Utah Utes basketball: Utes open things up with tough exhibition foe

The Utah men's basketball team has been left in the background a bit with so much attention being showered on the Utes' unbeaten, top-10 football team.

Don't look now, but the Utes are ready to play their first home game today at 2 p.m. in an exhibition contest against Grand Valley State (Mich.) at the Huntsman Center.

For those who are expecting one of those 40-point blowouts against a clearly overmatched opponent, they may be surprised.

Grand Valley State is the same team that knocked off No. 8-ranked Michigan State in an exhibition game last year and finished the year 36-1, with its only loss coming in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals.

"We're playing a very good team and a very well-coached team," said Ute coach Jim Boylen. "They've lost some players to graduation but have some good players back and two transfers from Michigan who are good players."

The Utes have eight players back who started games last year, and today they are expected to start Luke Nevill in the middle with Shaun Green and Carlon Brown at forward and Lawrence Borha on the guard line along with either Luka Drca or Tyler Kepkay. Drca hurt his ankle again earlier this week in practice.

Other players expected to play in the Utes' 10-man rotation are forwards Kim Tillie and Morgan Grim and freshmen guards Jace Tavita and Jordan Cyphers.

COLORADO RECAP: The Utes have already played a game against someone besides themselves, but it didn't count and no one is supposed to know anything about it.

A week ago, the Utes played a pair of games against the University of Colorado in Boulder, with two sets of officials — one from the Big 12 and one from the Mountain West Conference.

In the morning, they played a full 40-minute game and, in the afternoon, they played a 15-minute scrimmage and a 10-minute scrimmage.

No score was officially kept, although each team was able to keep its own statistics.

Boylen isn't supposed to discuss any numbers, but on the whole he was pleased with how his team played.

"We had some high points and low points," he said. "We had a chance to play everybody. It was good experience to play against a Big 12 team on their home floor and good to play against somebody besides ourselves."

Boylen said he was particularly happy with Luke Nevill's rebounding, how well his team ran and shared the ball but also said, "our defense isn't where it needs to be."