Utah Utes basketball: Boylen says Utes' maturity is the key

LAS VEGAS — After Utah's last-second victory over TCU on Thursday night, Utah coach Jim Boylen was asked the difference in his senior guard Lawrence Borha, who has gone from missing clutch shots to making them in less than a year.

"Fear," Boylen replied.

After saying he was just kidding, Boylen expounded, saying, "It's maturity, development. We coach our guys to learn how to win. We've put Kepkay, Borha, Green, Nevill, Drca, all those guys in end-of-game situations all year long, where the guy has to make a play. And we've done it more than any team I've ever been with in 22 years of coaching — end-of-game situations, end-of-game rehearsals, whatever you want to call it."

Last month, Borha sank a baseline jumper to beat New Mexico 69-68.

THEY ALL FEEL GOOD: When asked if his game-winning shot felt good when it left his hands, Borha replied, "It felt good. But a lot of my shots felt good, so I wasn't sure."

FOUL TROUBLE: For one of the few times all season, Ute center Luke Nevill was in foul trouble.

In fact it might have been the worst foul trouble for Nevill in the two years Jim Boylen has been the coach.

"We've been through it a little bit. But I don't remember one time this year with Luke sitting over with me with 17 minutes to go."

Kim Tillie replaced Nevill, but he had foul trouble of his own and picked up his third with 4:19 left in the first half. He eventually fouled out with 9:11 left in the game after scoring five points, his best point output since the Gonzaga game on Dec. 31.

Nevill ended up playing nearly the whole second half and finished with 10 points, six rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

GREEN LIGHT: Following up on his 6-for-9 performance from 3-point range Saturday against TCU, Green burned the Frogs again Thursday with 4-of-8 from long range including a couple of 25-footers

"The past couple of weeks, my shot has felt really good," he said. "I didn't realize how far back I was until after the game when some of the players told me."

MORE TURNOVERS: Turnovers have hurt the Utes all year and they did again Thursday night, but they didn't kill them.

The Utes, who had 65 turnovers the last four games compared to 24 for their opponents, ended up with 15 turnovers on the night compared to 10 for the Frogs.