Utah Utes basketball: New players show off skills in Utah's scrimmage

It was like the old "Night With the Runnin' Utes" only without the dunk contests, without the 3-point competition and without the fancy introduction of the players.

The Utah basketball team held a public scrimmage Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center and did just that — scrimmaged for an hour with three local officials making it as much like a game as possible for a team playing among themselves.

A couple of hundred fans showed up on a snowy evening to get their first look at a team with a lot of unrecognizable faces as only five Utes played on last year's Mountain West Conference champion team.

There were some good plays and poor plays, which was to be expected in October. As coach Jim Boylen said, "In a scrimmage against yourself, when you're good offensively, you're bad defensively and when you're good defensively, you're bad offensively."

Predictably, the returning starters, Carlon Brown, Luka Drca and Kim Tillie looked the best and their red team, which included projected starter, 7-foot-3 center David Foster, won the scrimmage 62-34.

Among the new players, the biggest revelation for the Ute fans might have been Marshall Henderson, the sharpshooter from Texas who sank several 3-pointers that hit nothing but net.

Only four hours earlier, Henderson was sporting long brown hair with bangs on his forehead, but he showed up with a shaved head. It turns out his teammate, Matt Read, was cutting his hair an hour before the game and cut too much in one spot, necessitating the buzz cut.

Boylen said Henderson has made tremendous progress since fall practice began and the 6-2 freshman has worked his way into the mix for a starting position.

The other newcomer who impressed with his moves around the basket and overall game, punctuated by a couple of thundering dunks was 6-7 JC transfer Jay Watkins.

"Jay Watkins and Marshall Henderson are going to be able to help us," Boylen said.

On the whole, Boylen was happy with his team's effort and said he needs to figure out lineups and playing groups over the next couple of weeks.

"We're a work in progress offensively," Boylen said. "But I like our team, I like our talent."

UTE NOTES: The Utes will have a chance to play someone besides each other when they take on the University of Colorado Saturday morning at the Huntsman Center. The scrimmage will be closed to the public and the media ... Last year, the Utes played Colorado in Boulder. Saturday's "game" takes the place of one of two exhibition games the team is allowed ... A week later, the Utes take on the University of Findlay, the defending Division II champions, in an exhibition game.

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