Coach Jim Boylen talked a lot early in the season about needing some leaders to emerge on his team, but we haven't heard him such much about that lately.

How does he feel the Utes have performed, on that count?

"We have done a better job of taking ownership of our mistakes," he said. "We've done a better job of admitting that we were wrong. What we have not done a better job of is recovering from the mistake."

"We have 'event cascades,'" he said. "One mistake, then another mistake and another mistake. OK? And that is part of handling that first mistake. Do you dwell on it? Do you lose your confidence on it? That is part of the process. Everything's going good, we're good. Things go bad ..."

Boylen noted that the Utes have had "some games" in which they fought back from adversity to win, such as at Air Force, but also that they far more often allow mistakes to compound one another, the way they did at TCU the other night.

"One missed defensive assignment, then we miss a one-and-one, then we foul in the penalty -- and give them two free throws -- 75 feet from the basket," he said. "That's what happened" in the 67-61 loss to the Horned Frogs.

"We have to learn how to stop those, and learn how to handle those," he said. "And again, that's the maturity part of it and the toughness part of it."

Just as he suspected, assistant coach Marty Wilson will leave the Utes before the end of the season.

Before their next game, as a matter of fact.

Coach Jim Boylen said after practice today that Wilson will not join the Utes when they play at Wyoming on Saturday, allowing him instead to get started on his new job as associate head coach at Pepperdine. The move will let Wilson avoid having to try to concentrate on two jobs at once, and allow Boylen to avoid worrying that one of his assistant coaches is distracted.

Wilson did participate in the workout, however, which is more than can be said for Tyler Kepkay.

The junior point guard sat out with an ankle injury, though Boylen said he's expected to return to practice Friday and play against the Cowboys at the Arena-Auditorium in Laramie on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Boylen said he will wait until probably May to hire a replacement for Wilson. He wants to take his time -- a luxury he did not feel he had when he took the job last year -- and study his options during the spring recruiting period.

Guess I shouldn't complain too much that my flight home from the TCU game is running a little late.

The Utes didn't get home until around 3:30 a.m. after last night's game, despite using (i.e. paying a lot of money for) a charter airline service that they hoped would get them back closer to midnight. Evidently, the plane had to stop twice to refuel -- that's better than not, I guess -- after forcing the Utes to endure similar delays on their way to Fort Worth.

Of course, maybe even the Utes should feel fortunate.

After all, the TCU women's team was using the same charter company after its game at the Huntsman Center last night, and was waiting in Salt Lake City for the plane to return with the Utes so it could take the Lady Frogs back home to Texas. Solid.

Just in case fans are feeling as if things can't get any worse ... there's this: Inexplicably, the Utes supposedly rank among the most hated teams in the country, in a far from scientific (yet totally amusing) poll at CBSSports.com.

"Here goes with the bottom 10 schools who've received less votes but been hated just as much (often more so) percentage-wise. In fact the bottom six teams on this list were the most hated college basketball teams on earth.

10. Youngstown State Penguins
9. IPFW Mastodons
8. Yale Bulldogs
7. Akron Zips
6. New Jersey Tech Highlanders
5. Utah Utes
4. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
3. Canisius Golden Griffins
2. Harvard Crimson
1. Princeton Tigers"

Go figure, eh?

Evidently, it's all part of some NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge involving facebook over at CBSSports.com ... though I must immediately question the credibility of a site that will post a photo comparing Duke's Mike Krzyzewski to "The Count" from Sesame Street, when we all know Air Force's Jeff Reynolds is The Count's real long-lost twin ...

Everybody seems to agree that the Utes have shown some positive signs this season. Winning at Cal. Playing Gonzaga close. Coming back to beat Air Force on the road.

No awful blowouts, for sure.

But just like last season, that's what is making the rest of the experience so frustrating.

While six losses by three points or less in the first half of the season helped steadily demoralize the Utes last season and counterbalance the impressive wins over Washington State and Virginia, so too have the current Utes suffered under the weight of a half-dozen close losses -- four in league play alone by six points or less, and two others in overtime -- to counterbalance their few modest achievements.

In fact, the Utes are at risk of finishing with the same conference record as last season, which would be incredibly damning in the final equation -- considering non-conference schedules mean little because they can vary so wildly (for all the talk about tough road games, the Utes' schedule strength ranks only 75th so far this season, according to realtimerpi.com, compared to 18th last season) and that teams are supposed to improve with good coaching, not regress.

And you can make a pretty good argument that the Utes are backsliding as the season chugs toward a conclusion, even without the depressing inevitability of a firing helping drag down the whole operation.

Of course, fatigue might have something to do with it.

The Utes have been shorthanded all season on account of the departures of Stephen Weigh, Daniel Deane and Curtis Eatmon, leaving them with an eight-man rotation comprised of many players who didn't seem to be in the most outstanding condition in the first place.

But still, the Utes still have achieved little this season that they did not manage last year -- the win at Air Force and home victory over UNLV being the two obvious exceptions. Yet the Utes made up for those by losing at home to Wyoming (for the first time since 2002) and New Mexico (for the first time since 1989), and still face the prospect of being swept by the Cowboys (they could sweep the Rebels) and managing the same split with lowly Colorado State as they did last year.

So what's the answer?

Seems like it might be a long way down the road, and include a lot of guys not named Luke Nevill, Shaun Green or Johnnie Bryant.

The Utes were supposed to be much improved after working for months improving their toughness and "grit" under coach Jim Boylen and getting so much playing experience as freshmen and sophomores, yet have shown painfully little capacity for success during the league games that truly count. And while Boylen will start importing some of his own hand-picked talent next season, all of his incoming recruits will be freshmen, meaning that it might be hard to count any on them to lead the renaissance of the program quite yet.

In other words, it's definitely a process, as Boylen likes to say, and probably a long one, at that.

All right, that one's on me.

After all, I was the doofus who insisted the Utes would have almost no problem beating TCU tonight -- what with junior guard Henry Salter having been suspended and taking his scoring average and shooting touch with him out of the arena. (He was not even with his teammates for the game.)

Nice call, eh?

Instead, the Utes trudged their way to another defeat, 67-61 at nearly empty Daniel-Meyer Coliseum -- this one not feeling so much agonizing or dispiriting as it did inevitable. Even coach Jim Boylen sounded as if he's resigned to this season finishing unspectacularly when he spoke wearily and shrugged his shoulders outside the locker room after the game.

"This is where this team is at," he said. "This is where we're at. Gotta get tougher. Gotta grow. Gotta finish things off. This is a process, as much as I don't like it ... this is what this team has to go through -- handle adversity and grow and learn. Nothing has changed since day one."

No anger. No fury. No fuming over the refs.

Just calm, cool, almost detached discussion.

Sort of eerie, to be honest.

But can we blame him? He's seen this so many times before, he has to be wondering what good he did with all of his drills designed to improve his players' toughness and play-making ability in pressure situations.

After all, the Utes again fell apart at the free-throw line (stop us if you've heard this one) with the game in the balance -- four misses in the final 6:10, and just one meaningful basket in the final 7:40 -- and let the Horned Frogs make all the big plays down the stretch.

Now, they're at risk of needing to win a play-in game just to reach the main field for the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas next month. Of course, that's a long shot -- they would need to lose out, have TCU and Air Force win at least one more game, and have Wyoming upset league-leading Brigham Young at the Marriott Center -- but these Utes can't take anything for granted, any more.

And while the players insist they still believe in themselves and each other, the looks I saw in some of their eyes after the game seemed to hint at a sad sense of resignation -- similar to last year -- that they're not holding out much hope of turning things around for a strong finish.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill dominated when he was in the game (he pulled the Utes back into the game, after they trailed by five early in the second half) but strained against foul trouble for the third straight game. He played only 21 minutes, scoring 15 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Of course, he also endured a massive swat from TCU's Alvaro Parker with 3:10 left that helped the Frogs pull away.

-- The defense in which the Utes take so much pride was not exactly smothering. The Horned Frogs fought back from an 11-point deficit and built a 30-29 halftime lead by shooting 48 percent, the best of the season for one of the league's worst shooting teams.

-- Once again, the Utes failed to rally from a late deficit. They fell to 1-9 when trailing by halftime (winning at Air Force is the only win in that bunch) and 0-9 when training with five minutes remaining. They trailed just 55-52 at the five-minute mark, but couldn't make a play. On their next three possessions, Nevill was called for charging, guard Luka Drca hit one of two free throws, and Nevill had his shot rejected. By then, the Frogs had a six-point lead that was never threatened.

-- Senior guard Chris Grant saw his first meaningful action in weeks, playing about 90 seconds at the end of the first half after Johnnie Bryant picked up his third foul and Luka Drca committed an atrocious turnover. He did not record a statistic, however.

Just got off the phone with assistant coach Marty Wilson, who will be leaving the Utes soon to become the head-coach-in-waiting at Pepperdine. He joked that the biggest change from a day or two ago -- when he was still trying to iron out the deal -- was his blood pressure.

It's going up even more, now.

Officially, Wilson will become the associate head coach for the Waves, under his former coach and mentor, Tom Asbury, who's coming out of retirement in an effort to rejuvenate the program. But the Waves expect the 62-year-old Asbury to help prepare Wilson to take over at some indeterminate point in the future.

Wilson said he's excited about the challenge, but also aware that he's in for a lot of work rebuilding a team that has fallen quite a bit from the glory days when he was playing for the Waves under Asbury in the mid-1980's.

"It's going to be a challenge," he said. "But we're excited about the challenge."

Wilson finalized the deal after meeting with officials at his alma mater over the weekend, mostly to secure a way to assure that he and his family "could survive, financially" in one of the nation's most expensive housing markets. Neither Wilson nor the university released specifics of his contract, but Wilson said he's "very confident in the direction" that the university leadership is taking.

The Utes are just headed over for a shootaround, I think, so I couldn't reach coach Jim Boylen. But he has been expecting Wilson to take the job, and I suspect he already has a short list of candidates to replace him. Having retained Wilson from the previous coaching regime, I would imagine that Boylen plans to bring in another of "his" coaches to join the staff.

When will that happen?

That part could be interesting. While he might stay until the end of the season, Wilson also acknowledged that "there could be a chance" that he will leave earlier, considering how distracted coaches can get when worrying about one job while trying to perform another. Boylen, he said, has been exceptionally understanding of that, having gone through it himself just last year. The two will discuss a plan in the next day or two.

"He understands what I've been dealing with," Wilson said.

Don't expect the Waves to show up on the Utah schedule anytime soon, however. I asked Wilson about that, and he said the team has much rebuilding to do before he would feel comfortable scheduling the Utes. One of his first orders of business, he said, is trying to re-recruit the players who were granted releases from their letters-of-intent when the previous coach resigned -- and that includes Oregon City's Brad Tinsley, whom the Utes had recruited, too.

Tinsley now is generating interest from some major schools -- even North Carolina -- and probably won't want to return to Pepperdine. Besides, it's not as if he has a relationship with Wilson; assistant coach Chris Jones did most of the recruiting of Tinsley for the Utes, Tinsley's father said.

But, hey, we'll see ...

Just touched down here in Fort Worth, and learned that assistant coach Marty Wilson has been named the associate coach at Pepperdine, as expected. More coming soon ...

Here's a good tidbit, courtesy of the Mountain West Conference ...

Utah's Johnnie Bryant leads the nation in scoring by a player who has not started all season. Bryant is averaging 14.5 points for the Utes, trailing only Oral Roberts' Robert Jarvis among bench scorers overall. But Jarvis has started three games for the Golden Eagles, while Bryant has not started any for the Utes.

The other players trailing Bryant in this unusual stat category?

