That's not to say a team can never advance without speed. You just need to be near-perfect in other areas. That's what happened in 1998, when the Utes went to the NCAA Championship game on the not-so-fleet wings of Hanno Mottola, Alex Jensen, Mike Doleac, Andre Miller, Britton Johnsen and Drew Hansen.

Not a speedster in the bunch.

It helps if you have four players who go on to play in the NBA.

That Utah team was fourth nationally in scoring defense, 16th in scoring margin, sixth in field goal defense, first in rebound margin and 22nd in field goal percentage.

You do what you can.

Then you recruit someone who can run fast, leap high and move quickly.

The bright side of this dilemma is that with the lack of athleticism, fans in the Mountain West generally get to see their players longer. The LeBrons, Kobes and Durants don't waste much time in college, if any. Thus, Utah's Luke Nevill got to develop into a conference Player of the Year. Who didn't appreciate seeing BYU's Lee Cummard and USU's Gary Wilkinson in their senior years?

It's easy to build loyalty for someone you know.

Still, it would be nice to see some guys who are too fast to stick around, too.

The best pitch I can imagine is for the local coaches is to tell their recruits they already have a lot of slow guys who will get you to the NCAA Tournament. What the team really needs is someone to get them further with their speed.

E-MAIL: rock@desnews.com