Andrew Bogut — News athlete of the year

The first time Andrew Bogut's name came to light in Utah — perhaps the first time ever in the United States — was in April of 2002 when it appeared in a Deseret Morning News article.

A University of Utah assistant basketball coach had tipped off the News about a 17-year-old Australian who was going to sign a letter of intent later that week. A short story reported that Bogut was a 6-foot-9, 205-pound forward-center, who played for the Australian Institute of Sports men's team. No statistics were available, but a biography from the AIS, called Bogut "strong on the boards," a "hard worker" and "an excellent passer."

No mention was made about Bogut being a future NCAA college basketball player of the year and a future NBA No. 1 draft choice.

Yet that's exactly what Bogut ended up being just three years later.

It's quite an amazing story, looking back on it.

Bogut didn't even make it to Utah that first year with the class of Tim Drisdom, Bryant Markson and Richard Chaney because of some difficulties transferring credit from his high school in Australia.

He was expected to join Utah in December and play half the season, but it was decided that he should wait and start the following year since he was younger and the Utes didn't want to waste one of his years of eligibility (ironic, since he only used two years as it turned out).

Bogut stayed home and improved his game and the following summer he made an impact on the international scene when he led Australia to the Junior World title in Greece, where he earned MVP honors.

At that point Bogut could have gone a different direction, either accepting one of several offers to play professionally or signing with a different college because it had been a year since his initial signing with Utah. But he didn't.

"I stuck with Utah, because they stuck with me," he said.

When Bogut came to Utah that fall he had grown to 7-foot, 245 pounds. Though he had a less-than-dazzling season under coach Rick Majerus, he earned Mountain West Conference freshman-of-the-year honors after averaging 12.2 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.

The following summer, Bogut starred for Australia at the Olympics in Greece and had more offers to play professionally in Europe. However, he had made a commitment to new Utah coach Ray Giacoletti in the spring and again stuck to it.

Playing in an offense built around him, Bogut thrived, as did the Ute team in 2004-05, which compiled a 29-6 record. Bogut delivered a monster season averaging 20.4 points and 12.2 rebounds, leading Utah to a Mountain West Conference championship, into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA and swept the Wooden, Naismith and every other major award as college basketball's top player.