Long Island's Kellen Allen averages 13.8 points, while Cal State-Northridge's Deon Tresvant averages 13.2 and Brent Benson of Texas State contributes 12.9 per game. DePaul's Dar Tucker and Marist's Jay Gavin each average 12.5 points, but Tucker has started four games.

Among that group, only Bryant, Jarvis, Tresvant and Gavin also are leading their team in scoring.

By the way ... the Utes traveled to TCU aboard a chartered flight last night, mostly so they could return to Salt Lake City quickly after the game tonight and not miss class on Thursday.

But the outbound flight was not exactly charter-smooth.

The Utes did not arrive until well after midnight, on account of a variety of delays -- they already had known that their original flight was going to be delayed from late afternoon until about 7 p.m. -- and a pit stop to refuel in Pueblo, Colo. Don't imagine they will be giving high marks to that charter service that they asked to deliver them by early evening.

So ... anybody get the Utes when they were giving just four points at TCU tonight, before the game was taken off the board?

You'd have to feel pretty good about things, now that TCU has suspended guard Henry Salter indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the team."

That means the talented junior won't play against the Utes tonight at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, giving the Utes an excellent chance to win a game they need in order to all but clinch at least the fifth seed in the Mountain West Conference tournament next month in Las Vegas.

In fact, I would almost go so far as to say the Utes cannot lose this game tonight -- given that Salter represented nearly a quarter of the scoring for one of the weakest offensive teams in the league, and a much larger portion of their (cough, cough) outside shooting touch.

Almost.

The Utes still have a tendency to lose games they should win, of course. Still, you'd have to like the chance for Utah's Tyler Kepkay to not have to worry about another last-second shot. The junior point guard told me that he would much prefer the Utes to just win by 20 and avoid the late-game dramatics -- even though he will continue to shoot any potential tying or winning shots with confidence, even though he hasn't caught a break yet.

"Somebody's got to take them, and I'm not going to shy away from it," he said. "If I have to shoot every one for the rest of this season, I will. Whether or not I hit them -- I hope I do -- I'm going to shoot them with confidence that they're going in, and if they don't, then there's nothing you can do about it."

Big news for the Utes out of Fort Worth ... the TCU Horned Frogs have suspended junior guard Henry Salter indefinitely for "conduct detrimental to the team."

That means he won't play against the Utes at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Wednesday night.

A junior-college transfer, Salter had led the Horned Frogs in scoring for much of the season but now ranks second on the team by averaging 13.3 points per game -- just 0.2 points behind junior forward Kevin Langford.

Salter played just the first five minutes of the second half in last week's 66-64 win over Colorado State, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted, and coach Neil Dougherty said after the game that he decided to use other players because he liked the way they were playing.

Salter did not do much against the Utes in the previous meeting, scoring just six points on 2-for-9 shooting with four rebounds and four turnovers in a 74-58 Utah victory at the Huntsman Center. But he still ranks third in the Mountain West Conference by shooting 47.7 percent from three-point range.

For the first time all season, the Utes are playing back-to-back road games in different cities -- within four days, too -- putting a greater strain on the schedule than they're accustomed.

But coach Jim Boylen said that doesn't create any special concern.

"I don't go to my guys and say, 'Oh, no, we're playing on the road,'" Boylen said. "It's part of the deal, and we don't have any fear of playing on the road. We've played well on the road. We've been in a lot of games on the road, and we'll do the things we always do. Just keep working on it."

But the Utes will make one accommodation to the schedule, by taking a charter flight to their game at TCU on Wednesday night.

That will allow them to return to Salt Lake City by about midnight after the game, so the players can get a reasonable amount of sleep and attend class and practice on Thursday. The Utes then will take a bus to their game at Wyoming on Saturday, with the weather forecast hardly looking like that will be a problem.

By the way, recruiting gurus are now speculating whether prep guard Brad Tinsley will get a scholarship offer from North Carolina.

In other words, too bad the Utes don't have an open scholarship for him.

The Utes had recruited Tinsley before he chose Pepperdine, but then the Waves fired their coach -- assistant coach Marty Wilson is poised to become their head-coach-in-waiting -- and Tinsley obtained a release from his commitment.

Now, interest in the star at Oregon City High School has blown up.

The Utes would love to have him, but they already have committed all of their scholarships for next season. Tinsley's father has said his son remains interested in the Utes, but with teams like the Tar Heels, Oregon, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Butler, Iowa and Arizona State showing interest, don't expect Tinsley to see much value in paying his own way for a year with the Utes.

Coach Jim Boylen believes his Utes have improved offensively in recent weeks.

He's just worried that the defense has suffered, as a result.

"I did not like our defense against New Mexico," he said at his weekly press conference today, referring to the 72-71 loss to the Lobos on Saturday. "I thought we had some slippage. I thought we had some miscommunication, defensively. And I don't like that."

The Utes were scheduled to emphasize defense in their workout later in the day -- after working slightly more on offense during practice in recent weeks.

"Whatever you work on more, with this group of guys, seems we're able to get better," Boylen said. "Whatever you work on less, with this group of guys, seems to not improve like you'd like. So that's part of the learning process with a new team and a new group of guys."

Defense figures to be particularly important for the Utes, who play three of their final four regular-season games on the road over the next two weeks, starting at TCU on Wednesday.

"What wins on the road to me is defense and rebounding," Boylen said. "And obviously, you'd like to shoot the ball well and make shots. But you have to defend and rebound, and that's what we're going to work on today and tomorrow."

Many fans have mentioned their concern over the Utes allowing those three straight three-pointers late in the loss to New Mexico last weekend. You know, the ones that basically cost them the game?

But according to Tyler Kepkay, the Lobos surprised the Utes by unveiling new plays to create those shots.

"I think what happened is they threw a couple new things at us that, you know, we hadn't seen them do before," he said. "It's hard when you prepare for a team and you think you know everything they have, and then they throw a couple of new things at you that you're not really ready for and then they hit ''em."

Keep your eye out for coach Jim Boylen, if you happen to be headed to the Class 5-A boys basketball tournament at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.

Boylen has pushed back his weekly press conference today so he can attend the event -- most notably the first-round game between Lone Peak and Fremont at 11:10 a.m. The Knights are the dominant team in the state, and feature incoming recruit Josh Sharp as well as his highly regarded teammate, Tyler Haws, whom the Utes would love to land, as well.

Wouldn't be surprised to see Boylen or his assistants at some of the other games, too, to watch recruits such as Pleasant Grove's C.J. Wilcox and West Jordan's Rayes Gallegos.

Well, so much for my optimistic prediction that the Utes could go 5-3 through the second half of the Mountain West Conference season.

To do that, the Utes would have to go 3-1 over their last four games -- and that hardly seems likely, considering three of those games are on the road and that for whatever improvements they might have made from last season, the Utes remain a team that just doesn't know how to win a close game.

Sad, but true.

The Utes have won only one close game this season, and the argument that they achieved that victory at Cal luckily when forward Shaun Green threw in a desperation floater in the final seconds is growing stronger with each subsequent late-game catastrophe.

Lost by two at Gonzaga. Wilted down the stretch and fell in overtime at San Diego State and New Mexico. Fouled up the final possession at home against Brigham Young and Wyoming, and again against the Lobos.

This team just as bad in the clutch as it was last year.

Maybe even worse, point guard Tyler Kepkay has been at the center of far too many of the shortcomings -- making many fans wonder why coach Jim Boylen hasn't followed guard Lawrence Borha's suggestion a few weeks ago that the Utes give someone else a chance with a tight game on the line.

Instead, Boylen has explained after various close losses that other players -- guard Johnnie Bryant in the game at New Mexico, for example -- could not get the ball in crucial situations because of the defense. And I'd have to imagine that opposing coaches have long since decided that forcing Kepkay to beat them is a smart gamble.

What it all means is that the Utes, seems to me, will be fortunate to split their last four games -- at TCU, Wyoming and UNLV, with the home finale against winless Colorado State in between -- and finish 8-8 in the league standings. That probably would be good enough for the fifth seed in the conference tournament, meaning that if the Utes win their first-round game -- likely against San Diego State -- they probably would get a rematch with rival Brigham Young in the semifinals.

At that point, though, they would have to hope for a blowout, since winning a close game seems yet beyond their reach.

Somebody asked coach Jim Boylen after his Utes lost 72-71 to New Mexico today whether he was more discouraged that they could not execute properly with the game on the line -- point guard Tyler Kepkay drove for a lay-up at the horn, when the Utes needed three points to tie -- or encouraged that they somehow mustered a chance to win after trailing by eight with 45 seconds left.

"I don't know," Boylen said, shaking his head. "Whipped cream on a turd still tastes like s---."

No doubt, it does for Kepkay.

The junior transfer has been the weak link on a lot of win-preventing misplays this season, and you have to feel for the kid. He was clearly devastated after making the wrong decision against the Lobos, and one of the assistant coaches noted that Kepkay wants to succeed as much as anybody -- frequently putting in extra hours in the gym and the weight room, even late at night.

But it couldn't spare him, this time.

"It's my fault," he said admirably, after finally emerging from the locker room.

Yes, it was, and there's sadly not much more he can say about it. He just fouled up.

Many of his teammates gamely tried to support Kepkay by noting that he's still adjusting to his first season of major college basketball while playing away from his natural position. "I've been in that position at the college level," guard Johnnie Bryant said, "and to come out of junior college, it's real tough to run a team and make plays and know time and score."

That's great, but it's not as if they change the rules when you get to college.

If you need three, you have to try to get three, not get suckered into driving for a lay-up that's not going to mean anything.

Center Luke Nevill wondered whether Kepkay had lost track of the score, or had been too focused on Boylen's instructions during the previous (and last) timeout to drive for a quick score if New Mexico's Dairese Gary made both of his free throws with 8.8 seconds left to make it a four-point game.

When Gary missed his second free throw, the scenario changed, and the Utes suddenly needed just a three-pointer to tie.

But Kepkay said he was aware of all that.

"Coach told me to drive and pitch it out to somebody for three," he said. "And I got more open than I was planning on getting, and then I probably shouldn't have shot it. But I just got so open, I thought maybe I could get it quick and we would have enough time to foul them again."

Of course, they didn't.

But the only thing Kepkay can do now is try to learn from his mistake, and be a better player for it, in the long run. And as painful as it might be at the moment, that's what will make any future success all the more satisfying.

Of course, everybody in the league has been talking about how well New Mexico's J.R. Giddens has been playing, heading into the Utes' game against the Lobos today at the Huntsman Center.

But coach Jim Boylen said he's not the only one about whom the Utes have to worry.

Sure, Giddens is averaging 21.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in the last six games -- he has led the Lobos in each category in every game in that span, with the one exception of scoring against Colorado State -- but the trio of guard Chad Toppert, forward Roman Martinez and center Daniel Faris "hurt us, last time," Boylen said.

"Faris had some points in the paint, hit a couple of jump hooks," he said. "Toppert made threes and Martinez was just good enough to help them win. So they seem to be getting a lot out of Giddens, a lot out of their shooting, and those three guys -- by committee -- have been doing a heck of a job for them."

The Lobos, by the way, lead the Mountain West Conference by shooting 43.4 percent from three-point range, and hit 7 of 16 from long-range in an overtime win against the Utes in Albuquerque last month. Giddens had 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists in that game.

Wrote an article for the paper in the morning about coach Jim Boylen's unusual efforts to connect with the fans -- socializing on the concourse before games, performing his post-game speeches -- and noted how he has even won admirers among his opponents in the Mountain West Conference (except maybe KSL's Greg Wrubell, who has really made some enemies among Ute fans with his blog about Boylen).

One guy I didn't have room to mention, though, was Brigham Young's Lee Cummard.

