For what it's worth, coach Jim Boylen said he doesn't believe the TCU Horned Frogs complained to the Mountain West Conference office about the thrown elbow that resulted in a one-game suspension for guard Luka Drca.

Boylen said he spoke with TCU coach Neil Dougherty, who agreed that the incident between Drca and TCU's Brent Haskett last weekend occurred during the heat of the moment and wasn't egregious enough to warrant a suspension.

"He was great about it," Boylen said.

That means that somebody else brought the incident to the attention of the league -- conference officials declined to comment, though sources said it was a TV station, probably The Mtn., which broadcast the game -- whose referees did not call a foul on Drca for the elbow that dropped Haskett to the floor.

In any case, Boylen said that however disappointed he might have been at not learning until Tuesday afternoon that the league was looking into the Saturday incident, he was not disputing that Drca violated the league's sportsmanship rule.

"You have to control your emotions in a game," he said. "That's what this level is all about, handling the pressure and controlling your emotions."

Without Drca, the Utes will be left to rely mostly on guards Tyler Kepkay and Johnnie Bryant to run the offense at Colorado State on Saturday -- though Boylen said seldom-used senior Chris Grant can probably expect to see some action. Losing Drca "hurts out creative ability and our size and our defense," Boylen said, "but that's why you get 13 scholarships. We'll do what we can."

Utah's Luka Drca has been suspended for one game for hitting TCU's Brent Hackett with an elbow during the Utes' victory over the Horned Frogs at the Huntsman Center last weekend.

Drca will not make the trip when the Utes visit Colorado State in Fort Collins on Saturday.

"I feel bad," Drca said. "It's a bad time, but I messed up."

The Mountain West Conference issued the suspension today, saying Drca's elbow at the 11:05 mark of the first half fell under the definition of "physical abuse" and violated the league's sportsmanship policy. Drca hit Hackett in the chest area but was not called for a foul on the play, which left Hackett rolling on the floor in pain as the teams ran downcourt after Hackett missed a jump shot.

"It was an emotional thing, I guess," Drca said.

Coach Jim Boylen said he was "disappointed" in the timing, having learned only on Tuesday that the league was reviewing the incident. "But I understand the rules and we have to follow them," he said. "I didn't think it was a flagrant foul. I thought it was a reaction to an earlier hit in the same play. But we have to be accountable for our actions."

Sources have told me that the incident was "brought to the attention" of the league after the game, leading to the suspension, though I don't know whether the Frogs complained directly or benefitted from somebody doing so on their behalf. Also, Hackett supposedly acknowledged to TCU coach Neil Dougherty that he had instigated an exchange with Drca, seemingly supporting Boylen's view of the incident.

In any case, losing Drca obviously hurts an already thin Utah bench. The Utes will have to rely on guards Tyler Kepkay and Johnnie Bryant to run the show by themselves.

Obviously, the Utes aren't exactly tearing it up these days, but at least they're not taking their slow fade to the bottom of the Mountain West Conference standings lightly. Coach Jim Boylen was among several coaches and other team officials who slept in the office after working late into the night before an early-morning workout and film session.

In fact, Boylen emerged from the film session still wearing the same pants and shoes that he wore while the Utes lost to Wyoming 69-64 at the Huntsman Center last night.

"This is a process," he said, echoing many similar comments from weeks gone by, "and again, I'm not giving up. I'm not over here feeling sorry for ourselves. We're going to keep grinding this thing out. This is what it is. This is what makes those trophies worth so much. It is, you know? It's a learning process. We have a young team."

Agreed, but when is it going to grow up and act like it wants to win?

Once again, the Utes played most of that game against the Cowboys as if they were bored and would rather have been somewhere else. As a result, they have lost four of five, and driven Boylen to offer reminders that the Utes at least have improved enough defensively -- they held Wyoming to 38.6 percent shooting -- that they had a chance to beat the Cowboys.

"Last year, from what I've heard, and what I've been around, this team would have lost that game by 20, because we would have given up 46.6 [percent shooting] or whatever it is," he said. "I don't like comparing it to last year, but my point is, I have to look for things where we're growing. The fans and everybody wants it in wins and losses, and I understand how this works. You get paid to do this job to win. But I'm going to evaluate my team on a game-by-game basis on what we're doing and not doing. We were not good offensively last night because we didn't make shots."

Not surprisingly, coach Jim Boylen has called for an early-morning practice tomorrow, after his Utes lost to Wyoming 69-64 at the Huntsman Center tonight ... so this is going to be short and sweet.

Clearly, the Utes are doing their best to disprove the theory that defense is the key to winning.

While they have managed to stay close in games by virtue of their vastly improved defense, their frequent impotence on offense has been to blame for their four losses in the last five games.

Not only have the Utes missed potential winning or tying shots in all of those games -- guard Tyler Kepkay did it for the third time in that stretch, by missing a running three-pointer in the waning seconds against the Cowboys -- but they have shot and scored miserably, compared to what they had managed the rest of the time.

For example, the Utes were scoring 70.5 points per game before returning to league play two weeks ago, but have scored only 59.8 points per game in their four losses since. They're also shooting just 43.8 percent (and a miserable 18-for-64 from three-point range) in those losses, after hitting 50.7 percent to lead the league before that.

"We have to shoot the ball well to be good," Boylen said.

You know, like they did against TCU.

Probably the biggest problem against Wyoming, though, wasn't the missed shot at the end of the game, but rather the 10-minute stretch the Utes endured without a basket late in the first half and early in the second. They missed 10 straight shots in that span, allowing the Cowboys to build a lead they never gave back -- and that's a team that had not won back-to-back games all season.

How much do you think Boylen dreams of having some guards who can drive, create and get to the free-throw line like Wyoming's Brandon Ewing and Brad Jones? Those guys absolutely dissected the Utes' backcourt, combining for 38 points, 13 rebounds (all by the diminuitive Jones) and 13-for-13 free-throw shooting.

The good news for the Utes is that Brad Tinsley is still interested in playing for them, presuming they would still be interested in him.

The bad news?

He's probably not interested in walking on, even for just one year, his father told me today. And that would eliminate one potential way for the Utes to sign the highly regarded 6-foot-3 point guard from Oregon City High School in Oregon, even though they already have committed all of their scholarships for next season.

"That's going to be something that's going to be a dilemma," Carl Tinsley said.

The Utes had been one of the top three college choices for Brad Tinsley (along with Cal) before he signed with Pepperdine in November. But now that Tinsley has been freed of his commitment to the Waves in the wake of coach Vance Walberg's resignation -- here's some video, albeit grainy and hard to watch -- he's back on the market and re-assessing his college possibilities.

