Utah Utes basketball: Utes met, exceeded expectations

Aside from the disappointing end in Miami 11 days ago, the Utah basketball season was a success from nearly every standpoint.

The Utes exceeded expectations by winning a share of the Mountain West Conference championship, winning the MWC postseason tournament and earning a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Luke Nevill capped off a successful four-year career by winning MWC Player of the Year as well as MWC Tournament MVP. He finished fourth on the all-time Ute scoring list, sixth on the all-time rebounding list and as the top shot-blocker in Ute history.

Besides Nevill, the Utes counted on seniors Lawrence Borha, Shaun Green and Tyler Kepkay, who each averaged in double figures and were the top three 3-point shooters on the team.

"To win 24 games with the depth of our schedule and our league, I'm really proud of that accomplishment," said second-year coach Jim Boylen.

After early losses to Southwest Baptist and Idaho State, it looked like the Utes might be in for a struggle. However, a New Year's Eve win over Gonzaga, followed by a 30-point win over LSU, propelled the Utes into conference play, where they started out 11-2 before finishing in a tie for first at 12-4.

From there, the Utes won three games in the MWC Tournament before getting knocked off by Arizona in the NCAA first round.

"Our themes this year were to defend, rebound and run and I thought we followed through with that," said Boylen, noting that the Utes averaged 25 points a game in transition, while leading the MWC in rebound margin and blocked shots.

In the final MWC statistics, the Utes were No. 1 in eight categories, including four shooting categories — field goal, 3-point and free-throw percentage and 3-point makes per game.

On the negative side, the Utes most need to improve on their turnovers. In league play, the Utes were last in turnover margin at minus-4.81 per game and for the season they ranked 312th in the nation out of 330 teams.

"We need to improve our turnovers," Boylen said. "Obviously that's a point of concern going into next year."

Looking ahead to 2009-10, the Utes will be missing 69 percent of their scoring and 57 percent of their rebounding with the loss of their four seniors. They do return three starters in Carlon Brown (9.3 ppg), Luka Drca (7.7 ppg) and Kim Tillie (3.3 ppg), although Tillie only averaged 15.5 minutes per game.