Utes beginning to fit together the pieces of a puzzle

A lot of things can be figured out, if you stare at them long enough. For example, assembly instructions for a bicycle.

You'll eventually get a clue.

Until recently, that wasn't the case with the Ute basketball team.

But after looking at it from all angles, and factoring in injuries, suspensions, attention lapses and the price of rice in China, coach Jim Boylen appears to have his team analyzed. At last.

He thinks he now knows what he'll be seeing most nights.

"It's getting there, he said. "All I ask is that they be competitive every night. It's coming."

That tends to happen when you beat your last two opponents by a combined 54 points.

Tuesday night at the Huntsman Center, the Utes ended a prosperous pre-season for Louisiana State, handing the Tigers an embarrassing 91-61 loss. The team that brought you Bob Pettit, Pete Maravich and Shaquille O'Neal got waxed by a team that lost to Idaho State and Southwest Baptist. This time the Utes looked like the second coming of John Wooden's UCLA Bruins, complete with a dominating center. (Luke Nevill scored a game-high 23 points.)

"This is a quality win for us against a very good team," said Boylen. "It's a step."

That makes it 4-2 against "sombodies" (Mississippi, Oregon, Cal, Oklahoma, Gonzaga and LSU), 3-2 against "nobodies" (Southwest Baptist, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Missouri State, Morgan State and Idaho State), and 3-1 against everybody else.

Throw 'em all in a stew and let the NCAA sort 'em out.

Despite its unranked status, LSU represented Boylen's ongoing plan to schedule interesting opponents. Even that's a bit of a tough sell on a snowy January night, as only 9,000 fans showed up.

As for competition, the "name" teams have seemed less troublesome for his club than the little guys. So far this year the Utes have defeated Gonzaga and LSU at home, played Cal close and looked respectable for most of the game against Oklahoma. But it was the game against teeny-tiny Southwest Baptist that shook the Utes.