You might have noticed during the game at the Marriott Center the other night, the two enjoyed a little back and forth that included Boylen swatting Cummard on the backside in admiration a couple of times. Later, Cummard returned the compliment.

"I was giving him a hard time about working the officials -- just working him a little bit," Cummard said. "But he is going to make a great coach. He gets those players to play hard and he runs great stuff and I got a lot of respect for him. He came in and changed the whole attitude of that program, and he's got them fired up."

Boylen said he hears from Cougar fans like Cummard "every day" who compliment him on the job he's doing with the Utes.

"Now, they want to beat our ass," he said. "But they also like the guy who's passionate about the game."

No surprise here ... but athletic director Chris Hill was excited like everybody else that The Mtn. finally will be available to fans on DirecTV starting later this year.

"The announcement today is a huge step in getting television exposure for our teams," Hill said in a statement. "I know the lack of satellite coverage has been extremely difficult on our fans and I'm thrilled that they will now have another option available to see our games."

Hill also echoed Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson in saying that CBS played an important role in finalizing the deal that was finalized today.

"CBS played a critical role in the negotiating process and getting this deal done," Hill said in a statement, "and we're appreciative of their effort."

Originally, The Mtn. was co-owned by Comcast and CSTV, but CBS took control of CSTV and its 50 percent stake in the network last month after buying CSTV in 2006.

So the deal's done and DirecTV subscribers can finally get The Mtn. There's even a good chance, network vice president Kim Carver said, that it will be available in the most basic programming package.

Now what?

Well, how about a little debriefing?

Turns out that athletic director Jeff Schemmel at San Diego State -- you know, the guy who seemed to surprise league and network officials by announcing the deal -- said he had permission to do so. Media writer Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune then took the league to task for initially failing to confirm the deal, and in turn failing to capitalize on "what would have been some rare positive publicity."

Posner had some other fascinating nuggets in his story that might defy local conventional wisdom about the supposedly vast, nationwide interest in Mountain West Conference sports. Last week's San Diego State vs. Utah basketball game, for example?

It pulled a 0.1 local Nielsen rating in San Diego -- which Posner said translates to an average audience of about 1,050 homes. "There probably are apartment complexes here that have more than 1,050 homes," he wrote.

Just got word ... the deal is done!

The Mtn. and DirecTV have signed off on the long-awaited deal to get the network on the satellite service no later than Sept. 1. Don't have many of the details just yet, but an announcement is expected in the next 15 minutes ...

Yes, we're still waiting to hear whether The Mtn. deal with DirecTV has been officially completed.

Seems like the principals have been in meetings and on the phone all day, and I'm not sure what the hold-up might be at this stage. But you haven't missed anything, in case you're wondering, and a spokesman from the network still says he expects the deal to get done.

And now for something completely different.

Guard Luka Drca usually hasn't seemed especially interested in my attempts to engage him on matters of Serbian politics, such as the recent presidential election. He's not a politician, after all. But the native Serbian clearly has strong opinions on the independence declared in recent days by the Kosovo region of his homeland.

"Kosovo is part of Serbia," he said definitively.

That, after I'd teased him a bit after practice about angry Serbians tearing up his hometown of Belgrade in protest of the move -- though he correctly pointed out that protesters had attacked only the U.S. Embassy there in protest of Washington's support of an independent Kosovo.

Of course, it's easy for me to be glib about political movements in faraway lands, but for Drca, watching ethnically dominant Albanians declare Kosovo an independent nation is probably akin to Americans watching an attempt to declare a sovereign state out of, say, Arizona and New Mexico.

Awfully difficult, in other words.

Quick update on The Mtn. and its pending deal with DirecTV ...

A spokesman for the network tells me that the rumor that the deal would bar the network from also making a deal with Dish Network is not true. "We would welcome Dish Network as a distribution partner," Hayne Ellis said.

Also, while most reports have echoed San Diego State's Jeff Schemmel in saying an Aug. 1 launch is planned for The Mtn. on DirecTV, the actual language in the contract stipulates only that the network be carried "no later than Sept. 1."

Must have been a hell of a day at The Mtn. offices over in Colorado, don't you think?

One minute, employees are watching a streaming video of San Diego State's Jeff Schemmel talk about the upcoming "Night With the Aztecs," and the next minute ... they're stunned to hear the athletic director break the news that the Mountain West Conference has reached an agreement to get The Mtn. carried on DirecTV.

Sources tell me the network brass was the opposite of pleased, wanting to have been the ones to break the news in glorious triumph once the deal was finally signed. Instead, Schemmel unleashed a frantic afternoon of phone calls before the league finally decided to simply confirm the deal.

At any rate, the news was certainly welcome around the league, where fans and athletes have been frustrated that few friends and family members back home -- and even here in Utah -- did not have access to the network.

But the new deal might not appease quite everyone.

One thing I've heard is that the deal is contingent on The Mtn. not establishing a relationship with DirecTV's satellite rival, DishNetwork. If that's true -- and we figure to find out today, if that's when the league and network are able to finally unveil the deal -- then fans who subscribe to Dish still are going to have to make a switch, if they want to catch the Utes and other Mountain West teams in action.

Much as I agree that coach Jim Boylen at least has a fair argument about the free-throw disparity between his Utes and the rival Brigham Young Cougars last night, that's certainly not the whole story of the 67-59 loss at the Marriott Center.

Boylen himself pointed out that the Utes took 11 more shots than the Cougars.

Eleven!

Yet the Utes made only three more baskets, because they shot a season-worst 37 percent, something Boylen did not even mention after the game.

Figure if the Utes shoot even a modest 42 percent -- itself, considerably below their league-leading 48.8 shooting percentage -- they make three more baskets, which is at least six more points, which probably gives them the lead down the stretch and keeps them from having to commit the fouls that allow the Cougs to shoot six of their 32 free throws in the final 41 seconds, when the game was all but final.

Part of the reason the Utes took so many more shots, of course, is that so many more of the Cougar shots resulted in fouls that turned into free throws and don't get counted as attempted field goals in the box score.

But it's also true that the Utes seldom give the referees much reason to call fouls on their behalf.

Center Luke Nevill had the best argument last night, having earned just one free throw while taking 14 shots deep in the paint, but the rest of the Utes have a tendency to settle for perimeter shots -- 20 of their 59 were three-pointers -- and seldom finish what few drives to the basket they attempt. Instead, they often drive part-way to the basket before kicking it outside again.

That's not a winning strategy to getting to the free-throw line regularly. In fact, the Utes entered the game ranked above only Colorado State -- which has played much of its season without starting center Stuart Creason -- in the Mountain West Conference in free throws attempted per game. The Utes averaged 15.6 attempts, coming in, while the Cougars averaged 20.7.

What's more, having Nevill on the floor more with fewer fouls against him might not have made the difference that Boylen perhaps imagines, considering how many easy shots Nevill missed when he was in the game, and that the Utes held the Cougars to only 39.6 percent shooting, as it was.

All right, we know this is a bit of a stretch ... but if the Utes are looking to a bright side to their disappointing loss to rival Brigham Young last night, they have one:

The rematch.

The Utes and Cougars stand a good chance of meeting again in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas next month, presuming the Utes don't fall apart in their last five games and blow what appears to be a solid hold on either the fourth or fifth seed in the bracket (or lose the first-round game, most likely against San Diego State).

And if the Utes felt they got hosed by the refs last night, they figure to stand a much better chance on that account on a neutral court -- even if many of the fans at the Thomas & Mack Center figure to be cheering for the Cougars.

Just as an historical note, by the way, the rivals have met in conference tournaments eight times since the Western Athletic Conference commenced one in 1984. Only twice have the Utes entered that tourney meeting having lost both regular-season meetings, and both times -- in 1992 and 1994 -- they lost in the tournament, as well.

Now, I'm not usually the kind of guy who complains about the referees. Usually, teams are whistled for fouls and shoot free throws based more or less on what they do on the floor.

But this might have been a little much.

Coach Jim Boylen definitely had a complaint, after his Utes lost to rival Brigham Young 67-59 at the Marriott Center on Wednesday night. The Utes shot just 10 free throws all night -- not all that uncommon for them, to be honest -- but the Cougars paraded to the line for 32 free throws, far above their season average.

And even though the Cougs made a modest 22 of them, the disparity was huge in a game that was closer even than the final score suggested. "We got 11 more shots than them, turnovers were even," Boylen said, pulsing with anger after the game. "You guys know where the disparity was. You figure it out."

Boylen wanted us to do it because he couldn't -- not without getting fined and reprimanded by the Mountain West Conference. Yet the whistles definitely had a major effect on the game.

Of course, it might have helped, too, if center Luke Nevill could have made a few more bunnies. Even though he was limited by foul trouble, he missed nine of his 14 shots -- all of them, as I recall, within a few feet of the basket -- and came to the bench at one point waving his hand dismissively at the basket and screaming that "the ball won't go in the [expletive] basket!"

"We worked really hard, we were getting the shots we wanted," he said. "We were getting really good looks in the post. I just couldn't make a lay-up, almost. It was frustrating."

Yet as much as Boylen would hate hearing it, the Utes deserve credit for keeping the game so close in such a tough atmosphere despite shooting a season-worst 37 percent, getting called for nearly twice as many fouls as the Cougars -- 25 to 13 -- and having so many of their players battle foul trouble.

A lesser team would have been rolled.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Guard Johnnie Bryant led the Utes with 15 points and made two huge jumpers in the final six minutes. But the senior also committed four turnovers, including two on back-to-back possessions midway through the second half with the Utes trailing by four. Both times, he left his feet apparently not knowing what he was going to do with the ball, only to wind up throwing it away.

-- Guard Luka Drca made what Boylen called the "bad decision" near the end that basically sealed the loss, when he threw a pass out of bounds because he expected Nevill to roll to the basket (Nevill did not) off a pick-and-roll. But he also again vastly outplayed starter Tyler Kepkay, getting nine points, six rebounds and four assists.

-- For the most part, the Utes did a pretty good job managing the tempo and rebounding, two things they said they had to do in order to win. The Cougs won the rebounding battle, but only 38-34 (it was much worse in the last meeting), and scored eight points below their average. But Lee Cummard hurt them with 14 points and 11 rebounds, including a fadeaway turnaround jumper after the Utes cut the lead to 54-53 with about five minutes left.

By the way, the Utes are 7 1/2-point underdogs against Brigham Young tonight.

Which doesn't bode well, judging by recent history.

The Utes have been oddsmaking underdogs only six times this season -- against Washington, Oregon, Cal, Gonzaga, San Diego State and New Mexico. And though they covered the spread in three of those games, they have won only one of them, the 67-65 victory at Cal nearly two months ago.

However, the Utes have won five of their last six games, and covered the spread four times in that span. Looks like taking the points is probably the way to go, you know, if you were inclined toward that type of thing ...

Coach Jim Boylen has talked often about scheduling difficult games in the non-conference season to help prepare his Utes for the tough road games in the Mountain West Conference.

Well, they don't get any tougher than the one tonight.

The Utes play at rival Brigham Young -- game's at 8, on The Mtn. -- hoping to repeat the history they made five years ago by stopping a Cougar homecourt winning streak at exactly the same place, 44 games.

"We've played big road games, and that's the whole idea of why Dr. Hill and I built this schedule -- at Washington, at Gonzaga, at Cal -- was for at New Mexico, at Vegas, at BYU," Boylen said. "It's all part of the plan, the master plan -- to have been in these situations before, to hopefully prepare us for what's supposed to be done and how it's supposed to play out."

So far, the Utes have had promising yet mixed results on the road.

Washington clobbered them back at the start of the season, for example, but the Utes also impressively won at Cal. And though they suffered a couple of overtime losses at San Diego State and New Mexico, they had to be encouraged that they made those games close (same with Gonzaga), and they have won their last two road games -- at Colorado State and at Air Force, where they came back from a 10-point deficit at halftime.

