Utah Utes basketball schedule missing Utah State

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah released its 2011-12 basketball schedule on Friday. It includes the Utes' inaugural Pac-12 slate, a Thanksgiving tournament in the Bahamas, as well as dates with BYU (Dec. 10 in Salt Lake City) and Weber State (Dec. 22 in Ogden).

It also features preseason home games against Adams State, San Diego Christian College, Cal State Fullerton, Idaho State and Portland, plus road tilts at Boise State and Fresno State.

What it doesn't include, however, is a game with Utah State — snapping a streak of annual meetings that began with the 1944-45 season. The Utes and Aggies have met 223 times (113 in Salt Lake City and 110 in Logan) since 1908-09. Utah leads the all-time series 130-93, but USU won last year's meeting 79-62 in the Spectrum.

Athletics director Chris Hill is out of town and was unavailable for immediate comment on the series disruption.

As for the set schedule, Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak released a statement.

"We have put together a challenging schedule and we are excited to get going this fall," he said. "There are several teams on our non-conference schedule who finished at or near the top of their conference last year and could be preseason favorites again this year. Then in the Pac-12, there are no easy games and several of those teams are traditionally among the toughest in the nation."

Utah's conference opener is Dec. 31 at Colorado. The Utes will then return to the Huntsman Center to face Washington State (Jan. 5) and Washington (Jan. 7).

The 18-game league schedule includes home-and-away games with the Buffaloes, as well as Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, Oregon and Oregon State. Utah takes on the Cougars and Huskies just once this season. Same goes for UCLA and USC, teams the Utes will meet on the road.

The Pac-12 Tournament is March 7-10 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Utah's other scheduled tournament is the "Battle 4 Atlantis" in November. Matchups have yet to be set, but the field includes defending national champion Connecticut, Central Florida, the College of Charleston, Florida State, Harvard, Massachusetts and UNC Asheville.

"We are very excited for the Battle 4 Atlantis as well," Krystkowiak noted in the announcement. "There will be some nationally competitive teams there, including last year's NCAA champion, and it should be a great trip for our team and our fans."

2011-12 Utah men's basketball schedule