Utah Utes basketball: Injury bug leaves team in world of hurt

SALT LAKE CITY — While the basketball season is nearly half over for the Utah basketball team, a new season is also just beginning, with Mountain West play starting Saturday when TCU pays a visit to the Huntsman Center (1:30 p.m.).

Every team in the nine-team league has two "byes" on the schedule and Utah's comes for the first series of games on the schedule, meaning the Utes won't play a midweek game this week.

So far, it's been a roller-coaster season for Utah, having knocked off a pair of Big Ten teams, Illinois and Michigan, an SEC team, LSU on the road, taken a Big 12 team, Oklahoma, into overtime, but also lost to Idaho, Seattle and Illinois State at home and Pepperdine on the road.

"It's been an up and down non-conference with tough losses and good wins," said Utah coach Jim Boylen. "I'm thankful to be 7-7, but is that what I envisioned? No. Did I think we'd beat Illinois, Michigan, LSU and lose in overtime to Oklahoma? I wouldn't have said that either."

Injuries have played a major part in the Utes' inconsistency this year. When they've had everyone healthy, they're 5-2. However, Jay Watkins, the top reserve off the bench, has missed seven games, six with injuries and last week's game because of the death of his step-father. Center David Foster missed a game and a half with a sprained ankle and backup center Jason Washburn missed two games with a concussion after sitting out six weeks with a knee injury.

And now comes the news that starting forward Kim Tillie had surgery on his left knee Tuesday and could be out up to three weeks.

"We've had to practice without the whole team most of the season," said Boylen. "I think if we had everyone practice for a couple of weeks, we could be a pretty good team."

If you had to pick a most valuable player for Utah so far, it would probably be Foster. Although, the 7-foot-3 center ranks just seventh on the team in scoring at 5.8 ppg and third in rebounding at 5.1 rpg, his presence in the middle has made a huge difference for the Utes with his shot-blocking, which ranks fourth in the nation at 4.5 per game, and his intimidation. Foster is a big reason why Boylen calls the Utes' defense the best in his three years as coach.

Boylen was especially pleased with his team's defense in the 22-point win over Texas-San Antonio and the comeback win over LSU last week.