"It seldom goes your way on the road," Boylen said. "You just have to play through it. You have to have grit, and play through it."

If the Utes have one thing going for them when they play at Brigham Young at the Marriott Center on Wednesday night, it's confidence. After all, they're riding a season-high four-game winning streak and have won their last two road games -- including one in which they trailed by 10 at the half at Air Force.

"Being down 10 to Air Force is like being down 20 to anybody else, because of the style of play and the limited amount of possessions," guard Johnnie Bryant said.

Yet while most of his teammates seemed to agree that the Utes are better equipped to handle the Cougars and their intimidating atmosphere than they would have been, say, a month ago -- "we've grown as a team," forward Shaun Green said -- guard Tyler Kepkay said that's not necessarily the case.

"I don't think it matters," he said. "I mean, a lot of those games we played earlier in the year in overtime, we could have just as easily won those games, and we could have a much better conference record."

True enough.

But I'd still agree with the majority of the Utes who seem to believe their recent improvement will help their chances of snapping their three-game losing streak to the Cougars. "We've won some tough road games and we've won some tough home games, as well," center Luke Nevill said. "We're kind of on a streak right now, and we'd like to continue that streak."

Just came across a couple of updated statistical notes that might be worth passing along ...

The Utes have regained their standing as the best free-throw shooting team in the Mountain West Conference, after going 24-for-27 in the victory over San Diego State last weekend to improve their season rate to 74.9 percent (after that horrific and increasingly inexplicable funk midway through the season). They also rank seventh nationally by shooting 40.9 percent from three-point range, having made 29 of 68 during their four-game winning streak.

The Utes also lead the league by shooting 48.8 percent from the field, and allow opponents to make just 39.6 percent of their shots -- a dramatic improvement from last season, when they ranked 322nd out of 326 teams by allowing 50 percent shooting.

Happy Birthday, Luke Nevill.

The Big Softie turns 22 today -- he and senior Chris Grant are the only scholarship players on the team with birthdays during the season -- but said he doesn't plan any epic celebration. Instead, he's happy to be finally getting over an illness that had been bothering him since last week.

In fact, Nevill jokingly said he had been scarfing down so many medications to help him combat the illness that he felt "like a zombie" during the Utes' victory over San Diego State last weekend.

Yet the birthday gift of good health might not necessarily mean that much to the Utes at Brigham Young on Wednesday night, considering neither Nevill nor the Utes have had much luck in the first game after his birthday. As a freshman, he had a modest 12 points and seven rebounds in a loss at UNLV, and he did not play in a loss at Wyoming last season because of a hip injury.

Just talked to assistant coach Marty Wilson, who confirmed that he's pursuing an opportunity to join coach Tom Asbury at Pepperdine and become the head-coach-in-waiting at his alma mater.

"That's the plan," he said.

Wilson was careful to say that "there's no arrangement yet" and that his prospects for the job hinge on a meeting with Asbury and other school officials in Malibu after the Utes play New Mexico at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

But coach Jim Boylen said he expects Wilson to get the job, which would be a huge move for Wilson.

"These jobs are hard to come by, being a D-1 head coach," Wilson said. "The majority of it is right time, right place."

Joining the Waves would mark a return home for Wilson, who grew up in nearby Pacoima and met his wife Mayra while attending Pepperdine and playing ball there. "It's an opportunity to possibly go back and hopefully further my career and take another step," he said.

Wilson was a finalist for the job the last time it was open, when he described returning to his alma mater as "a dream job. It'd be the ultimate job."

"I have ties in California," he added at the time. "It's always been my top [recruiting] priority, especially Southern California. If we can get guys to come to Utah from sunny California, why couldn't we keep them at Pepperdine?"

Looks like the Utes are about to lose one of their assistant coaches.

Marty Wilson is expected to become an assistant at Pepperdine, once the Waves announce that former coach Tom Asbury will come out of retirement to replace coach Vance Walberg, who resigned amid controversy earlier this season. Coach Jim Boylen confirmed that Asbury has called him and that Wilson "has an interest" in the job as basically the head-coach-in-waiting.

"They've talked about him going there for two or three years and then being the head coach," Boylen said.

Wilson played his senior year under Asbury at Pepperdine and landed his first college coaching job under him in 1990. Wilson was busy on the phone after practice today and still needs a little time before he can get back to me, but Boylen said Wilson is planning to meet with Asbury after the Utes play New Mexico on Saturday, to further discuss the possibility.

"I think his heart is set on going," Boylen said.

The biggest reason nobody is going to be picking the Utes to upset rival Brigham Young at the Marriott Center on Wednesday night is because the Cougars haven't lost at home to anybody -- anybody! -- in 44 games.

Yet forgetting about that is the only way the Utes stand a chance.

"You go down there and don't think about so much the winning streak," coach Jim Boylen said. "You think about taking care of business, one possession at a time. You think about making sure you do the effort things, the physical things, the tough things and mentally stay focused on the task at hand -- not get caught up in the crowd, not get caught up in the winning streak, not get caught up in playing on the road."

Easier said than done, for sure.

The Utes agreed after practice today that the three most important aspects of their game plan are containing Lee Cummard, slowing the Cougars in transition -- "they're the best running team in the league," Boylen said -- and limiting their offensive rebounds.

With good reason.

The last time the teams met, Cummard had 19 points and the Cougs scored 14 points on the fast break and off a dozen offensive rebounds in a 55-52 victory at the Huntsman Center.

"We probably have all odds against us," forward Shaun Green acknowledged. "But we have a great game plan going down there. We felt like we matched up with them really well when played them here. ... If we execute our game plan and box-out on the defensive end and keep them off the offensive glass to keep them from getting second-chances shots, I think we'll have a great chance to win."

Make no mistake, the Utes know they're headed for one of the toughest places to play in the country when they meet rival Brigham Young at the Marriott Center on Wednesday.

For the first time that I've seen, they were practicing today while blaring crowd noise into the arena. And it wasn't just for show, either; when they flipped that thing on, you could hardly hear a thing, no matter how hard you tried.

When the sound was off, coach Jim Boylen -- feeling much better, after getting sick over the weekend -- was preaching to his players that the Cougars are a good team, but not any better than some of the other teams the Utes have played. "What they are good at is passing, cutting and running," Boylen said. "They're better than that than most."

He scored only four points, but forward Kim Tillie might have enjoyed his best performance since returning from an injury last month, when he grabbed seemingly every rebound and corralled almost every loose ball he saw during the Utes' victory over San Diego State on Saturday.

And don't think he didn't notice the ovation.

"That's really exciting," he said, smiling, after the game, "because usually, the crowd sees only the people that scores the basket, and that's it. And now, I feel like people see what I do. Even if I don't score a lot of baskets, people recognize the effort plays -- diving on the ball, getting rebounds. That's really important, too."

You can say that again.

Though Boylen was angry with him for a careless turnover in the first half, Tillie erupted midway through the second, becoming a one-man whirlwind for about a three-minute stretch in which he seemed to overcome the Aztecs all by himself.

With the Utes trailing by one, Tillie missed a three-point try but swatted the rebound out to a teammate to extend the possession -- allowing him to tip in a missed shot and draw a foul. On the other end, he defended San Diego State's Ryan Amoroso into a miss, and moments later made a lunging steal while getting fouled.

Tillie made two free throws that gave the Utes a 51-48 lead, and when he came out of the game, the crowd erupted in appreciation. Tillie finished with nine rebounds, two blocks and that steal in 21 minutes.

"That's what coach told me to do," he said. "Do the job, get the effort plays, get rebounds, blocks, help. It worked out and I tried to play as hard as I could and get the effort plays."

Having stumbled upon a pretty good outpouring of support for coach Jim Boylen after my suggestion that maybe he's overdoing the post-game speeches, I'm thinking the topic would make an interesting article for the newspaper:

Why fans love the post-game pep talks.

So if you're willing and interested to be quoted in such an article, drop me an e-mail at mcl@sltrib.com. Tell me what it is about Boylen's speeches that moves you, and why you appreciate them so much. Are you worried that he's overdoing them, or should he grab that mic every time the Utes win at home?

Only catch is that I'll need a full name and phone number, so I can verify your identity for the purposes of potentially quoting you in the paper. Oh, and no profane invective, please, no matter how mad you are at me ... :-)

Judging by some of your comments, I'm in the minority -- the vast minority -- in worrying that coach Jim Boylen is going to ruin the charm and novelty of his post-game speeches by performing them too often.

And that's fine.

If you guys like 'em, you like 'em, and that means they haven't yet become tiresome -- which is great. There's certainly no denying that Boylen is reaching out to fans like nobody before him. But I'm still going to vote in favor of a little more discretion, or at least that Boylen follow a spectacular suggestion by Larry Mangino on The Mtn. last night:

Do it on the road.

Can't you just imagine -- the Utes ending the Cougars' 44-game winning streak in Provo and Boylen seizing the microphone just long enough to thank his fans? Now that would be impressive!

Talk about an opportunity.

Riding their longest winning streak of the season, the Utes can finally turn their attention to rival Brigham Young and its 44-game home winning streak. The teams will meet at the Marriott Center on Wednesday night, and a victory for the Utes surely would rank as their biggest since the NCAA Tournament run nearly three years ago.

"We're going to go down there and play hard, and try to get the win," guard Lawrence Borha said.

Can they do it?

After all, the Cougars looked pretty unstoppable in waxing UNLV 74-48 last night, and the Utes have lost three of their last four games in Provo. But the Utes are increasingly capable, I think, of beating just about anyone if they're playing their best defense and hitting some shots.

What do you think the Utes will have to do, in order to impede the Cougars' march to the regular-season title -- except, obviously, avoiding a nearly 7-minute scoring drought? Enjoy a big game from Luke Nevill? Stop Lee Cummard? Take the crowd out of the game? Let's hear your best strategies and suggestions ...

Overall, great night for the Utes.

Watching them honor dozens of former players was a terrific experience -- so was meeting many of them, at the pre-game luncheon -- and seeing the Utes recover from that atrocious start to beat San Diego State 72-66 at the Huntsman Center tonight has to be heartening for coach Jim Boylen. After all, the Utes already have won more games than either of the last two seasons.

"I talk about Big Ten basketball and I talk about things being slowed down and ugly and physical," he said. "And that was the game of it. But we can play that way, too."

Yes, they can.

After falling behind 11-0, the Utes outscored the Aztecs 28-15 the rest of the first half, and simply raced past them in the second. The Utes scored 44 points after halftime -- the third straight game they have scored that many points in the second half.

Not bad for a team that, a year ago, probably would have seen an 11-0 deficit and curled up into a little ball until the clock ran out.

"Coach always talks about mental toughness," guard Lawrence Borha said, "and our team is getting better at it. ... We're a good team, and we're getting better every day."

Had to chuckle when guard Lawrence Borha said the San Diego State Aztecs "disrespected me, in a way" by leaving him open so much during the Utes' 72-66 victory at the Huntsman Center today.

How much respect did he think he deserved, anyway?

The junior had reached double-figures in scoring exactly once in the last 16 games, averaged all of 5.8 points in the six since getting 12 against Brigham Young, and shot 5-of-15 in his last three. It's not exactly Larry Bird we're talking about here.

But still, no harm done.

It's just always interesting to see the ways in which players find motivation in supposed disrespect, warranted or not. And certainly, the 22 points (on 7-for-11 shooting, with four rebounds and three steals) that Borha scored were a crucial part of their fourth straight victory -- even if the Aztecs are clearly an outfit headed in the wrong direction.

"Lawrence Borha was a man today," coach Jim Boylen said. "I was proud of him."

