Utah Utes basketball: Utah hoops schedule announced

SALT LAKE CITY — Just a week after releasing next year's Pac-12 football schedule, the conference has released its basketball schedule for the 2011-12 season.

The Utah basketball team will open play on New Year's Eve at Colorado before playing home games against Washington State and Washington the following week, Jan. 5 and Jan. 7.

"We are pleased and excited about the schedule, and we hope our fans will be energized by it as well," said Utah Director of Athletics Chris Hill.

Hill is pleased that the Utes can leave behind the unwieldy Mountain West Conference schedule that featured games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Saturdays, usually one at home and one on the road the same week.

"The Thursday-Saturday playing schedule simplifies things for our fans and is advantageous academically for our players because they won't miss as much class time as they have in recent years," added Hill. "This will be one of the most challenging schedules in Utah basketball history, not just with the Pac-12 teams but with several quality non-conference opponents as well, including our rivalry game with BYU."

Each Pac-12 team will play 18 games and maintain a travel partner with no divisions like in football. Besides games against an institution's traditional rival both home and away, each institution will play six other opponents both home and away (for two consecutive years), and four opponents on a single-game basis — two at home and two away. The single-play opponents will rotate every two years.

In 2011-12, Utah will play home-and-away series with Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Oregon and Oregon State.

The Utes will play at USC and UCLA, but won't play those schools at home next season. They also won't play at Washington and Washington State.

The Pac-12 also announced that game dates "may be adjusted for television," likely meaning that some of the Saturday games may be switched to Sunday.

2011-12 Utah Men's Basketball Conference Schedule

Sat. Dec. 31 at Colorado Boulder, Colo.

Thurs. Jan. 5 Washington State Salt Lake City

Sat. Jan. 7 Washington Salt lake City

Thurs. Jan. 12 at Stanford Palo Alto, Calif.