"The Utes still are definitely a possibility," Carl Tinsley said. "Brad has a great deal of respect" for coach Jim Boylen and assistant coach Chris Jones. The Tinsleys visited with the coaches after attending the Utes' game against Oregon at the Rose Garden in Portland in December.

But the elder Tinsley said the family has been receiving offers from across the country, and will sort through the list in a couple of weeks. From there, they plan to narrow the list and arrange recruiting visits.

"I would think that Utah would be one of those four visits," Carl Tinsley said. "I can't guarantee that, because I haven't talked to [Brad] about it. But unlike the other schools that have recruited him, he does have a very good relationship that has developed with the coaches there."

Carl Tinsley said that although his son has a 3.7 grade-point average, he's probably not likely to get much academic or need-based financial aid, so "somehow, we would have to work out the financial end of it" if his son wants to join the Utes.

Of course, the Utes might not be quite so interested anymore, considering they already have signed guards Chris Hines and Jace Tavita to join the team next season. But I'll see what we can find out about their perspective on the matter ...

Coach Jim Boylen has been doing his best to make the Wyoming Cowboys sound like a tough opponent for his Utes tonight in the Huntsman Center.

But not even the folks in Wyoming are buying it.

"The reality is that it will be awful tough for the Cowboys to come away with a victory," the Laramie Daily Boomerang said.

The oddsmakers don't believe the Utes should have much problem beating the Pokes for the sixth straight time at home, either, making them a 14-point favorite tonight. The Utes have not been such overwhelming favorites since they were expected to beat Idaho State by 21 1/2 -- they wound up winning by 17 -- and are 5-4 as a favorite this season.

Heck, the far more intriguing game is the one pitting the Utah and Wyoming women's teams at the Arena-Auditorium in Laramie tonight.

The Utes are 16-3 overall and 5-0 in the league, while the Cowgirls are ranked 15th in the AP Top 25, 18-1 overall, riding a 16-game home winning streak, and 6-0 in the league. Now that's a match-up.

Maybe you've already run across the story in The Oregonian detailing the release of guard Brad Tinsley from his commitment to Pepperdine, in the wake of the midseason resignation of coach Vance Walberg.

In any case, understand it could affect the Utes.

A 6-foot-3 senior at Oregon City High School in Oregon, Tinsley was one of their recruiting targets, until he signed with the Waves in November. But with Tinsley back on the market, it's not inconceivable that he could ultimately join the Utes -- although it would require not receiving a basketball scholarship, at least for one year.

The Utes already have committed all of their available scholarships for next season to incoming players, including Lone Peak's Josh Sharp. Sharp had been expected to walk-on, but has been assured he will receive the scholarship that became available when sophomore forward Stephen Weigh quit the team and returned home to Australia.

But Sharp is expected to use the scholarship for only one year before departing on an LDS Church mission, potentially making it available for Tinsley after that. Any number of other changes could occur between now and then, too, that could create a scholarship opening.

So the trick -- presuming Tinsley remains interested in the Utes, and we're endeavoring to reach him -- would be to find a way for Tinsley to join the team either as a walk-on or under the aegis of an academic or some other type of scholarship, at least for the first year.

Tinsley's father told The Oregonian that Pepperdine remains a possibility, though the family will consider other options. Part of the allure of Pepperdine for Tinsley was his close relationship with assistant coach Mark Campbell. However, Campbell's future with the Waves will be uncertain until they hire a new coach.

So, you were out on the concourse getting a hot dog when the Utes showed the latest installment in their series of the greatest moments in school basketball history on the Huntsman Center video screen?

No problem.

The Utes have been posting the highlights narrated by longtime radio play-by-play man Bill Marcroft on YouTube -- along with video of coach Jim Boylen's weekly press conferences in the Huntsman Center. (Forgive me for not detailing this earlier, since they have been doing it for a few weeks.) The press conferences can be seen live at www.UtahUtes.com, but the Utes have been archiving the footage on YouTube.

To find them, search YouTube for the keyword "uathletics," and up they'll pop. They seem to run a few days behind with the press conference footage, but all the top moments that they have shown so far are on there -- most recently, the Utes' victory over rival Brigham Young in 1983, when Pace Mannion led them to a thrilling triple-overtime victory on the road.

Senior guard Johnnie Bryant just broke a record that Nick Jacobsen held for three-pointers in a game, which led me to wonder whether Bryant has a chance at breaking some of the other shooting records that Jacobsen holds for the Utes.

Answer?

Probably not.

While Bryant is enjoying the best shooting season of his career, he's not likely to hit as many three-pointers as Jacobsen did in his record-setting 2003-04 season -- or even as many as Bryant hit last season. Jacobsen holds the school records with 99 three-pointers made in '03-04, and 227 attempted, with Bryant second on both lists with 88 of 208 last year.

At his current rate (and presuming the Utes play two games in the Mountain West Conference tournament), Bryant will hit only about 83 three-pointers this season, and attempt about 175 for a career-best 47.1 shooting percentage.

Of course, while Bryant has been averaging 2.67 three-pointers per game overall, he has been hitting 3.8 per game in conference play. If he keeps up or improves that pace, he has a chance to challenge Jacobsen. At that rate, Bryant would hit 97 of 203 three-pointers -- again, presuming the Utes play two games of the league tournament.

Bryant won't be reaching Jacobsen's career marks, though, no matter what. Bryant would need to average nearly 6 1/2 three-pointers per game the rest of the season to equal the 287 threes that Jacobsen made from 2000 to 2004. And he would have to attempt more than 16 per game to reach the career mark of 673 three-pointers attempted.

Center Luke Nevill has lost his position as the top scorer for the Utes this season. Guard Johnnie Bryant has passed him, on the strength of the 49 points in the last two games that earned him Mountain West Conference player of the week honors.

But that hasn't stopped the rest of the league from admiring the 7-foot-1 center.

Coach Neil Dougherty of TCU said that Nevill has become "a lot stronger" and more physical than he was last year, and "passes the ball a lot better than he has before." Similarly, Wyoming's Heath Schroyer credited Nevill with impacting the game "a lot" both by producing himself and by creating opportunities for his teammates.

And coach Jim Boylen could not agree more.

Speaking at his weekly press conference today, he credited Nevill for "buying in" more and more, and becoming an increasing presence on the defensive end. While his scoring average is down to 13.7 points per game -- Bryant leads the Utes at 13.9 -- Nevill is leading the league with 30 blocked shots and averaging 7.3 rebounds per game. He blocked 33 shots all of last season.

"He's taking more ownership with how the team does, not just how he does," Boylen said. "He's in better shape than he's ever been in his life. That helps. And I think he's being held accountable to a higher standard. ... It hasn't always been easy for him, and it hasn't always been fun around here for him, but anything worth anything is going to be hard."

Finally!

The Utes finally had a player named the Mountain West Conference player of the week today, with senior guard Johnnie Bryant earning the award, after making a school-record eight three-pointers in a victory over TCU last weekend.

