The Illinois connection helped bring former University of Illinois forward Roger Powell Jr. to the Utah Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue training camp this week.

And maybe even more important than having his Illini teammates Deron Williams and Dee Brown on the Zions Bank Basketball Center floor was the presence of longtime Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, a southern Illinoisian who also played for and coached the Chicago Bulls.

"First of all, coach Sloan," Powell said of why he came to Utah this summer. "I grew up watching him, and he's a great coach. I was very excited just to be able to learn from him.

"My teammates being on the team was another great thing that added to that.

"I like this team, and I think I have an opportunity to play here," said Powell. "To play with those guys, that just makes it better."

It's hard for him to believe it was more than a year ago that the trio was in the NCAA Final Four, playing in the championship game. "It was awesome. I don't think words can describe. It was a year ago, but it doesn't seem like it."

Powell, a four-year honor student and a homecoming king at Joliet (Ill.) High, was undrafted last summer but went to camp with the Seattle Sonics and played two preseason games, then went to the CBA Rockford (Ill.) Lightning, for whom he set the rookie scoring record (1,013 points) and was CBA Rookie of the Year.

He's also a licensed Pentecostal minister pursuing his master's degree in theology and planning to get a doctorate and then become a full-time preacher once basketball is done. "I just thought it was a part of me," said Powell, who maintains his own Web site, www.rpjministries.org, and spends offseason time ministering. His foundation will hold a basketball camp this summer.

His two pursuits don't interfere with each other, and, he says, "I think it's a great opportunity to share a positive influence with kids — and other people, too — because there's a lot of basketball fans."

NEW COURTS: Rafael Araujo, C.J. Miles, Jazz Bear and "Hot Rod" Hundley will join city, county and team dignitaries in a ribbon-cutting ceremony today at 1 p.m. at Redwood Recreation Center, West Valley City, for new outdoor basketball courts built by a partnership of the Jazz, Larry H. Miller Charities and Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation.