Utah basketball: Brazil trip starts on Saturday

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah men's basketball team's much-anticipated trip to Brazil begins Saturday as the Utes depart for Sao Paulo, where they will arrive early Sunday morning. The team will spend 10 days competing, practicing and touring the country before returning on Aug. 15.

"I think we are all excited for the chance to compete against some other guys after beating up on each other in practice," said redshirt junior guard Glen Dean. "It will be great to run our offense and compete on defense against some other opponents. It will also be great for us to experience the culture in Brazil. I think we will take a lot from this trip and it will help build chemistry down the road. The team is coming together really well. I think we are already head and shoulders above where we were last year. It will be important for us to compete in every practice and game and focus on getting better."

The Utes will play four games against Brazilian squads.

"It's really exciting, this will be a great team building experience to spend a lot of time together," said head coach Larry Krystkowiak. "I'm looking forward to visiting with our players individually as well. On a 10-day trip like this you can do an awful lot of bonding. It will be a great chance to measure ourselves against some other competition as well. Right now with so many guys competing for playing time, we see a lot of fouling or trying to cheat the play on defense. So it will be nice to be unified and have five guys representing all of us. We can hold the bar a little higher that way as far as effort also. If one player isn't getting it done, you can bring another guy in."