Bryant became the first Ute to win the award this season, after scoring 49 points on 16-of-26 shooting off the bench in two games last week -- the Utes lost in overtime at New Mexico, before beating TCU -- including 13-for-21 shooting from three-point range.

For the season, Bryant is now leading the Utes in scoring at 13.9 points per game, and shooting a career-high 54.8 percent from the field -- including 47.1 percent from three-point range.

So the Utes recovered their footing a bit by beating TCU at home on Saturday, behind a school-record eight three-pointers by guard Johnnie Bryant.

What else happened in the Mountain West Conference?

Most notably, Curtis Terry and the UNLV Rebels kept bombing away and beat San Diego State 72-69 on the road with a last-minute three-pointer. That moves the Rebels into a tie for the league lead with Brigham Young -- and they have the edge in the title race, having already blasted the Cougars in Las Vegas and won two of three league games on the road.

The rematch at the Marriott Center is Feb. 16, by which time the Cougar home winning streak could be 43 games.

The Cougs earned their 42nd straight win by snapping out of their shooting slump and overwhelming New Mexico 83-66, sending the Lobos to their second straight road loss and dropping them even with the Utes in the loss column of the league standings.

And in the meaningless game of the week category, Wyoming beat Colorado State 73-58 at home, snapping a five-game losing streak and apparently infusing the Cowboys with some ridiculously out-of-touch optimism.

"Hopefully, this is the start of our season -- right now," guard Brandon Ewing said.

Don’t count on it.

The Cowboys visit the Utes on Wednesday night, and just beat (at home) a CSU team that has not won in six league games and doesn't have much hope of a turnaround with center Stuart Creason still sidelined with a foot injury.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," coach Tim Miles said.

Coach Jim Boylen said it best himself. While beating TCU 74-58 at the Huntsman Center today was big for his Utes -- snapping their agonizing three-game losing streak -- it was still only one game.

Truer words were never spoken.

Fact is, the Utes absolutely should have beaten the Horned Frogs, who -- despite their encouraging start this season -- remain generally overmatched and definitely among the worst road teams in the Mountain West Conference. The Frogs have won only once in 14 games on the road since beating the Utes last season, and losing to them again would have signaled that the Utes were really in trouble.

Instead, the Utes appear to be a team that might well be closer to the top of the league than the bottom, despite their record. After all, two of their last three losses were on the road and in overtime against two of the best home teams in the league -- San Diego State and New Mexico -- and the other was a near-miss against solid Brigham Young in a toss-up rivalry game.

And now is their chance to prove it.

While the Utes endured that rough stretch of the past week or so, they now have a chance to climb back into the league race, with upcoming games against the two worst teams in the league, Wyoming and Colorado State. Win 'em both, as they should, and the Utes suddenly have a winning record in the conference again, and perhaps enough confidence to carry them to greater success during the second half of the season, against even the top teams in the league.

"Every win is a must-win," Boylen said. "For this program, where we're at right now, what we have to do to build it, I think every night is an opportunity to grow and learn."

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Guard Johnnie Bryant set a school record by making eight three-pointers for his 24 points, breaking a mark he had shared with Phil Cullen, Phil Dixon and Nick Jacobsen. His 8-for-14 performance was part of a season-best 13-for-24 showing for the team, which included four three-pointers by forward Shaun Green. Still, Boylen said he thought Bryant missed too many of his open threes, and Bryant agreed. "It's going to be a rough film session," he said.

-- Guard Luka Drca was phenomenal, handing out 10 assists with four rebounds a steal and no turnovers (in only 25 minutes!) and again demonstrating that the offense moves best when he's in the game and distributing. "Unbelievable," Boylen said. "Is that guy a good big guard, or what? ... He just executed, found guys, found Luke for a dunk, made plays on the pick-and-roll, found the weak-side."

-- Forward Kim Tillie played again, after missing another game while recovering from a stress fracture, and this performance wasn't as encouraging. He helped some, but also fouled out in 10 minutes, having contributed five points and a steal.

While the Utes are hoping to finally end their torturous losing streak when they meet TCU at the Huntsman Center today, the Horned Frogs are trying to build on their only road win of the season.

And coach Neil Dougherty tried to focus his players' attention by piping crowd noise into practice this week. "I don't know if it is the answer, but I think it tells the guys that, 'I've never seen coach do this, this must be something different,'" Dougherty said. "We have to be up to the challenge."

Meanwhile, the Utes are 10 1/2-point favorites, according to Covers.com. And though the Horned Frogs have been one of the weakest teams in the league the past couple of seasons, they have beaten the Utes twice in the last four meetings.

The Utes haven't exactly enjoyed spectacular guard play recently, so coach Jim Boylen knows that his backcourt figures to face a strenuous test when it meets the TCU Horned Frogs at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

"It's going to be good," he said. "We'll see how we respond to it."

The Horned Frogs have surprised the Mountain West Conference by winning three of their first four league games, largely on the strength of their high-pressure backcourt.

Junior transfer guard Henry Salter averages 15.4 points and leads the league in three-point shooting -- guard Lawrence Borha will draw the defensive assignment against him -- and the Frogs make up for poor overall shooting by making nearly 11 steals and forcing 19 turnovers per game and leading the league in offensive rebounds that result in second-chance opportunities.

"What they do, they don't have big guys, but they get the tipped rebound -- which to me is a loose ball -- because of their quickness," Boylen said. "A little bit like San Diego State. San Diego State gets a lot of tipped [rebounds] because they're long and quick. They might not get it, but they keep it alive for somebody else or they're better at the second jump than we are -- sort of the Dennis Rodman rebound."

"We're going to be prepared for it," Boylen added. "But it's different when you're playing against your scout team than it is against a team that does it every day with their top guys."

Speaking of free throws, coach Jim Boylen has had to alter his teaching strategy a little bit.

While he made the Utes run a variety of sprints when they missed certain free throws during practice earlier in the season, he has had to quit doing so, to avoid wearing out a team that is dangerously thin.

"I can't burn my guys' legs out," he said. "Earlier in the year, it was '17s' and 'down-and-backs.' ... I can't do that now, so we're doing push-ups."

Boylen said he has evaluated all of his players' form on free throws, and changed only a few of them -- including freshman guard Carlon Brown, junior center Luke Nevill (he held the ball too low before attempting a shot, Boylen said) and even junior guard Tyler Kepkay, the best foul shooter of the bunch.

"The more moving parts, the more room there is for something to break down," Boylen said. "It's like a car, a machine. So I try to shorten my guys' shots up, and get them on their toes and all of that. So if I see something mechanically wrong, I change it right away."