To me, the most impressive part was that Borha enjoyed his strong game after an abysmal start in which he committed a foul, missed a lay-up and committed two turnovers while the Utes failed to score for the first 6:38 of the game.

Don't get too excited about that winning streak just yet, though.

The Utes have four of their next six on the road, starting with league-leading Brigham Young next week. Win that, and the Utes really have something going. Naturally, I'm still pulling for them to finish either fourth or fifth in the league, if only to avoid those late-night games in the conference tournament.

Among other items worth mentioning:

-- While failing to score for 6:38 to start the game, the Utes missed their first six shots while committing six turnovers. In fact, they had 10 turnovers in the first half, but only two the rest of the way.

-- How thankful do you suppose Shaun Green is that he hit that three-pointer with 1:25 left that essentially sealed the game for the Utes? He had not scored to that point, and played only about 20 minutes because of foul trouble after saying how embarrassing it would be to play poorly in front of so many of his former basketball heroes.

-- The Utes shared third place in the Mountain West Conference for about 4 1/2 hours, until New Mexico finished putting a lickin' on TCU down at The Pit. The Utes are now alone in fourth, a half-game ahead of the Aztecs.

-- No sellout? That's just sad.

-- Center Luke Nevill didn't allow San Diego State's Lorrenzo Wade to posterize him with a dunk this time, but he did manage to get himself embarrassingly rim-checked on a dunk attempt from the baseline. But, hey, he's only 7-foot-1, right? Nevill finished with 10 points, five rebounds and a pair of blocks.

-- Forward Kim Tillie enjoyed a terrific sequence midway through the second half that helped the Utes reclaim the lead. First, he missed a three-pointer, but tipped the rebound out to a teammate, then tipped in Luka Drca's missed shot to give the Utes a 49-48 lead. Moments later, he makes a steal, gets fouled and makes two free throws for a 51-48 edge that the Utes never relinquished. "I've mentioned this to you guys before, about my size 13 up somebody's ass," Boylen said. "And I put it up his at halftime, because I thought he was playing a little selfish, and he was trying for his offense too much, trying to be the hero. ... I give him credit, for changing his mindset." Tillie finished with nine rebounds, four points and two blocked shots.

-- We inadvertently left Jeff Jonas off our list of prospective All-Century Team selections earlier this week. So whose family do you suppose was asking me to take a photo for them as I walked back across the court after the game? You guessed it. Jonas was great about it, though, even if he did have a fair beef.

-- Coach Jim Boylen is getting perilously close to jumping the shark with his post-game speeches. Granted, he picked a worthy occasion today, but it was also the fourth time this season he's done it. Isn't it probably about time now for him to pack that stunt up until next season, at least?

Quick update from the pre-game luncheon the Utes held with their former players who will be honored at halftime today ...

Alex Jensen unexpectedly made it, having arranged to attend the game and get back in time to help former coach Rick Majerus lead their St. Louis Billikens against UMass at Amherst on Sunday. However, Luther "Ticky" Burden and Merv Jackson weren't able to make it, and Andre Miller has yet to arrive, having been stuck at the airport in Denver and unable to catch a stand-by flight to Salt Lake City.

Haven't seen Andrew Bogut yet, either, but the Utes have their fingers crossed. They're expecting something on the order of 120 former players for the halftime ceremony ...

Judging by another perspective of today's game between the Utes and San Diego State at the Huntsman Center, the Utes might just be lined up with the perfect match-up for a big victory.

The Aztecs not only can't shoot from three-point range without suspended forward Kyle Spain -- making them the perfect candidate for a zone defense -- but they are also poor at defending it, which makes them a potentially perfect victim if the Utes get hot themselves.

Which, you know, they have been known to do.

What's more, forward Billy White has gone from Freshman of the Year front-runner to scoring only two points in his last two games combined, and the Aztecs have lost four of six overall and 24 of 25 meetings in Salt Lake City.

No wonder the Utes are a 7 1/2-point favorite.

Seemingly the only thing than could derail the Utes today is nerves. But the Utes said they're focused on not letting down the basketball heroes will be watching them today during the All-Century celebrations at the Huntsman Center.

"To come out here and, say, lay an egg and not win the game and not play very good would just be just demoralizing to us," forward Shaun Green said. "It would be just embarrassing. So we're going to come out here probably with the most intensity all year, just for the simple fact that we don't want to let them down, let alone let ourselves down."

On the one hand, the Utes are expecting a good crowd to watch the ceremony with the All-Century Team at halftime of their game against San Diego State at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

But on the other ... shouldn't it be even better?

Somehow, the Utes still have not sold out the game -- in spite of riding a three-game winning streak, hosting the greatest players in school history for an historic ceremony and celebration, and offering $1 tickets for seats in the upper bowl.

Huh?

Shouldn't this game have been sold out at least a week ago?

Granted, it might wind up sold out yet -- the Utes said they had 1,000 tickets remaining at mid-day today -- but still, the fact that fans don't seem to be clamoring for tickets to such an event celebrating such a tradition-rich program doesn't exactly speak well to the size and enthusiasm of the constituency.

Just remember, though, those $1 tickets will revert back to their normal price on game day. You know, just in case anybody wants them.

Nobody has noticed more painfully than Shaun Green himself, just how much his three-point shooting has fallen off this season. For everything else Green has improved since last year, his long-range accuracy has taken a dramatic dip.

Heck, he's shooting even worse than his freshman year -- hitting only 36.7 percent from outside the arc.

That's not empirically horrible, but for a shooter who led the Mounatin West Conference and set a school record by hitting 51.6 percent of his shots last year, it's more than a little disturbing.

"I think I'm trying to focus on other things, not necessarily just to be out on the three-point line and shoot it every time I get it," he said. "I'm trying to get my teammates open, trying to get Luke [Nevill] the ball and establish the inside game, so that down the stretch they can't just double him or deny our shooters -- so they have to play man-up on us.

"Then again, I feel like teams don't really leave me very much anymore," he added. "Last year, I felt like teams didn't leave Johnnie [Bryant], they left me open -- I was a big person that they just left open, and I had open shot after open shot. This year, I think they're not leaving me or Johnnie, they're making other people step up. Which is fine, but I've still missed way too many open shots."

Indeed, while Green has focused on other aspects of his game and maybe not been quite as open quite as much, he still is squeezing off slightly more three-point shots per game than last year -- nearly 4.5, on average -- while Bryant has managed to improve his shooting to a career-best 46.5 percent from three-point range despite all of the defensive attention.

"I'm in the gym all the time, working on it," Green said. "So hopefully, one of these games, I'll break out again."

The Utes returned to practice today, after taking a day off that allowed coach Jim Boylen to travel to Atlanta to have a look at Jeremy Olsen, a 6-foot-10 center from Collins Hill High School in nearby Suwanee, Ga.

Didn't even have travel problems with the weather, either.

Apparently, Boylen was able to join a couple of boosters who just happened to be traveling to Atlanta at the same time on their private jet, so Boylen arrived home safely early this morning, despite that nasty blizzard that blew through.

At any rate, Olsen lived in Utah as a young boy, maintains a 4.0 grade-point average, and has been receiving offers from quite a list of schools -- including Brigham Young, Xavier, Providence, Auburn and Notre Dame. He's a junior this season, meaning he would be part of the 2009 recruiting class.

Wonder what kind of challenge the Utes are going to get from San Diego State at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, considering the Aztecs lost for the fourth time in six games last night.

And at home, to boot, to one of the league's weakest road teams.

The Aztecs fell to New Mexico 73-63 at Cox Arena, having never really been in the game after a sluggish start -- and without suspended forward Kyle Spain. By virtue of that, the Utes can move all alone into third place if they beat the Aztecs and the Lobos somehow lose at home to TCU on Saturday.

Worst case, though, a victory puts them in a tie for fourth -- hardly a small accomplishment this late in the season, for a team that by this time last year was circling the drain. And my guess on the Aztecs? Let's just say they're on the way down.

Coach Jim Boylen acknowledged the other day that around Christmas, he gave senior guard Johnnie Bryant "the green light" to shoot whenever he feels like he has a shot, even if he's closely guarded.

So how much has that paid off?

In wins and losses, not as much. The Utes are 7-5 since Christmas, after starting 7-3. But the Utes have enjoyed much better production out of Bryant -- which has been a huge key in winning four of their last five games, going into their game against San Diego State at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

Bryant is shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 48.9 percent from three-point range since getting the green light, and averaging 16.8 points per game.

And though his overall shooting percentage is down from 54 percent in the first 10 games, he has drastically improved his three-point shooting from 41.5 percent and his scoring average from 11.2 points per game. He's also taking about two more shots per game -- both of them three-pointers, on average.

"He has responded," Boylen said. "I think he has respected the game, I don't think he has forced a lot of shots, I really don't."

Bryant has had only two certifiably bad games since Christmas, going a combined 5-for-25 at home against Brigham Young and Wyoming -- and the Utes lost both games. Take those games out, and he's shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 53.2 percent from three-point range and averaging 18.6 points per game.

To me, that's a very tangible example of how the Utes appear to slowly be getting more comfortable with Boylen and his system.

Of course, Bryant's shooting is not a pure barometer for winning and losing. He had 25 points against New Mexico, for example, and the Utes still lost. Just as important an indicator seems to be whether he gets much help from his teammates.

In four of the five losses since Christmas, the Utes have had only two other players reach double-figures in scoring. The lone exception? When three others reached double figures but the Utes still lost by two at Gonzaga.

In other words, Bryant isn't the only one who needs to keep shooting.

Had wonderful conversations with a couple of outstanding old Utes last night -- Arnie Ferrin and Billy McGill, both of whom said they're thrilled to be joining dozens of other former Utes at the All-Century celebration this weekend.

And both of them also said they're working on books.

Ferrin is working with his son on a project -- it might even include a film -- about his 1944 team, the group of nine young players who wound up winning the NCAA Tournament in the midst of World War II after losing in the first round of the NIT to legendary coach Adolph Rupp and his Kentucky Wildcats. The Utes joined the NCAA field on their way home from the NIT loss, in place of an Arkansas team that had to pull out after it was involved in a tragic car accident that kept two of their starters from ever walking again -- and became the only team in tournament history to win the title with four freshman starters.

"It's a fun story," he recalled.

Meanwhile, McGill has been working on an autobiography since getting laid off -- "tapped on the shoulder," as he put it -- from his job in requisitions with Grumman Aerospace near Los Angeles last year and discovering deep in his closet a handwritten manuscript that he had started writing 35 years ago.

"I was cleaning out and I said, 'Wow, I had forget all about it.' It was just pages and pages about my whole life," he said. "I think it's going to be quite a fascinating book, if I can get it finished, which I know I will."

McGill said he spends five to six hours a day writing and typing his manuscript, in between a community college computer class, and hopes to find a publisher by the spring. Oh, and one other thing. McGill plans to dedicate the book to his "beloved coach Jack Gardner and the fans of Utah."

By the way, only four members of the All-Century Team will not attend the ceremony at halftime of the Utes' game against San Diego State on Saturday.

Bill Kinner and Vern Gardner, of course, are deceased. And Alex Jensen and Jeff Judkins both have coaching responsibilities. Judkins is the head coach of the Brigham Young women's team that plays at UNLV that night, while Jensen is an assistant to legendary Utah coach Rick Majerus at St. Louis, and the Billikens play at Massachusetts on Sunday afternoon.

So the Utes announced their All-Century Team today, to little surprise.

All of the usual suspects were on it -- from Andrew Bogut and Andre Miller to Billy McGill and Keith Van Horn -- as well as a couple that we left off our list of most likely candidates, including Jeff Jonas and Alex Jensen.

