Expect to see Utes in more Saturday day games

Saturday afternoon games will become the norm for Utah basketball beginning this week when the Utes play Savannah State at noon at the Huntsman Center. It will be the first of eight Saturday afternoon games the rest of the season, including five at home, perhaps the most in history.

The Utes have had Saturday afternoon games in the past, especially in the 1970s and '80s when the WAC had a game of the week on Saturday afternoon. Last year, the Utes had three Saturday afternoon home games and the year before two.

Most of the games begin at 1 or 3 p.m., but Saturday's noon start is an unusual time for a Utah basketball game. In this case, the Utes scheduled the game earlier so the team can get a head start on its trip to Louisiana, where the Utes play LSU on Tuesday night.

All of the Utes' home Mountain West Conference games will be in the afternoon, including games against Wyoming on Jan. 17 (3 p.m.), BYU on Jan. 31 (1 p.m.), San Diego State on Feb. 7 and Air Force on Feb. 21.

Also, road games at Weber State (Jan. 3), New Mexico (Jan. 24) and San Diego State (March 6) will be afternoon affairs.

The only Ute Saturday game played at night will be the Feb. 14 contest at Colorado State.

NO SUBS: Some fans watching Utah's 82-39 thumping of San Diego on Saturday night might have wondered why coach Rick Majerus had Tim Frost and several second-teamers in the game right up to the end.

Well, it wasn't because he was trying to pour it on the poor Toreros.

Actually, he was trying to be a nice guy.

It looks like the Utes have a ton of players on the bench, which they do with the likes of Geoff Payne, Brett Sortal, Jelmer Krijthe, Clint Lee and Stefan Zimmerman. But Majerus uses them for practice only. He's actually doing them a favor by not playing them during mop-up duty because he believes they're good enough to play college basketball either for Utah or somewhere else and he doesn't want to waste their eligibility.

The one walk-on who doesn't fit that category, Mike Mesdaghi, a 5-foot-10 junior from Roy, saw a couple of minutes of action and, of course, instantly became the crowd favorite whenever he touched the ball.

As for Frost, who sat out most of the preseason, playing down the stretch, Majerus said: "Frost needs to play every minute he can. You can see he's just a shadow of his former self."