Kepkay, he said, was holding the ball against his stomach before he shot -- something Boylen believed led to Kepkay having a tendency to shift his balance ever-so-slightly backward as he shot. Kepkay is shooting 84.4 percent from the line this season, even after his crucial miss in the overtime loss at New Mexico the other night.

Past evaluation and practice, though, there isn't much Boylen feels he can do to improve free-throw shooting.

"If you over-talk about it? Now it's in their head," he said. "If you under-talk about it, you feel like you're not doing your job. If you put them in pressure situations and they make them in practice, what are you supposed to do? To me, you keep putting them in pressure situations, and it's going to kick in."

He has been practically the face of the Utes' free-throw problems the last three games, having missed the front end of one-and-one opportunities at crucial moments in each of the last three close losses.

But Luka Drca swears he has never been through anything like this, and that all of his shots have felt good leaving his hand.

"It's always the same" he said. "I don't know why, because I actually never miss a free throw before this."

That's not exacly true, considering Drca was only 4-of-7 this season before going 3-for-7 over the last three games. But he did shoot nearly 81 percent from the line last season, and coach Jim Boylen agreed that the missed free throws have not started to mess with his players' heads.

"No," he said emphatically. "I think if you told Luka Drca to go shoot two for a million dollars, he go up there and" ... Boylen licks his finger-tips, mimicking a player eager to handle the ball. "He's that kind of kid. He said, 'I've never missed free throws like this in my life.' And that guy's played a lot of basketball -- overseas, international teams."

Drca is hardly the only player who has had free-throw problems, however, with the Utes shooting just 54.5 percent as a team over the last three games. Center Luke Nevill has made just 8 of 17 foul shots, modestly better than Drca's rate.

Interesting thought from guard Lawrence Borha after practice tonight, when I asked him what the Utes could do to "fix" their recent problems down the stretch, so that they might emerge victorious the next time they face a make-or-break situation late in a game.

"I think we just have to go to a different person," he said. "I mean, TK had two chances to win the game. It didn't happen. So, we go to a new person to win the game."

Don't know if Borha meant that to sound as bad as it might, or suggest himself as the candidate instead of point guard Tyler Kepkay -- forward Shaun Green interrupted with his usual goofiness -- but I found it surprising that he was willing to be quite so honest with his appraisal. Usually, the players are much less revealing than that, and tend to stick to the broad talking points they pick up from coach Jim Boylen in his locker-room discussions with them.

Whether the comment hints at darker issues within the team, I couldn't say. So if I had to guess, I'd imagine it's probably just the voice of a guy who's frustrated at having lost three close games in a row. At the same time, though, maybe Borha has a point -- judging by the results so far.

Now, we have it from Snake himself.

Far from being disrespectful, coach Jim Boylen was the picture of friendliness and respect when he approached the notorious bald-and-tattooed superfan before the Utes and Lobos played at The Pit the other night.

"He really gave it to me before the game," said Snake, whose real name is Mark Tichenor. "I really was flattered by it. I really think he's going to be a good coach for you all. You'd better not let him get away. If I didn't have Steve Alford, I'd want this guy."

Tichenor said Boylen is the first visiting coach in his 30 years of attending New Mexico games who sought him out for an introduction -- "that's what kind of freaked me out," he said -- and teased him by knowing his real name.

"He said, 'Your real name is Mark Tichenor,'" Tichenor recalled. "'What kind of a name is that for a guy whose name is Snake? That's like an accountant whose name is Spike."

Tichenor said he felt honored that Boylen knew him -- Boylen said his players and assistant coaches had given him the heads-up about him -- and enjoyed teasing him both before and during the game. "I told him, 'You're crazier than I am,'" Tichenor said. "He's going to be a fun coach to have a fun time with. ... He took it right to me, man. I loved it."

Don't know how many of you might have noticed, but the San Diego State Aztecs found themselves in exactly the same situation against Brigham Young last night as the Utes did last weekend -- down one with the ball and barely 33 seconds left in the game.

And while we all know the Utes held the ball for one last shot and had the strategy backfire, the Aztecs operated a lot more like what coach Jim Boylen apparently would have preferred. They worked the ball around, probing, for about 15 seconds -- giving them about 18 left -- then commenced a play that resulted in two shots for forward Kyle Spain.

But Spain missed both of his contested mid-range shots, and the Cougars again survived for a 59-56 victory at the Marriott Center -- proving that even the "right" strategy is never fool-proof.

Coach Jim Boylen said he expects injured forward Kim Tillie to play again when the Utes play host to TCU at the Huntsman Center on Saturday -- which would be a huge help to their depleted frontcourt.

Speaking on his weekly radio show, Boylen also said that although he was wary of saying anything to reporters after the game, he thought that two of the five fouls that put center Luke Nevill on the bench for almost all of overtime of the 77-67 loss at San Diego State last night "didn't have to be called."

Without a doubt, losing Nevill only 20 seconds into overtime really hurt the Utes by forcing them to play a small lineup, which the Lobos outscored 17-7 in the extra period. Nevill had been pretty good in the second half, after not scoring in the first.

Boylen also repeatedly emphasized that he hopes fans understand that rebuilding the program will take some time. "We are getting there," he said. "We are getting better."

Received an e-mail from a New Mexico fan complaining about the behavior of Utah's players on the bench during the game last night, as well as coach Jim Boylen -- whom the fan accused of inappropriately confronting the notoriously manic, bald and tattooed fan nicknamed "Snake" who for years has cheered the Lobos and jeered opponents from a seat in the front-row of the student section at the Pit.

Turns out, though, Boylen evidently was just teasing.

In fact, Snake told my colleague Mark Smith of the Albuquerque Journal that he was impressed that Boylen knew his real name -- Mark Tichenor. And according to Tichenor (via Smith), he and Boylen engaged in some good-natured banter back and forth before the game, with Boylen teasing him about his name by saying that a guy named Mark Tichenor nicknamed "Snake" was like having an accountant nicknamed "Spike."

With any luck, I'll be able to reach Tichenor soon and get a first-hand version of his encounter with Boylen. But to hear Smith tell it, it was far more friendly and innocuous than my angry e-mailer made it sound. As for the supposed boorish behavior of the Utes on the bench? I don't have an answer, but doubt -- just based on the credibility of the complaint about Boylen -- that there is much to it.

Just for the record, having heard several complaints on the topic ... point guard Tyler Kepkay could not have "easily" hit center Luke Nevill wide open under the basket for the Utes' final shot of regulation in their 77-67 overtime loss at New Mexico last night.

I just finally watched the replays, and it looks pretty clear that Kepkay made the best play he could -- albeit from far away -- with New Mexico's Daniel Faris and J.R. Giddens having briefly double-teamed Kepkay after Nevill set a high screen.

