Utah Utes basketball: Boylen opens Utah's practice with young but talented team

The Utah basketball team officially began practice for the 2009-10 season Friday at 5 p.m., the first minute college teams around the country are allowed to practice.

The Utes didn't have fans camping out to watch practice like they did at Kentucky as just a handful of media and fans watched at the HPER-101 gym, that doubles as the court for the volleyball team.

But Boylen put his team through a spirited two-and-a-half hour practice and says he's excited for the season.

"This is our third year here, but it feels like the first with all of our new guys," Boylen said.

Counting redshirts and an LDS mission returnee, the Utes will have 10 new players this year to blend with five holdovers from last year.

The Utes return three starters from last year in Carlon Brown, Kim Tillie and Luka Drca, but they lost 70 percent of their scoring in Luke Nevill, Shaun Green, Tyler Kepkay and Lawrence Borha.

"We're going to be a work in progress offensively," said Boylen.

What the Ute coach is counting on is a defensive-minded team that rebounds well and runs when it gets the chance.

"We're going to be a defensive team first," he said. "(In practice) we'll work on defense, rebounding and running. That will be our focus."

Boylen expects Tillie and Drca, the two seniors, to be the leaders, along with Brown, Utah's leading returning scorer at 9.3 ppg. The other two returning players, guards Jace Tavita and Jordan Cyphers, should contribute a lot, even if their don't start.

Of the new players, Boylen mentioned David Foster, the 7-foot-3 center who returned from a mission four months ago, as "someone the fans will really like," as well as JC transfer forwards Jay Watkins and Matt Read and freshmen Marshall Henderson and Shawn Glover.

"We've got a lot of flexibility and a lot of versatility," Boylen said. "We've got to see what works."

With such a young team, the Utes may be hard-pressed to challenge for the MWC title again this year.

e-mail: sor@desnews.com