteaters 78-66, both shots -- had they gone in -- would have made the job easier by extending a two-point lead for the Utes in the final three minutes.

So since the game, the Utes have finished their practices with a drill in which Bryant has to make three-pointers and free throws before the workout can conclude. It's yet another example of Boylen attempting to create pressurized situations in practice so that players are prepared for them in the games.

The misses were definitely surprising, though.

Bryant had been shooting 45.8 percent from three-point range before his miss with 2:40 left in the game, and had not missed in seven free-throw attempts until his wayward foul shot with 2:18 remaining. At least, Bryant went on to make four more free throws in a row in the final 1:12 to help the Utes pull away -- and he's now 11-for-12 from the line this season.

Looks like injured forward Stephen Weigh is feeling a lot better these days.

The 6-foot-6 sophomore returned to practice Monday for the first time since hurting his ribs in a fall against Santa Clara two weeks ago -- that wouldn't have anything to do with watching his replacement play so well, would it? -- and is expected to return to action against Utah State in the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night.

Coach Jim Boylen said Weigh won't start, but probably will come off the bench. "He will probably play some, but I don't know how much," Boylen said. Weigh looked loose and comfortable during practice Tuesday, for whatever that's worth.

Meanwhile, freshman guard Carlon Brown will remain the starter, having played well both times he started in place of Weigh. In the 78-66 victory over UC Irvine last weekend, Brown scored 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting, with three rebounds, a blocked shot and an assist. No turnovers, either.

In any case, getting Weigh back will help -- whatever role he fills. "He's a threat, he can play two positions," Boylen said. "It's good."

So guard Lawrence Borha enjoyed the best offensive performance -- 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists -- of his career to lead the Utes to their comeback victory over UC Irvine last weekend.

Now, he might need the best defensive game of his life.

The Utes take on Utah State at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night, meaning that -- as usual -- they must find a way to stop superstar guard Jaycee Carroll from killing them. And that job no doubt will fall to Borha, who's typically assigned to guard the opposing team's best perimeter player.

Already, Borha has done a fine job with that role.

The Utes credit him for holding his "main defensive responsibilities" to 19-for-59 shooting, and they're going to need him to slow Carroll, or they can almost certainly count on losing to the Aggies for the third time in four years. Just look at the numbers. When Carroll leads the Ags in scoring, they're 5-1 this season.

When he doesn't?

They're 0-3.

Breaking it down a little further, Carroll has averaged 23.8 points while shooting 55.5 percent in the five victories -- but scored just 16 points and shot 41.7 percent in the four losses. He has been a good barometer in past meetings with the Utes, too.

As a freshman in 2004, Carroll scored 18 points and helped bury the Utes 71-45 in Logan. The next year, he also scored 18, but shot just 7-for-17 and missed a potential game-winner at the final horn of a 67-66 loss at the Huntsman Center. Last year, he erupted for 27 points on 11-for-16 shooting, and the Ags beat the Utes 60-57 in Logan.

So, clearly, Borha needs to be ready.

My apologies for not posting for a few days; I was out of town and away from my computer. And just as I sat down this morning to catch up with the Utes a little bit, the phone starts to ring.

On the other end?

It's Ray Giacoletti.

The former head coach is an assistant at Gonzaga now, and he was returning my call from last week or so, when I finally succeeded in remembering to give him a jingle to see how everything is going. Couldn't be too bad, right? The Zags are 7-1 and ranked 17th in the AP Top 25, coming off an impressive road sweep of St. Joseph's and UConn only a week after playing in the Great Alaska Shootout.

Indeed, the Zags are pretty encouraged, Giacoletti said, especially since they have compiled their record without injured forward Josh Heytvelt (yes, the 'shroom dude) and guard Stephen Gray. Both of those players are expected back in the next couple of weeks, though, meaning the Utes should really have their hands full when they meet the Zags in Spokane on New Year's Eve.

Speaking of the Utes, Giacoletti was encouraged to hear they had come back to beat UC Irvine over the weekend and said he's hoping they do well this year -- even after he endured a difficult firing after last season.

"I'm pulling for them," he said.

It's not hard to imagine he really meant it, too. For as difficult a time as Giacoletti had in harnessing talent in his time with the Utes, he was as genuine and down-to-earth as any coach in the business. Guy like that deserves to land on his feet, even if he was in over his head a little bit with the Utes.

Ask coach Jim Boylen about it, and he'll tell you that his Utes are meeting a UC Irvine team at noon today at the Huntsman Center that isn't too different from the team he coaches.

"They're a physical team that pushes the ball and can run," he said. "In the halfcourt, they want to go inside and create mismatches in the post and score the ball inside. ... They will push it up, but not necessarily be a quick-shooting team -- kind of like how we play. We want to run, but if we have to, we'll set up and execute."

While the Utes are 3-2 and coming off a dominating victory over Weber State, the Anteaters are 2-4 and have lost three in a row to Mississippi State, Chattanooga and San Diego in the Anaheim Classic last week. They have never beaten the Utes in seven tries -- the last, a decade ago -- but will try to break the streak despite being 11-point underdogs.

Small forward Patrick Sanders leads UC Irvine by scoring 12.8 points per game with 5.0 rebounds, while three of his teammates -- guard Chuma Awaji, forward Darren Fells and forward Kevin Bland -- average between 9.3 and 9.8 points per game.

But Boylen said it doesn't matter whether the Anteaters play similarly to the Utes or not. Over the course of the season, the Utes will encounter many different styles, he said, and he wants to forge a team that can survive them all -- much like the ones that coach Tom Izzo built at Michigan State while Boylen was an assistant there.

"I'd like to build a program and a team that we can play if it's 35-35 like a Big Ten game, and we can play if it's 75-75 like an ACC game, or 90-90," he said. "I know Izzo's championship teams and his Final Four teams could play speed-up, running style, then could play the slow-down, let's-crank-it-up-and-pound-on-each-other style. I'd like to build a program so that we have teams like that. And we do play both ways. We're not there yet in physicality and focus and toughness, but that's what we're trying to get to."