Had Kepkay attempted to thread the needle with a pass to Nevill in the split-second that Giddens retreated to guard him, I'm pretty sure the ball would have been tipped or stolen.

And even if he had somehow sneaked a pass through, Kepkay would have had to do it almost the moment Nevill released from his screen, requiring Nevill to catch the ball on the move at about the free-throw line (and probably low, judging by the difficult angle between extended defenders with which Kepkay would have had to cope) which seems likely to have ended in a fumbling sequence that easily could have kept the Utes from even getting a shot up.

Ask me, I say he made the right call taking the shot.

Fascinating how quickly the Utes are reverting to their unfortunate form of recent years, and how quickly coach Jim Boylen must be starting to understand how former coach Ray Giacoletti felt during all those close losses last season.

Wasn't it just yesterday that the Utes were encouragingly going toe-to-toe with impressive opponents from the Pac-10 Conference, and supposedly learning all the lessons they would need to survive their Mountain West Conference schedule?

Yeah, well ...

The Utes just lost their third straight down-to-the-wire league game, which is not all that different from the seven games the Utes lost by three points or less in the first half of last season. (Watching a red-faced Boylen fume in the locker room afterward reminded me of Giacoletti coming unglued after the Utes couldn't get a call and lost in double-overtime at Rhode Island last season.) In fact, of their seven losses so far, the Utes have fallen in overtime twice, by three points or less two other times, and once by only six.

And just as Giacoletti had the burden of playing under the weight of NCAA sanctions and poor recruiting at the end of the previous coaching administration, the current Utes are dealing with having lost three underclassmen from last season -- forward Daniel Deane transferred and forward Stephen Weigh quit to return home, while little-used point guard Curtis Eatmon was released from his scholarship -- an injury to forward Kim Tillie, and the idea that the previous administration imported substandard talent.

All of which seems to be splintering popular opinion, just as last season did.

Many fans are upset that a coach who was heralded as the answer to their problems -- remember, Giacoletti was the "breath of fresh air" after the cantankerous Majerus -- has been unable to transform the program as quickly as they want. Others are counseling patience, correctly noting that Boylen has improved the overall quality of the team, and that any coach needs time to build his system and recruit players best suited for it.

Part of the disconnect is the nature of coaching changes.

New coaches like Boylen often have to promise big things (and permit the insinuation that they can be achieved quickly) in order to excite and inspire the disconsolate fans whom the university needs to court back to the program. Yet the reality is that most new coaches need far more time than they would ever admit in public to build their program to meet their vision. There's no winning for them, unless they somehow enjoy a harmonic convergence the way ... well, the way Giacoletti did with Andrew Bogut and Marc Jackson in his first season. But that's the exception that proves the rule. Look at how most of the five new coaches in the Mountain West are struggling this season, for example; only New Mexico's Steve Alford could be considered a bottom-line success so far, and even he has only barely split his league games.

So which way will the Utes go from here?

That will be interesting to watch.

By this time last season, the Utes were 5-12 and had long since begun their historic slide, with an overtime loss at New Mexico finishing a six-game losing streak. Not just a little of that, though, was the product of so many devastatingly close losses early that sapped their confidence and led to widespread resignation during the second half of the season.

Yet if there is one thing the Utes have not done so far this season, it's give up. They're still fighting, as Boylen said, they're still battling. They have yet to get blown out, the way they did at least twice in the first half of last season, and seem to possess a stronger constitution and willingness to defend hard to stay in games under Boylen.

You just wonder how long they can keep it up, if the results don't start to turn around sometime soon.

It has to be in their heads now, doesn't it? All the missed free throws -- center Luke Nevill airballed one, for crying out loud -- all of the botched plays, all of the down-to-the-wire losses?

The Utes can't keep absorbing punishment like this and coming back for more.

Can they?

Coach Jim Boylen believes they can, but he'd rather they just go ahead and win a game, instead. The Utes dropped their third straight agonizing game, losing 77-67 in overtime at New Mexico tonight -- they haven't beaten the Lobos at The Pit since 2002 -- and once again left open the debate about whether they should be encouraged that they managed to make it so close (they really were on the verge of getting run over, near the end of an abysmal first half) or disgusted that they let another one get away.

Guess which route Boylen chose.

"We had our chances to win another game, and we didn't do it," he said. "It's on me."

Well, yes. But it's also on the players who made only 9 of 16 free throws -- they're shooting 54.5 percent in their last three games, after being above 81 percent in their previous 10 -- and wilted in overtime. The Utes scored only three points in the final 3:20, while guards Tyler Kepkay and Luka Drca both missed free throws (Drca, again, on the front end of a one-and-one) that could have kept the Utes in it, and Lawrence Borha fouled a three-point shooter that allowed the Lobos to break from the final tie of the game.

Asked what he felt was the difference in the overtime, during which Nevill fouled out and the Lobos shot and made seven free throws in the final 1:25 to clinch it, Boylen shook his head.

"Don't make me go there," he said tersely. "Don't make me go there. I don't want to talk about that, uh ... The difference in the overtime was, they scored 17 points, we scored seven. They made their free throws, we didn't. Gotta give them credit."

It appeared for one brief moment as if the Utes had finally made the play that was going to get them out of their slump, when Kepkay drove for a game-tying lay-up and a foul with 3:52 left. The look in his eyes suggested that he had suddenly realized, "Hey, we can do this!" ... and then he promptly missed his free throw and the spiral resumed.

He's 87 percent shooter, by the way.

So let the debate rage on, knowing that the Utes trailed by 12 points in the first half, yet fought back in a hostile arena to take a nine-point lead in the second. They gave up 11 unanswered points to blow that lead, yet held off the Lobos in the final minute. They employed sound strategy (if not a high-percentage shot, or a well-executed screen-and-roll) at the end of regulation by letting the clock run down in a tie game before Kepkay tried a long three-pointer, but nearly blew it right there when New Mexico's Jamal Smith was able to grab the rebound and sprint downcourt unimpeded for a final shot that, fortunately for the Utes, missed at the horn.

Comme ci, comme ca.

"We feel like we play good enough to win these games and we always have opportunities to win these games, it seems like," forward Shaun Green said. "Hopefully, it ends here and we start making plays down the stretch of games and start winning a few of these."

Among other tidbits worth noting:

-- The Utes endured their worst first half of the season, scoring just 21 points on 40 percent shooting (they were only 4-for-15, at one point) and committing 10 turnovers against three assists. Amazingly, they committed only six turnovers the rest of the way, though Boylen said they did not change anything from the first half to the second. "Our goal was to hang in there, let the game settle down, handle our emotions and hang in there," he said. "And I thought we did that."

-- The Utes looked so much better in the second half when Drca was primarily running the offense, with Kepkay and Johnnie Bryant on the wings and Green in the lineup with Nevill. But for the third straight game, Drca missed the front end of a crucial one-and-one free-throw opportunity during crunch time, this time (and again) in overtime. No wonder Boylen was so definitive about not wanting to insert him into the starting lineup.

