Morris Almond may or may not become just what the Utah Jazz need at the shooting guard position.

But there is no question he was a popular choice for the several thousand fans who joined Jazz brass watching the draft on television at EnergySolutions Arena on Thursday night.

In the minutes before Utah made its first-round pick — No. 25 overall and almost three hours into the telecast — fans started getting excited.

"Sometimes you feel like a nut," sang one fan, off key and loudly.

"Almond joy, baby," yelled another.

Brady Haider, a UVSC student, held up a sign that read "Almond or bust."

So when Jazz vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor came to the podium and announced that Almond was, indeed, the pick, the crowd cheered. A minute later as NBA commissioner David Stern made it official on ESPN, broadcast on the JumboTron, the crowd cheered once again — as if they had just heard the news for the first time.

"Mark my words," said excited Jazz fan Jeremiah Webb, "they'll call him 'Almond Joy' and he'll be known as the Salt Lake City treat."

"I'm so excited we got Morris Almond," said BYU student Nick Newman. "The problem with the Jazz is that our best 3-point shooter is 7-1 (Mehmet Okur). Now we have a bigger guard who can shoot."

Almond certainly was a scorer in college for Rice — as Ute fans saw first-hand in the Huntsman Center last season when he went off for 42 points against Utah. The Conference USA Player of the Year averaged 26.4 points per game as a senior, making 45.6 percent of his college 3-pointers.

"He's a pure shooter," said Jazz fan Haider, the UVSC student with the "Almond or bust" sign. "We've got Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko who are athletic guys, but we don't have a pure shooter outside, except for maybe Derrick Fisher and he's 6-1. We needed a guy who is 6-6 who can get his shot off.... We need somebody to keep the defenses honest."

"(Almond) may not be that athletic, but neither was (Jeff) Hornacek," Newman said.

NBA.com draft analyst Chad Ford believes Utah's top pick may be able to help the Jazz from the outside. Ford wrote that Almond was "arguably the best shooter in the draft."

When Almond was informed during a conference call with Utah media that fans were cheering his selection, he was humble.

"I'm just glad they knew who I was," Almond said.

As excited as many Jazz fans seemed to be about the team's pick, at least one also showed a bit of caution. After all, drafting basketball players is not an exact science.

"He could be another Kirk Snyder or Quincy Lewis," said Haider, referring to past Jazz shooting guard draftees who didn't last long, "but we'll take that chance."

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