Terrific players, both, but All-Century? At the same time the Utes left out All-Americans such as Glen Smith, Art Bunte, Merv Jackson, Mike Sojourner and Luther Burden, the fifth-leading scorer in school history?

Well, maybe so.

That's the beauty of lists like this one, they're just built for such arguments. But we'd be interested to know what you think. Did the Utes get it right -- they must have been pretty close, in your opinion, considering fans voted for the team -- or is there somebody you think should or should not be on the team?

Hope everybody saw our look at the All-Century Team that the Utes plan to unveil today, along with our proposed list of the most likely candidates to make the 16-member team.

Think we got 'em all?

We compiled our list of 21 candidates largely based on the most accomplished Utes -- the all-time leading scorers, the championship winners, the All-Americans and the players who have had their jerseys retired.

But in 100 years of basketball, there have been plenty of great players and great moments whom some fans might feel deserve inclusion instead of others. The Utes used a photo of Manny Hendrix, for example, in the big advertisement they bought to promote the All-Century Team. Wonder if that means anything ...

So I asked San Diego State's Steve Fisher specifically on the Mountain West Conference's weekly conference call with its coaches today whether there was any chance that suspended forward Kyle Spain would play against the Utes on Saturday.

He declined to answer, sounding more than a little condescending when he said he didn't "think it was appropriate" to talk about Spain.

Which is fine. Coaches are like that, sometimes.

But then Fisher turned around a short time later and announced to only his local media that Spain will be out for the rest of the season, meaning the Utes should get a bit of an advantage when the Aztecs visit the Huntsman Center on Saturday.

Classy.

In any case, coach Jim Boylen isn't sure that the Aztecs are much different without Spain. He noted during his weekly press conference today that Spain's replacement, junior Kelvin Davis, is a similar player who scored 15 points in a loss at TCU last weekend.

"Spain might have a little more length and a little more athleticism," Boylen said, "but they're both spacing, catch-and-shoot guys. ... In the structure of their offense, he fills the same role."

We already knew the Utes are going to have a heck of a home schedule next season, with Cal, Oregon and Gonzaga all making return trips to the Huntsman Center after the Utes played those teams on the road this season.

But coach Jim Boylen didn't stop there.

The Utes also have lined up a home-and-home series against Oklahoma starting next season, Boylen confirmed, and a home-and-home series against Michigan starting in 2010. The Utes will meet both teams on the road first, if I recall correctly, meaning the Sooners will visit in 2009-10 and the Wolverines will come in 2011-12.

So much for the good old days of Cardinal Stritch, eh?

Fans who want to see dozens of former players take part in a celebration of 100 years of basketball at the university -- including honoring the All-Century Team -- can buy tickets to the Utes' game against San Diego State on Saturday for just $1 -- or 100 cents.

The ceremony will take place at halftime of the game, which starts at 2 p.m.

The cheap tickets in the upper bowl of the Huntsman Center are available through Friday, either at 801-581-UTIX, online at www.UtahUtes.com or at the Rice-Eccles Stadium ticket office.

The first 10,000 fans at the game also will receive a commemorative cup, celebrating the 100 years of Utah basketball. The cup also features the names of all 16 members of the All-Century Team, which will be announced on Tuesday.

Hard to say whether the Utes will be facing a full-strength San Diego State team at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, with Aztecs forward Kyle Spain -- the guy who had 19 points and five rebounds against them in the overtime victory last month -- having been suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

Coach Steve Fisher declined to speculate on the Mountain West Conference's weekly teleconference today whether Spain will be available for either of the Aztecs games this week. The Aztecs play host to New Mexico on Wednesday night before meeting the Utes.

"I don't think it's appropriate" to talk about Spain, Fisher said.

Fisher said Spain remains indefinitely suspended, seemingly because of an academic issue. Assistant athletic director Mike May told a reporter last week that Spain was dealing with such a matter.

Not having Spain was a big part of the Aztecs' loss at TCU over the weekend, though leading scorer Lorrenzo Wade took the blame for not playing better.

"My teammates did their job," he said. "I could have done more to help them."

Spain is the second-leading scorer for the Aztecs at 13.2 points per game, and he also averages 5.4 rebounds and shoots 80 percent from the free-throw line. If the Utes don't have to worry about him, their chances of exacting revenge seem to get a lot better.

The last time Johnnie Bryant won the Mountain West Conference's player of the week award, he came out the next game and shot a miserable 2-for-15 in an abysmal home loss to Wyoming.

The Utes hope that doesn't happen again.

With a crucial home game against San Diego State coming up at the Huntsman Center on Saturday, Bryant has won the league's weekly award for the second time in three weeks -- becoming the first Utah player to win it more than once in a season since Andrew Bogut won it five times in the 2004-05 season.

Bryant shared the award with New Mexico's J.R. Giddens, who averaged 27.5 points in wins over Colorado State and Wyoming. Bryant averaged "only" 21.5 points, but he certainly played a pivotal role in victories over UNLV and Air Force. The senior guard scored a season-high 26 points in knocking the Rebels out of first place, then led the team again with 17 points in its first victory at Air Force in three years.

And speaking of Air Force's Jeff Reynolds ...

I defy anybody to dispute that he's the long-lost twin of "The Count," from Sesame Street. Which, of course, I mean only in the most complimentary way.

The Count was among my favorite characters on the show -- well, him and Cookie Monster -- and Reynolds seems like a great guy who made an instant impression at the annual preseason media day with a lengthy discussion about our shared interest in long-distance running (he has bad knees, though, and can't run as much as he once did). Still, I can't look at him without starting to count something -- last night, it was missed Falcon free throws -- much the way I can't look at coach Jim Boylen and not see the actor Jeff Daniels.

"... where the beer flows like wine." Discuss.

We're not going to lie about it.

We needed the Utes to win that game at Air Force last night, if they're going to grab the fourth or fifth seed and avoid the late-night, deadline games at the Mountain West Conference tournament next month.

(Yeah, it's all about us writers ...)

But I'm still most surprised by coach Jeff Reynolds' reaction to the loss -- sounding almost as if he's already reached the end of his rope, barely halfway through his first season with the Falcons.

"I did a bad job," he said.

Wow.

At least he wasn't Heath Scrhroyer.

The Wyoming coach watched his lowly Cowboys mail in another dreadful loss, this time at New Mexico -- where J.R. Giddens erupted for a career-high 36 points in a 100-55 victory at The Pit.

That left the Utes in a tie with the Lobos for fourth place in the league, with a big game against San Diego State coming up next weekend. The Aztecs dropped into third place with a 68-62 loss at TCU on Saturday, a game they played without forward Kyle Spain, who was suspended indefinitely Friday for a violation of team policy.

In other action, UNLV maintained its hold on second place with a with a 68-51 victory over Colorado State that gave coach Lon Kruger the 400th win of his distinguished career.

Having broken out of a slumping start just in time to help the Utes take the lead against Air Force early in the second half of their eventual 67-59 victory at Air Force last night, guard Johnnie Bryant acknowledged that he sometimes breaks from the offense when he's feeling hot.

"Sometimes," he said. "I try to be smart about it. Coach gives me the freedom to do it, so if I do it, I have to make it."

He certainly did it against the Falcons.

With the Utes still trailing 34-29 after guard Lawrence Borha buried a three-pointer, Bryant buried a three of his own -- he had made only one of his first five shots -- and started a personal tear that included two more threes in the next three minutes that helped the Utes use a 14-4 run to build a 43-38 lead that they never relinquished.

"I did it in the second half, right in front of the bench, and it went in," Bryant said. "So it was kind of like a get-out-of-jail-free pass."

Guard Johnnie Bryant was saying after the Utes beat Air Force 67-59 at Clune Arena tonight how their 10-point halftime deficit "could have been worse."

Boy, was he right.

The Utes almost threw the game away late in the first half, when center Luke Nevill picked up a technical foul for complaining about his second personal -- the technical gave him three fouls -- and forced guard Johnnie Bryant to physically restrain coach Jim Boylen to keep him from getting a technical of his own while arguing with the referees.

"Me being a leader, I have to do stuff like that," Bryant said. "I told him, you know, they don't want us to melt down, he can't melt down, either."

The Utes trailed 28-20 at the time, and faced the prospect of falling behind by a dozen.

But Air Force's Tim Anderson -- the third-leading free-throw shooter in school history -- missed one of the two technical shots, and Adam Hood missed both of the regular foul shots.

And even after Utah's Shaun Green tipped Hood's second missed shot out of bounds, Anderson again wound up making just 1 of 2 free throws, forcing the Falcons to take only a 30-20 lead into halftime. Had the lead been larger, who knows? The Utes might never have climbed back into the game.

As Bryant said, it could have been much worse.

Coach Jim Boylen was right -- guards Carlon Brown and Luka Drca were a "great combination" for the Utes in their 67-59 victory over Air Force today at Clune Arena.

"We haven't played them together that much," Boylen said. "It has been one or the other, and I thought that was a great combination for us, at least today, with Carlon driving and pitching, Luka driving and pitching. They have great chemistry in practice, and we started thinking, 'Hey, maybe we need to play those guys together some.'"

Good call.

The dynamic duo almost singlehandedly propeled the Utes to victory from a tie game with about eight minutes left, scoring 11 points (and grabbing at least two crucial offensive rebounds) during a game-breaking 13-5 run. And sure, Drca did miss two free throws and heave a poor inbounds pass that Air Force's Andrew Henke stole and nearly turned into a game-tightening three-pointer in the final minute, but he bounced back with two fouls shots that gave the Utes their winning margin.

"The ball was in my hands, coach believes in me to make plays at the end, I just executed our offense," he said.

Drca scored 12 points to tie his career-high, while Brown scored six -- all in the decisive run -- and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds. "My man didn't go to the boards," he said, "so I just snatched up everything I could."

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill scored 13 points for the Utes, but seldom seemed a factor. He grabbed only two of the rebounds in the Utes' most overwhelming rebounding performance since the season opener, and his teammate frequently seemed to have trouble getting him the ball against the Falcon zone. Nevill also seemed to aggravate his nagging left wrist injury.

-- While the Utes finally snapped an 0-for-7 streak of games in which they trailed at halftime, they also improved to 14-0 this season when leading with five minutes left.

-- The Falcons lost their second straight home game, following a loss to Brigham Young on Jan. 30, something that hadn't happened in nearly five years. That time? The Falcons lost to Utah and BYU, as well.

-- Referees were calling just about everything in the game, and the Utes wound up with four players with four fouls. Guard Lawrence Borha picked up his four in a quick 18 minutes.

-- Coach Jeff Reynolds took the blame for not having his Falcons better prepared for the Utes, and stunningly suggested he might be making a mistake with his offense. "As a coach, you wonder if you're running the wrong system for the guys," he said. "We didn't make adjustments, and they did. This was hard to swallow today. I can't blame it on the kids. This was my fault. Our guys played hard, and that’s all I can ask."

One other tidbit ... turns out former All-American Keith Van Horn is attending game today, sitting just behind the Utes bench. Van Horn has lived with his family near Denver since leaving the NBA, and is expected to join dozens of former teammates next weekend for the 100th anniversary celebration at the Huntsman Center.

One last thought before the Utes tip off against the Falcons here at Clune Arena ...

The Utes have lost three of their last four road games, and center Luke Nevill has been decidedly less effective away from home in the Mountain West Conference season. While he's averaging 22.3 points and 6.3 rebounds in his last three home games, he's getting only 11 points and 7.3 rebounds in his last three on the road.

On the plus side?

The Falcons don't have anybody who can guard him, and seem to be entirely dependent on senior guard Tim Anderson.

If he can score, they can win. If not, they're screwed -- witness the mere 38 points they scored at San Diego State the other night. Anderson managed only seven points in the loss at Utah last month -- the Utes have been pretty good at smothering top scorers -- and averages only 11.5 points in Falcon league losses. In their league wins, he's getting 22.5 points per game.