-- Offensively, the Utes continue to go in fits and starts. They endured nearly seven minutes without a point early in the game, went on a 10-0 run in barely two minutes of the second half to build an eight-point lead (they shot 58 percent in the second half), then went another 6 1/2 minutes without a basket late in the game. In overtime, they scored only three points in the final 3:20.

-- Mr. Brown? Mr. Carlon Brown? ... Paging, Mr. Carlon Brown. Please pick up a white courtesy phone, so we might know you're in the game. The freshman went scoreless for the fourth time in seven games, and did not start the second half for the second straight game. (He did start the overtime, but played only the first 31 seconds). Brown has scored only 10 points combined in those last seven games, after averaging 5.2 per game before that.

-- Generally, I don't buy the idea of the Utes getting screwed by the officials (note my earlier post on the subject). But they did get jammed with some bad calls that really affected the game. Referees called back-to-back questionable charging fouls on Nevill and Drca late in the game (the one on Nevill was especially bad, from my seat), keeping the Utes from building on a nine-point lead. Nevill later fouled out after New Mexico's Daniel Faris pump-faked him into the air in the opening seconds of overtime.

-- Forward Kim Tillie did not play, because of soreness in the leg in which he suffered a stress fracture earlier this season. After missing five games with the injury, Tillie played 10 minutes against BYU last weekend, but felt he needed more recovery before playing again. That certainly did not help the Utes, who lost the rebounding battle and gave up 12 offensive rebounds while gathering just six.

Just learned that forward Kim Tillie will not play against the New Mexico Lobos here in a bit, on account of soreness in the leg in which he suffered a stress fracture recently.

That doesn't bode well for the Utes inside, where they will be back to having little aside from center Luke Nevill to patrol the paint. It's not wholly unexpected, though; coach Jim Boylen said Monday that he wasn't sure whether Tillie would be able to play.

At least, Tillie will have had six days of uninterrupted rest before the Utes take on TCU in the Huntsman Center in their next game Saturday.

Seems pretty clear that coach Jim Boylen feels as if his team is getting jobbed at the free-throw line.

When asked the other day about how few free-throws his team shoots, he had virtually the same reaction that he did after the Utes lost to Brigham Young last weekend -- when he did not say anything for a several seconds, then took a swig of water and asked for another question.

"You're opening up a whole can of worms for me," he said Monday.

That's code for not wanting to get in trouble for complaining about the officiating.

But he did provide part of an answer, this time, saying that "it's a combination of us not having the speed and quickness in the paint to have people separate from the defense, but also on the defensive end, our physicality is getting [other teams] to the penalty earlier."

"I'll let you figure out the rest," he added.

While Boylen might have a beef with how referees are calling fouls when the Utes are on defense, it seems somewhat disingenuous to be annoyed at the refs when the players seldom provide any reason to make a call. Obviously, Boylen himself essentially acknowledged that the Utes are mostly a jump-shooting team that seldom attacks the basket -- and you're not going to get many calls when your 7-foot-1 center, for example, fades away from the hoop almost every time he shoots it.

So it will be interesting to see what the Utes manage tonight against the Lobos.

The Utes have shot more than 11 free throws only once in the last five games, and that came against the vastly undersized Air Force Falcons. In fact, the Utes generally have shot the most free throws against the teams that they are expected to dominate -- USC Upstate, High Point, Air Force, Missouri State, Idaho State -- and far fewer against teams that are closer to their level.

Predictably, the Utes also shoot fewer free throws on the road. They have averaged only 6.6 free-throw attempts in their five games away from the Huntsman Center since the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament in Seattle in November.

Rick Majerus always said he felt comfortable coaching at a Catholic school.

Suppose he still feels the same way?

Majerus is under fire from the Archbishop of St. Louis, who believes the former Utah coach should be disciplined and maybe even fired from his job as the coach at St. Louis University for proclaiming his support of abortion rights and stem-cell research while making a campaign appearance in support of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"It's not possible to be a Catholic and hold those positions," Archbishop Raymond Burke said. "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everything the Catholic church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic church."

A university spokesman said Majerus was expressing his own personal views when he made his controversial comments, and the Missouri Supreme Court has affirmed that while the university is aligned with the Catholic Church, it is not controlled by it -- clearing the way for the city to contribute millions to the financing of a new downtown arena.

Burke, by the way, is the same guy who declared he would deny Sen. John Kerry communion because he supports abortion rights, and tried unsuccessfully to keep hot singer Sheryl Crow from performing at a fund-raiser for a medical center because she supports embryonic stem-cell research.

The good news for the Utes is that forward Kim Tillie did not suffer a setback while playing for the first time in five games against Brigham Young last weekend.

The bad news is, he's still questionable to play the New Mexico Lobos tonight.

Coach Jim Boylen said the 6-foot-9 sophomore had experienced some soreness in the leg that's recovering from a stress fracture, after playing 10 productive minutes off the bench against the Cougars. And if that soreness persists, the Utes won't use him against the Lobos -- especially knowing that Tillie will have three more days of rest before the next game.

If Tillie can play, Boylen expects to use him in short bursts of three to four minutes apiece. But that could be enough to help. Against the Cougars, Tillie contributed four points, five rebounds and a blocked shot while providing a strong inside presence.

"I knew we missed him," Boylen said. "Then you watch him play in that game and you're like, 'Whoa ...'"

Coach Jim Boylen made a specific point of saying he has not considered changing his lineup when Utes play at New Mexico tonight -- even though guard Luka Drca arguably has been playing better than starter Tyler Kepkay, and fellow guard Johnnie Bryant started the second half of the loss to Brigham Young last weekend.

"I don't believe in mixing up the lineup a whole bunch," he said. "We'll start the same way, and see how it goes."

Regardless of which players start or get the majority of minutes, the Utes could pretty clearly use some improved guard play. The Utes rank last or next-to-last in the league by averaging just 4.3 steals, 9.3 assists and 13 turnovers (for a poor assist-to-turnover ratio) during league games, and they're going up against one of the better backcourts in the Mountain West Conference.

Everybody talks about J.R. Giddens and all of the three-pointers the Lobos shoot, but the Lobos also are especially good at sharing the ball. They lead the league by handing out 17.3 assists per game -- a statistic we know Boylen covets, judging by the number of times he has checked the stat sheet after a game to see how many baskets his Utes assisted on -- and rank in the top two in turnover margin and assist-to-turnover ratio.

"They get a lot of their threes in transition," Boylen said, "because they have multiple ball-handlers. ... That's very difficult."

