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 inad