Looks like the Air Force Falcons are feeling a lot like the Utes, as the teams prepare to open the second half of the league season today at Clune Arena.

The Falcons have played "better than a lot of people expected," junior forward Matt Holland said, "but we feel like we can do a lot better."

The Utes feel pretty much the same way, even though they were picked to finish third in the league, yet have only the same league record as the Falcons who were picked to finish eighth in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll.

The Utes are 2-point favorites, by the way, even though they have lost their last two road meetings with the Falcons by an average of 24 points.

Now that the Utes are halfway through the Mountain West Conference season, it's time to try to figure how well they can fare in the second half.

Any thoughts?

My initial suspicion was that the Utes would fare about the same over the second half as they did in the first, but now I'm wondering whether the victory over UNLV should make me reconsider. It was a valuable victory, for sure, but the Utes have enjoyed other impressive wins this season and usually failed to build on them.

Have they finally turned a corner?

At the risk of embarrassing myself, then, I'll go ahead and predict that the Utes will go 5-3 over the second half of the season, starting with a victory at Air Force this weekend.

After all, the Utes have generally played harder and better -- if not always with attendant success -- against tough opponents in tough situations than they have against teams that aren't expected to challenge them much, and I'm thinking that the memory of blowout losses on their last two trips to Clune Arena will help keep them properly focused this time.

After that, the Utes should be able to exact revenge on San Diego State at home -- the Utes will be honoring their All-Century team after a week off, while the Aztecs play New Mexico three days before -- but probably won't be able to handle rival Brigham Young at the Marriott Center.

New Mexico isn't a good road team, and the Utes have the Lobos at home, so I'll call that another victory. But something makes me feel as if the Utes will find a way to let down and lose one of their next two games, at TCU or at Wyoming. But one of them, they'll win.

Then, they will beat Colorado State easily at home, before falling (badly, is my guess, after the other night) to UNLV in Las Vegas in the regular-season finale. That would make them 18-11 overall and 9-7 in league play, definitely an impressive turnaround from last year.

You think I'm close? Or way up in the night? Drop a comment, and let me know. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for our midseason report that's scheduled to run in the newspaper tomorrow ...

You might have seen a link to it over at my colleague Jay Drew's recruiting blog, but The Oregonian ran a story today detailing the ongoing recruitment of Brad Tinsley, whom the Utes would love to land.

Only problem is, they don't have a scholarship available next season.

At any rate, the article explains how the Utes are among the teams that have had representatives attending Tinsley's games at Oregon City High School in Oregon -- Arizona State, Oregon and Fresno State are among the others -- and that Tinsley's father estimates his son has received at least 15 scholarship offers since being released from his commitment to Pepperdine.

Thankfully, the Utes are finally getting back into the free-throw rhythm that had so abandoned them during their rough three-game losing streak earlier this season.

You remember, right?

The Utes had been shooting some 80 percent from the line over a 10-game stretch, only to melt down and hit only 18 of 33 free throws in consecutive losses to San Diego State, Brigham Young and New Mexico. But in their last four games -- three of them wins -- they have hit 64 of 84 foul shots for a solid 76.2 percent.

"The thing that helped us" in the 81-73 win over UNLV "was making our foul shots," center Luke Nevill said.

And nobody was more relieved than Luka Drca.

The backup guard had made only 3 of 8 foul shots since the slump began last month, and had helped kill the Utes in their three straight losses by missing the front end of one-on-one opportunities during crunch time in each one.

But against the Rebels, he stepped up and made four straight in the final 34 seconds, part of a 10-for-10 stretch in the last two minutes that allowed the Utes to hang on for the win. The Utes made a season-high 23 of 28 free throws in the game.

"Luka takes so long to shoot his foul shot that you kind of get antsy about it," Nevill acknowledged with a chuckle. "But he knocked them down when they counted, and it was good for him."

Everybody knows by now that the only downside to the Utes snapping their five-game losing streak against UNLV last night is that they also gave rival Brigham Young the inside track to another regular-season Mountain West Conference championship.

Not that the Utes professed to care.

"We're not worried about that," guard Johnnie Bryant said, studiously avoiding the easy opportunity for a glib one-liner. "We're just worrying about getting better each day and, you know, taking care of ourselves. We can't worry about everybody else."

Of course, the Utes can still affect the race by beating the Cougars on the road on Feb. 20 -- although the Cougs' homecourt winning streak figures to stand at 44 games by then. On the other hand, snapping such a streak would make a rivalry victory all the sweeter.

And the victory over the Rebels seems to suggest the Utes have a legitimate chance to do a lot better over their current four-game, season-defining stretch that I would have previously imagined. I figured they would be fortunate to win even two of those games -- against UNLV, at Air Force, against San Diego State and at BYU. But now, winning three of them doesn't seem out of the question, even though winning in Provo still seems a bit of a stretch.

Well, how about that?

Looks like the oddsmakers were onto something, when they made the Utes a 3-point favorite against UNLV tonight. And the Utes might be onto something, too, having proven the gamblers right by hanging on for an impressive 81-73 victory over the Rebels at the Huntsman Center.

"It's a real big win for us," guard Johnnie Bryant said.

No kidding.

Of course, the standard caution applies -- that the Utes have to "handle success" after a big victory and not let down at Air Force on Saturday. But snapping a five-game losing streak to the defending tournament champions shows just how good they can be when they play well.

"It's a sign of growing," coach Jim Boylen said, not wanting to label the victory a "signature" win. "We didn't win the Super Bowl, but it's a game we can refer to" down the line.

The thing that stuck out to me was how well the Utes were able to keep the Rebels from running. Neither team officially registered a fast-break point, and the Rebels made a season-low two steals and forced only nine turnovers. That's exactly the opposite of what they prefer.

It's a sign of good coaching, too, that Boylen could recognize that the Rebels really are not a very good shooting team, and that they derive much of their offense from that pressure defense. If you can avoid that, then, you have a pretty good chance.

"They turn you over, and lay it up," Boylen said. "They turn you over and get free throws from transition situations, and I think we did a good job" not allowing that to happen.

The Utes were fortunate that both Bryant and center Luke Nevill had big nights, too, with a season-high 26 points apiece, because nobody else did anything offensively. While Bryant and Nevill combined to shoot 19-for-27 for 52 points, the rest of the Utes were 7-for-26 for 29 points. But that just goes to show that opposing teams can survive allowing one Ute to erupt, but not two.

Two can get you beat.

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill compiled 26 points, four rebounds, three assists and three blocks, and "played pretty well with this [size] 13 up his ass," Boylen said, lifting his foot. "That's what turned it around. I thought he responded to coaching tonight, to put it softly. He responded to coaching."

-- The Utes improved to 13-1 this season when leading at halftime, having led 37-35 at the break. Good thing, too, because they're 0-7 when they trail at halftime.

-- Riverton's Joe Darger led the Rebels with 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including four three-pointers. He also grabbed three rebounds, but had a tough time guarding Nevill in the post.

-- The Utes impressively held UNLV's Wink Adams to 11 points, all in the second half. Adams is their leading scorer at nearly 16 points per game, but shot only 3-for-11 and uncharacteristically committed four turnovers with only one assist. "We've been doing that all year to everybody, haven't we?" Boylen said. "That's what we do. I think you have to take the best guy out, make him work for it, make somebody else beat you."

By the way ... the Utes are somewhat surprisingly 3-point favorite against UNLV tonight at the Huntsman Center, according to the folks at Covers.com

Surprisingly, because the Utes are riding a five-game losing streak against the Rebels, who have won 13 of their last 15, as well as five of seven on the road, and coach Lon Kruger is aiming for his 400th career victory. (The Rebels also are 12-5-1 against the spread, nearly the best in the league.) But then again, the Utes have played the better teams on their schedule a lot tougher than some of the others, even if the result hasn't always come out their way.

Should be interesting to see how the Utes might adapt to UNLV's pressure defense when the teams meet tonight at the Huntsman Center.

After all, Wyoming had success in guarding center Luke Nevill one-on-one to keep the rest of the Utes from hurting them, and the Rebels appear to be built precisely for that kind of strategy.

"What they do, is they put so much pressure on the ball that they figure you're not going to be able to feed the post because you're not going to be able to pass the ball," coach Jim Boylen said. "They impact ball-handling so well that sometimes it's hard to get the ball inside."

It's something of an insulting strategy, too.

Essentially, the Cowboys did not believe that Nevill was capable of beating them by himself, no matter how many shots he might have taken against their undersized single coverage. (He had 25 points and nine rebounds, but the Cowboys won 69-64.) And you can bet the Rebels probably think the same thing, especially if they can limit his touches by preventing entry passes into the post.

Besides, history suggests they're on to something.

Nevill has never beaten the Rebels, and usually plays solidly but unspectacularly against them. In four of the five Utah losses during his career, Nevill has averaged 13 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 44 percent. His one monster game came during the Mountain West Conference tournament last season, when he scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds ... but the rest of his teammates were abysmal in an 80-54 season-ending loss.

Utah's Morgan Grim and UNLV's Joe Darger basically grew up together in Riverton, and still keep in occasional touch and play ball together in the summer. That's why they're excited to see one another when the Utes meet the Rebels tonight at the Huntsman Center.

"It's always nice to actually go home and see the family and friends," Darger said.

And who knows?

The men might wind up guarding one another, if Grim should somehow get into the game when Darger's still on the floor -- though the odds seem slim, since Darger is the starting center for the Rebels and Grim usually doesn't play much unless the game has been decided.

In any case, it's interesting to note the similarities between the players. They're about the same size -- Grim is 6-foot-9 and 215 pounds, while Darger is 6-7 and 225 -- and were boyhood friends and teammates at Riverton High School, where Grim basically followed his predecessor's path to prep stardom. Darger averaged 22 points his senior year? Grim averaged 23, two years later. Darger was first-team all-state? Grim was the Class 5-A Most Valuable Player. Plus, they're both polite, quiet, hard-working players willing to do whatever their coaches ask.

Perhaps the only thing Grim did not replicate was Darger's polygamist home life -- his father John is married to two women -- profiled in the Las Vegas Review-Journal as well as The New York Times during the Rebels' fantastic 30-7 season last year.

"I'm good friends with his dad," Grim said. "I see his dad all the time. He lives up by where I live. ... He always wants Utah to do good, other than when we're playing UNLV. He's always talking about how he wants us to do good."

He almost had ever more reason to cheer for the Utes, too.

The Utes recruited Darger, who he said he nearly committed to former coach Rick Majerus when he was a junior at Riverton four years ago. But he held off, Majerus quit, and he didn't feel a "good match" with new coach Ray Giacoletti. Not much later, he wound up at UNLV.

Now, Darger said that although he occasionally hears jeers about his family background -- he has 17 siblings -- he has received nothing but support since it became popular knowledge with the newspaper articles last season.

"That's just the way I was grown up and I've had a fun time growing up," he said. "Definitely, I was never bored."

The Utes just announced that more than 100 former basketball players have confirmed they will attend the unveiling of the All-Century team at halftime of the game against San Diego State at the Huntsman Center on Feb. 16.

Among the most notable attendees -- Andrew Bogut, Tom Chambers, Mike Doleac, Arnie Ferrin, Josh Grant, Pace Mannion, Billy McGill, Andre Miller, Wat Misaka and Keith Van Horn.

Tickets for the game are on sale at www.UtahUtes.com, by calling 801-581-UTIX or by stopping by the Rice-Eccles Stadium ticket office. Fans who attend the game also will receive a commemorative cup emblazoned with the names of each All-Century team member.