For their part, the Lobos are focused on stopping center Luke Nevill, which could put even more pressure on the Utah guards to make plays. And that might not be a good thing, if recent history is an accurate guide.

Since coach Jim Boylen basically gave us all permission to second-guess him -- "that's why we're all here," he said, only half-jokingly, at his weekly press conference today -- we might as well take him up on it, right?

Right.

So I'll go ahead and say that I still don't quite understand why he would choose to play for one last shot against Brigham Young over the weekend, trailing by one on his home floor.

Not that I'm necessarily opposed to the strategy in every case (sometimes, it's a smart call), but the Utes are so much better on defense right now -- and have been, for several games -- that I can't figure why he wouldn't try to get a basket and the lead as easily and quickly as he could, then rely on that defense against a Cougar team that, like his own, was shooting only about 33 percent in the game.

"In hindsight, we probably should have gone right away," he acknowledged, for probably the millionth time.

Yet while explaining himself (again) at his press conference, Boylen seemed about as tense as we've seen him -- almost defiant, in a way, as if he was feeling an inordinate amount of criticism for his decision. Which seemed odd. While fans and the media have certainly questioned his logic, I don't think anyone has really hammered him for it, especially since the strategy might have worked just fine had point guard Tyler Kepkay made his final shot.

At any rate, Boylen again explained that was worried about his Utes taking a frantic shot if they ran a play too quickly, and that the play he called was something the team had worked on in practice.

"We didn't get it executed and we went too late," he said. "That's my fault. ... And I'll take that. I have to make decisions that I think is best for my team, my group of guys, where we're at at the time. If I had to make that decision over again? It's easy to say now, 'Yeah, I'd do something different.'"

Which makes me wonder how Boylen will approach another similar situation ... say, at New Mexico on Tuesday night? After all, the Utes and Lobos twice went into overtime last season, and both games -- a win at home, a loss on the road -- were decided by a total of six points. It's not a stretch to imagine he might get a chance to try again, very soon.

While the last two games have suggested the Utes are just one or two plays down the stretch away from being unbeaten in Mountain West Conference play, point guard Tyler Kepkay and coach Jim Boylen agreed that the offense -- as a whole -- is not good enough.

"We're not there yet," Boylen said at his weekly press conference today. "We're not there yet."

In other words, the Utes are not thrilled with the way they have played offensively in league games, even though they did enough to create chances to win late against San Diego State and Brigham Young. Kepkay noted that the Utes are scoring only 55 points per game in league play.

"If you had asked us that at the beginning of the year, we'd think we'd be up around 75," he said. "I think once we get our offense going, we're going to be very good."

Both men acknowledged that the Utes have spent so much time for most of the season focusing on defense during practices -- once-abysmal defenders, the Utes are leading the league by allowing just 35.5 percent shooting and 51.7 points in conference games -- that the offense has yet to come around.

And both said the fact that the Utes haven't yet mastered Boylen's complex system probably played a role in their losses to the Aztecs and Cougars.

"Absolutely," Boylen said.

Not that Boylen is apologizing for it, though, considering he believes (rightly) that the Utes were so bad on defense last season that they needed to rebuild that part of the team first.

"I just want it understood that my team is getting better, and we are growing as a group," he said. "Has it translated to wins we could have had? No. I'm disappointed in that. But we are getting better."

Having led the Mountain West Conference in free-throw shooting for much of the season, the Utes have fallen from their perch after their last two abysmal efforts from the line.

The Utes dropped into second place in the league, shooting 74.2 percent compared to 74.3 percent for UNLV. Had they made just one more of their free throws during their 9-for-17 stretch in the last two games, they would still be on top -- never mind maybe beaten either San Diego State or Brigham Young.

Perhaps an even more telling sign, the Utes remain by far the team that shoots the fewest free throws in the league.

The Utes have shot only 213 in 16 games -- that's barely 13 per game -- while the next closest team is Colorado State, which has shot 270 free throws in 17 games.

Think about that.

The Utes could go to the line 40 times in their next game, and still not catch up -- and they're a team with a 7-foot-1 center who you'd think should be making a pretty good living at the line. Just goes to show how little the Utes attack the basket, generally speaking, though they remain the league's top shooting team at 49.5 percent from the field.

Center Luke Nevill leads the league with 27 blocked shots, on the bright side, which is only six fewer than he had all of last season. The Utes also are allowing opponents to shoot just 35.5 percent and score 51.7 points in league play -- tops in the league -- although they rank only in the middle of the pack by shooting 42.6 percent in league games.

Things aren't looking so promising at the moment for the Utes, who are sliding toward the bottom of the Mountain West Conference standings after their home loss to Brigham Young.

But at least, they're not Wyoming.

Looks like we're probably safe writing off the Cowboys, considering they have been downright awful in four league losses -- including the latest, an 83-56 disaster at San Diego State in which they gave up the first 19 points of the game and scored just 13 in the first half.

The Aztecs, conversely, are in control of the league title race, with a 4-0 record that represents their best start since 1984-85. They play at BYU on Wednesday.

"When you can win like this, especially on your home court, it's good for your body and good for team morale," forward Lorrenzo Wade said. "It also sends a message to the conference that we're a team capable of winning big."

And, hey, how about them Horned Frogs?

Henry Salter and the gang snapped a 12-game road losing streak by winning 70-58 at Colorado State and will bring a surprising 3-1 league record to the Huntsman Center next weekend. The Rams are headed in the same direction as the Cowboys, though, -- albeit with what appears to be much better effort.

The Rams have lost four in a row since center Stuart Creason was sidelined with a foot injury, and have had to give major minutes to several walk-ons, including one who made the team via open tryouts on campus.

Meanwhile, the Utes won't have a pushover in their next game, considering New Mexico seems to have recovered from its back-to-back losses last week. The Lobos buried Air Force 59-44 despite some morose opening minutes, and have beaten the Utes six straight times since 2002 away from the Huntsman Center. The teams meet at The Pit in Albuquerque on Tuesday night.

The Falcons lost their shooting touch against the Lobos, hitting just 27.5 percent after shooting over 50 in back-to-back wins last week. It was their worst shooting performance since a loss to Brigham Young nearly five years ago.

"It was just one of those nights," guard Tim Anderson said.

Was that a replay?

The last real possession the Utes had in their 55-52 loss to Brigham Young at the Huntsman Center today looked a lot like the last one they had in regulation of their overtime loss at San Diego State last week. Too much scrambling, too little executing -- suggesting the Utes still aren't nearly as comfortable in the crucible of crunch time as they might have liked to believe.

"We just didn't get what we wanted," point guard Tyler Kepkay said.

Sound familiar?

