Utes land another recruit

The Utah basketball team has received another commitment for the 2007-08 season.

Carlon Brown, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound combo guard from Martin Luther King High in Riverside, Calif., said he will play for Ray Giacoletti's Utes next year.

Brown, who averaged 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists as a junior, was recruited by schools such as Stanford, UNLV, Temple, Santa Clara and San Diego State, before narrowing his choices to Marquette, Nebraska and Utah.

"First of all, I like the city, it's beautiful and clean with no smog like L.A.," Brown said. "The people were great, it's a real good staff and I got along great with the players. I like the school a lot."

Giacoletti is not allowed to comment on possible signees until after they actually sign a letter of intent in November.

He has said the Utes plan to sign three players this fall. The Utes will lose one senior in Ricky Johns, one to an LDS mission, David Foster, and will get back the scholarship they lost from NCAA sanctions four years ago.

Last spring, Morgan Grim, a 6-7, 205-pound forward from Riverton High, committed to play for the Utes.

The third player is expected to be Nemanja Calasan, a 6-9 power forward from Midland (Texas) College, who is originally from Serbia and Montenegro. According to several recruiting services, he has committed to Utah.

PRACTICE ON TAP: Ute basketball practice officially begins Friday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m.

Traditionally, basketball practice has begun Oct. 15 and in recent years that was amended to the first Saturday nearest Oct. 15.

However, because so many schools were trying to get a jump by holding practices at midnight, the NCAA decided to move it to Friday night.

The Utes have been holding individual workouts, as per NCAA rules, and Giacoletti is happy with what he has seen so far.

"I'm as excited as I've been since I've been here," Giacoletti said. "We have a great group of kids. They're a hard-working group."

The annual Night With the Runnin' Utes will be Oct. 24 at the Huntsman Center, with the first exhibition game on Nov. 3 against a team from Canada. Another exhibition against Montana Tech will be Nov. 6 before the first official game of the season Nov. 10 against Southern Utah.