Utes waiting for Aussie to arrive

When Utah signed Australian Andrew Bogut to a letter of intent last spring, the Utes knew they wouldn't have the forward's services until December.

Well December is more than half over and there's no sign of the Aussie yet. In fact, it might be awhile before Ute fans see Bogut in action.

"It's all about paperwork," said Ute coach Rick Majerus. "The NCAA Clearinghouse, the INS, getting a visa . . . "

Bogut played on his Australian touring team in November and had several good games against Division I teams in the Northwest, including a 25-point, 10-rebound outburst against nationally ranked Oregon.

Majerus said he expects to play Bogut when he comes and doubts he'll redshirt him. The Utes are already shorthanded with just 10 scholarship players. The question is, when will Bogut be here?

"Not before Christmas," said Majerus. "It could be another month — who knows?"

WITHOUT A TRACE: Some Ute fans have wondered about why Majerus plays senior captain Trace Caton so many minutes. At 29.1 minutes per game, Caton ranks just behind Britton Johnsen and Nick Jacobsen, who both average 30.6 per game.

Until Saturday's game with Northern Iowa, Caton ranked 10th on the team behind every other scholarship player with a 2.7 scoring average and was shooting only 21.5 percent from the field. However, in the first half alone, Caton nearly matched his point total for the season with 15 and ended up making 5 of 10 shots from the field.

Majerus gets a little defensive when asked about the minutes for Caton, whom he chose for captain on this year's team.

"I think Caton plays hard and he knows what he is doing," said Majerus. "He's a good defender and is tough. He has his limitations, but we've always had players like him. We won 21 games with him last year and his freshman year we won 28 (actually 30). His winning percentage with me is terrific."

On the positive side, Caton has by far the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team with 19 assists to six turnovers and he often guards the opponents' best player.

And following Saturday's output, he now ranks sixth on the team with 4.6 points per game and his shooting percentage has increased to 30.3 percent.