Utah basketball: Wilcox still feels cozy on a cold-shooting day

SALT LAKE CITY -- It wasn't exactly what C.J. Wilcox envisioned for his first official game at the Jon M. Huntsman Center after growing up about a half hour down the road in Pleasant Grove.

Wilcox, a starting guard for the Washington Huskies, had his worst shooting game as a collegian as far as the number of missed shots -- he managed to make just 2 of 13 from the field and 1 of 5 from 3-point range, finishing with five points.

Still Wilcox was smiling after Saturday's game because his team defeated Utah 57-53 and won its first road game of the season.

"I feel as long as our team's getting wins, I'm OK with it,'' Wilcox said of his poor shooting day. "I felt fine shooting the ball. It just wasn't falling . . . just one of those days.''

Saturday's game was special to Wilcox for many reasons.

The biggest was the fact that he got to play in front of family and friends in Utah for the first time as a collegian. A group of about four dozen supporters cheered for Wilcox as he emerged from the locker room after the game, clearly not concerned about his shooting percentage in the game.

"It was fun having a bunch of friends and family here,'' he said. "They haven't watched me for awhile in person, so it was good.''

Wilcox was also playing at a place he'd been to on many occasions at summer camps as a young player and at a school he would have probably attended if he hadn't chosen to go to Washington.

The son of former BYU player Craig Wilcox, C.J was a first-team all-state player, who was the leading scorer in 5A basketball two years running with averages of 23.7 ppg as a junior and 23.8 ppg as a senior.

He was a prime recruit for former Ute coach Jim Boylen, who was desperate to get an accomplished in-state player in his program. Boylen had struck out on Utah County players such as Tyler Haws, Brandon Davies and Kyle Collinsworth, but Wilcox was one that Boylen thought he could get.

"I almost committed here after my sophomore year,'' acknowledged Wilcox, who was also highly sought by schools such as Cal, Miami, BYU and Utah State.

However he decided to wait and committed in June 2008, signing with Washington in November, just before his senior season.

He chose to redshirt his first season at Washington and last year averaged 8.1 points as a freshman, while starting six of 33 games.