The Utes couldn't beat the shot clock on their last good possession against the Aztecs, either, losing the ball and sweating out the final 14 seconds before heading to overtime. In that case, the Utes survived -- at least temporarily -- their last-minute freeze-up. But against the Cougars, they were not so lucky. BYU's Lee Cummard rebounded the airballed baseline floater that Kepkay desperately threw up with about five seconds left, then hit two free throws that sealed the game.

Coach Jim Boylen basically took the blame on this one, though, saying that he should have told his players during a timeout to start trying to run their final play -- something with a drive and dish, though Boylen was not any more specific -- sooner. After all, he gives them precise instructions about not only which play to run but how much time should be left when they start to run it.

"We talked about all of that in the huddle, what we wanted to do," he said. "We didn't execute it. In hindsight, you could say we should have gone earlier, probably should have. But I'm not going to beat myself up over a decision that I thought was the best for my team."

Oh, but he will.

Coaches are notorious for taking losses hard -- that's what they do -- and Boylen is no exception. During his post-game press conference, he looked most of the time as if he just wanted to hit something. He's bound to get little sleep tonight as he replays his final decision over and over.

"I probably would have gone earlier," he said. "I wanted to just get us settled, get us into our thing, get a good shot. I thought we had one crack at it, and then we were going to have to foul. I think we waited too long, we wanted to drive the ball -- high stack, drive the ball, something we've worked on. And it didn't work."

If nothing else, it was refreshing that Boylen immediately took the blame.

He could have put it on the players -- which some justification, since it's the players who have to execute the actual plays that Boylen designs and calls. But as much as the Utes might be making you wonder whether they have the intelligence and fortitude to win close games against good opponents, it was far better for Boylen to do what he did.

He just stepped up, accepted responsibility right off the bat, and moved on. That, by itself, is all anybody can ask when what you thought was a good plan goes wrong.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill didn't have a monster game offensively, but did score 11 points and grab nine rebounds while forcing BYU's Trent Plaisted into another embarrassing performance. If Plaisted seemed to have left Nevill behind during the offseason, he has fallen apart much more quickly over the past couple of weeks. Plaisted was just 2-for-11 from the field, for six points and four rebounds with three turnovers. That's a good job, by Nevill, even if Plaisted wasn't at his best coming into the game.

-- Guard Johnnie Bryant started the second half in place of Carlon Brown, after Brown contributed frighteningly little in the first half. Brown had just one rebound and nothing else in nine minutes, while Bryant was on his way to an eight-point night, though his streak of strong shooting performances was unceremoniously snapped with a rough 3-for-10 effort.

-- The Utes twice went scoreless for 5 1/2 minutes in the first half, after going nearly six while San Diego State scored 14 unanswered points to start the second half last week. They also allowed a dozen offensive rebounds while grabbing only six, a crucial element in allowing the Cougars to stay in the game while shooting only 33 percent.

-- Forward Kim Tillie played for the first time since missing five games with a stress fracture in his leg. Though he picked up two fouls within his first two minutes, he later returned to the game and scored a crucial putback of Nevill's miss with about 26 seconds left in the first half that inspired a huge hug from Boylen and allowed the Utes to cut the lead to one. Tillie finished with four points and five rebounds in 10 minutes.

-- Fans in the student section assembled a giant flag pole that had flying from it the flags of all five nations represented by the Utes -- the United States, Canada, France, Serbia and Australia. Where you dig up a Serbian flag around here, I'm not sure, but that was pretty impressive.

-- Assistant coach Jeff Smith attended the Jazz game against the Los Angeles Clippers last night, and was able to spend about a half-hour visiting with center Chris Kaman of the Clips -- whom Smith coached while an assistant at Central Michigan.

Just a quick pre-game note ... forward Kim Tillie said he thinks he might get a shot against the Cougars -- he is in uniform, and went through warm-ups -- though he said his leg still hurts a bit and he still hasn't practiced much. That would be a huge bonus for the Utes, who haven't had Tillie available the past five games while he recovers from a stress fracture in his leg.

Two incoming recruits are attending the game, as well.

Guard Chris Hines is in from Klein Forest High School in Houston -- he had never seen snow before, he said -- while Brighton's Jace Tavita was sitting with him in the floor seats directly across from the Cougar bench. Also ran into former guard Tim Drisdom, who just returned home from playing professionally in Finland and has a newborn baby boy with his girlfriend. Congratulations!

Looks like the Cougars are bracing for the usual harassing treatment when they meet the Utes at the Huntsman Center today, with a writer from the Daily Herald in Provo speculating on which of the Cougs will incite the most taunts.

The writer's best guess?

Center Chris Miles, who infamously kicked Utah's Andrew Bogut in the back after Bogut fell on him following a thunderous dunk three years ago. Strangely, the article is a little light on first names -- it lacks a byline, too, making me wonder whether the first part of it is missing -- but it's pretty amusing.

Even BYU coach Dave Rose acknowledges he sometimes admires the hecklers and their signs.

"They actually are pretty creative," he said. "I can't remember any of them, but there are times when ... I try not to look at anything ... but every once in a while you see one and think, my goodness, that college student has a career in creativity."

At last!

Thanks to a helpful reader, we finally have video of San Diego State's Lorrenzo Wade throwing down that ridiculously vicious jam over center Luke Nevill during the game the other night. Evidently, it was No. 7 on ESPN's Plays of the Day.

All I can say is ... damn.

Of course, as soon as I saw it, I wondered how it stacked up against the dunk that Golden State's Baron Davis threw down over the Jazz's Andrei Kirilenko in the NBA playoffs. Of course, I still can't decide. Which one would you rather have running on a loop?

Barely 1,000 tickets remain for the annual rivalry meeting with Brigham Young at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

The Utes are encouraging fans to get their tickets early -- the Rice-Eccles Stadium ticket office is open until 6 p.m. today, or you can order by phone at 801-581-UTIX -- to be part of what is expected to be the first crowd exceeding 14,000 since the Utes played San Diego State nearly three years ago.

The last sellout the Utes enjoyed came against the Cougars on Feb. 26, 2005 -- when 15,014 fans attended the game.

Well, I managed to incite a few takers with the theoretical argument that the Utes might not have done anything much different yet -- strictly in the black and white of wins and losses -- under new coach Jim Boylen than they could have done with a fresh start and added experience and former coach Ray Giacoletti still at the helm.

But not many agreed.

Mostly, they focused on the things I tried to leave out of the equation -- as I said, it was a theoretical argument -- such as the vast defensive improvement, the increased feeling of confidence and togetherness the players seem to feel, and the ability to avoid the blowout losses that so painfully marked the Giacoletti era.

All of those things exist now where they hadn't before, and that is a tremendous credit to Boylen.

While I still think it's a defensible argument that the Utes under Giacoletti could have had a comparable record to the current Utes under Boylen at the moment -- at best, they would be 9-6, since I doubt they would have won at Cal -- it's undeniable that the current Utes have so m