Coach Jim Boylen called them "one of the better ... teams in the country, with the way they're playing," which might come as a surprise to those who figured the UNLV Rebels might dip a bit after losing four starters from last year's Sweet 16 team.

"But they have gelled so well," Boylen said, "And defensively, I don't think they have lost a step. You have to give coach Kruger credit on that, what they've done. They have had guys buy in and they're playing as a team."

The Utes figure to get all they can handle, then, when the Rebels visit the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night riding a five-game winning streak overall, a five-game winning streak against the Utes, and a stretch of 13 wins in their last 15 games.

"Definitely a top 20 team, to me," Boylen said.

Junior guard Wink Adams and junior forward Joe Darger make the Rebels go offensively -- Adams leads the team by scoring 15.9 pints per game, while Darger right behind at 12.4 -- but Boylen believes it's the defense that has made the most difference.

"Defensively, the way they play, the effort they give is part of it," he said. "They seem very comfortable in their roles." Swingman Curtis Terry "is a creator," Boylen said. Adams "knows he has to score, and does." Guard Rene Rougeau "takes what the defense gives him and will make plays." Forward Corey Bailey "is an older guy who takes pride in his defense and plays off the other two guards and makes enough plays to help them win." And center Joe Darger "is a spacing guy who has improved his toughness and his defense."

"So I think they have all kind of made a personal commitment to doing the roles and also putting the team first and I think that shows on the films," he said. "It's impressive."

Just got off the phone with UNLV's Joe Darger, the former Riverton High School star who once teammed with Utah's Morgan Grim and almost became a Ute himself.

"I was real close to committing there," he said.

That was back when Darger was a junior at RHS, and Rick Majerus was still coaching the Utes. "I was looking there and for some reason, I had a feeling not to commit yet," Darger recalled. "And then he ended up quitting like a week later, and I was like, 'Whoa, that was crazy.'"

Darger said he met new coach Ray Giacoletti, with whom he did not feel much of a connection. "He was a nice guy, but I just didn't feel like it was a good match for me," he said.

So Darger joined coach Lon Kruger at UNLV, and the Utes ultimately signed forward Shaun Green -- a similar player from Olympus High School who was the Class 4-A Most Valuable Player the same year that Darger was leading Class 5-A by scoring 22 points per game.

It's hard to know whether Giacoletti and the Utes would have preferred to land Darger -- they didn't want to discuss his recruitment this week, beyond acknowledging they recruited him "a little bit" -- but certainly any choice between the two must have appeared to be a no-lose proposition.

Both are about the same size, both are deadly outside shooters, and both had great success in high school. And though Darger has grown into a starring role for a better team the past two years, Green has been a productive starter from the moment he joined the Utes -- though the Utes have not beaten the Rebels in five tries since Green and Darger started college, going into another meeting at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday.

Hope we didn't give the impression that all coach Jim Boylen talked about at his weekly press conference was the Super Bowl.

In fact, his answers to my questions about his favorite advertisement and so forth came only after a lengthy discussion about his team and the challenge it faces against league-leading UNLV at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night.

Among the first things Boylen wanted to talk about was his team's improved defense. And I can't say I blame him. The Utes are easily the best defensive team in the league in Mountain West Conference play, allowing just 58.7 points per game and 37.9 percent shooting -- including a scant 27.6 percent from three-point range.

That's a far cry from last season, when the Utes allowed 76 points and 50.2 percent shooting in league games. Opponents also hit 45.6 percent from long range against the Utes in league play.

"I have to give my team credit" for that, Boylen said. "It's an awesome stat. We have improved that since our preseason, our pre-conference season, and the coaches have done a great job of working at it. So I'm happy about that."

Now, if only they can score a few more baskets.

The Air Force Falcons, by the way, technically have best defense in league play, based on points allowed. But the 58.0 points they allow is significantly a function of their slow and deliberate style; after all, the Falcons aren't as good as the Utes at preventing good shooting percentages. They rank only fourth in league play by allowing 41.3 percent shooting, and 32.7 percent shooting from three-point range.

It wasn't the easiest weekend that guard Luka Drca ever spent, staying home serving a suspension while his fellow Utes traveled to play at Colorado State.

"It was even harder because the game wasn't on TV," he said. "The only game in conference that wasn't on TV. I was like, 'Oh, great.' Then, I just got a million text messages from teammates, coaches. I was talking to all of them. And after the game, they called me again."

That helped Drca not feel too lonely, though he said he spent the rest of the weekend shooting baskets by himself in the gym and watching game film in the coaches offices.

"That was it," he said. "Basically, nothing."

Needless to say, Drca is excited to be back in the lineup when the Utes play league leading UNLV at the Huntsman Center on Wednesday night.

Coach Jim Boylen said that while he had the game on, he did not concentrate much on the Super Bowl last night -- preferring to spend time with his daughters, instead.

But one thing that N.Y. Giants coach Tom Coughlin said during the week before the game stood out to him.

"He said, 'Excuses are for losers,'" Boylen said. "I think that's a lesson for everybody, in every situation. Things are going to happen, you're going to have problems, you're going to lose some games you shouldn't lose. But excuses are for losers."

Boylen also noted that he has the same book by legendary basketball coach John Wooden on the desk in his office that Couglin does. "John Wooden never talked about winning games," Boylen said. "He talked about his players getting better. And that's what we talk about in this program, too."

For the record, Boylen wasn't cheering for either team in particular. Naturally, he just liked the defense.

And now, the answer to the question you all have been desperately asking ... which Super Bowl ad did coach Jim Boylen like the most?

"The guy that's got the bottle of beer in the refrigerator and pulls it out and says, 'It's blue,'" he said, "and his wife is getting a pregnancy test and it shows up that she's pregnant and he's more excited about the beer being the right temperature."

Evidently, one part of the ad resonanted especially with Boylen -- the part when the man tells his wife that his beer bottle is "blue, like your eyes," only to have her yell from the other room that "my eyes are green!"

"I guess I've had that with my wife before," Boylen said, laughing. "You have beautiful blue eyes. 'They're brown!'"

Now, the Utes will face some real tests.

Having dispatched a disastrous Colorado State team last night to avoid a real spiral, they are about to enter a difficult stretch that could turn their season around -- if they can somehow survive it with more wins than losses.

Next up?

The UNLV Rebels, the defending tournament champions who are leading the league and playing well, coming off a smothering performance and 79-60 victory against sinking New Mexico last night. After that, it's Air Force on the road -- the Utes have lost three of the last four at Clune Arena -- and San Diego State at home, followed by Brigham Young on the road.

The Falcons are scraping along in about the same fashion as the Utes, fighting to find consistent effort and production -- though they beat TCU 56-46 at home on Saturday. Of course, the Horned Frogs were playing without leading scorer Henry Salter, who was injured in a loss at Utah last weekend.

The Aztecs, meanwhile, already have beaten the Utes in San Diego -- they had the weekend off -- while the Cougars beat them at the Huntsman Center and overcame foul trouble to win at Wyoming 73-63 on Saturday.. (The Cowboys helped, by missing all 15 three-pointers they attempted). The Cougars also have won 42 straight home games.

Clearly, that's the stretch that is going to define the season.

Coach Jim Boylen said that he told his assistant coaches before the Utes played Colorado State tonight that "somebody is going to have to step up for us to beat this team."

That somebody was freshman guard Carlon Brown.

While the 67-52 victory over the Rams at Moby Arena is not much to get excited about -- the Rams have lost 12 of 13 games, and not beaten a Division I team since Dec. 5 -- the performance of Brown certainly qualified. He had been virtually invisible in most of the last nine games, but scored a career-high 16 points with a career-high seven rebounds while getting some extra minutes in place of the suspended Luka Drca.

"We knew they were keying on Johnnie [Bryant], they were going to box-and-one him," Brown said. "And they were going to double Luke [Nevill], so the plan was to dive and hit the open man. I was the open man. I was open, I hit my shots, hit lay-ups, and we got it going."

Boylen was non-committal about whether the performance will earn Brown more minutes in the future -- he had averaged barely 11 in the last four games -- but acknowledged that his improved defense gives him a chance, considering that "his defense is what keeps him off the floor sometimes. Not his offense."

"His best performance of the year," Boylen said. "Not points. Everybody's going to look at the points. His defense -- what he did defensively tonight -- his rebounding, he was just active and athletic. Two blocks. ... That's who we envisioned him being."

Among other tidbits worth mentioning:

-- Center Luke Nevill was stunningly ineffective against an undersized team that he probably should have dominated. He finished with eight points on 1-for-6 shooting, and five rebounds.

-- The Utes held CSU's Willis Gardner scoreless for the first time all season. The junior transfer had been the team's second-leading scorer at 11.7 points per game.

-- Forward Sayre Brennan scored his first point of the season on a free throw with 1:04 remaining. Backup guard Chris Grant played only five minutes, with Brown doing such a good job in filling the role that Drca normally would have played.

Just a quick pre-game update ... for the first time, walk-on guard A.J. Reilly participated in pre-game warm-ups with the team after recovering enough from the knee injury that has kept him from playing yet.

Reilly just returned to practice in recent days. The 5-foot-9 freshman from San Diego originally injured his knee while playing with the football team as a walk-on. Will he play? That seems like a stretch, especially because he's still wearing a big brace on his knee.

Things are looking about as worrisome as they have all season for the Utes, even though they're playing the only winless team in the Mountain West Conference tonight.

Already short-handed, they won't have suspended guard Luka Drca against the Colorado State tonight at Moby Arena, they're not shooting well lately and they're meeting a Rams team that has the league's leading scorer and actually has been pretty competitive at home.

The Utes are 8-point favorites, though that might not be such hot news. The Utes are only 1-4 in their last five road games, including three straight losses -- the last two in overtime and the one before that by two points. Another one will put them at risk of having to win a play-in game next month just to reach the conference tournament.

For those of you who have access to The Mtn. -- all six of you, right? -- the network plans to debut a 30-minute program next week profiling the Utes' summertime exhibition tour of Australia.

The network's "A Day in the Life -- The Utah Men's Basketball Team in Australia" will premier on Monday at 7:30 p.m. It will feature footage shot by the players themselves, with a camera provided by the network, and include center Luke Nevill as the tour guide during the trip.

Can't wait to see the part where Nevill gets benched for not playing hard enough on defense.

Certainly, the Utes have no shortage of shortcomings about which you can complain. The lack of leadership, the poor judgment -- hey, Johnnie, maybe quit jackin' somewhere around 2-for-7, instead of 2-for-15? -- the stagnant offense and the inability to finish a game.

But one that is becoming an increasing concern for coach Jim Boylen is rebounding.

"We are getting hurt on the boards," he said.

The Utes have been outrebounded by an average of six boards over their last four games -- three of them losses. The discrepancy was never more glaring than against Wyoming, when 6-foot-1 guard Brad Jones grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds against them and the Cowboys outrebounded the Utes by eight, which would have been a season-worst had it not been for the debacle at Washington in the second game of the season.

In fact, since the Washington game, the Utes had not been outrebounded by more than five until they met San Diego State on Jan. 16. In the five games since then, however, they have been outrebounded by six or more four times -- including by seven against TCU and by eight against the Cowboys in the last two games.

And that has been particularly troubling because except for the TCU game, the Utes have not shot well in that span.

When that happens, you'd hope the team could gather more rebounds to earn second-chance opportunities. Instead, the Utes have averaged only 4.5 offensive rebounds in the last four games -- and only three in each of the last two.

"The more shots you miss, the higher your offensive rebounds should be," Boylen said. "So I'm concerned about our rebounding."

And don't go blaming center Luke Nevill for it all. He has actually grabbed more rebounds in the last four games -- about 8.3, after averaging 7.2 until then -- suggesting that his teammates are the ones who aren't picking up enough of the slack.