Utah Utes basketball: Findlay is Utah's exhibition foe

Utah coach Jim Boylen likes his team to be tested, even when it is young and inexperienced like this year's team, which lost 70 percent of its scoring and has seven new players and three redshirts who sat out last year.

Rather than play against the likes of Northwest Nazarene or Montana Tech, he goes after the best competition he can. Last year he booked Grand Valley State of Michigan, which the year before had knocked off Michigan State in an exhibition game and finished 36-1.

This year's exhibition opponent is the University of Findlay (Ohio), which won the NCAA Division II championship last season and finished 36-0.

The Utes and Oilers will play at noon today at the Huntsman Center to accommodate fans who also want to attend the Utah-New Mexico football game at 4 p.m.

The U. athletic department is granting free admission to the basketball game to anyone who has a ticket to the Utah-New Mexico game.

Also, coach Boylen is making good on a promise to buy tickets for anyone who signed up for his Twitter account. He said he would give tickets to anyone if his Twitter account reached 1,250 followers. It passed that mark this week, so anyone can print a coupon from his account (twitpic.com/ohqcp) for today's game.

Utah is expected to start returnees Kim Tillie, Carlon Brown and Luka Drca along with 7-foot-3 center David Foster, who returned from an LDS mission in May and Marshall Henderson, a 6-2 freshman guard from Dallas, Texas.

Others expected to see action are Jordan Cyphers and Jace Tavita from last year's team, JC transfer Matt Read, freshman Shawn Glover, redshirts Chris Hines and Tre Smith and Jason Washburn, the 7-foot redshirt freshman, who came back from a knee injury a few days ago.

Jeremy Olson, the 6-10 freshman from Georgia, is expected to redshirt, but he could still play in today's game. JC transfer Jay Watkins is out for a few weeks with a stress fracture in his pelvis.

Findlay has just two starters returning and the Oilers were routed earlier in the week, losing at Duke 84-48.

So maybe Findlay isn't that good. On the other hand, Utah isn't Duke, which is ranked No. 9 in the preseason AP poll.

The Oilers are led by returning starters, guards Marcus Parker and Nathan Hyde, who scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, against Duke, after each averaging 10 points a game last year.

The Utes will officially open the season Friday against Idaho at 7 p.m. at the Huntsman Center.

e-mail: sor@desnews.com