RSS
Home
MWC Preview: Utah Utes
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
This is the 4th edition in a 9-part preview of teh Mountain West Conference. To view prior editions, click the links below.
08-09 Recap and Accolades: 24-10 (12-4) Utah won a share of the regular season conference title and won the conference tournament last year, but wasn’t able to get past Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Luke Nevill was the MWC player of the year as well as the defensive player of the year in ‘08-’09. Lawrence Borha was on the third team as well as the defensive team, while Shaun Green was voted the conference’s sixth man of the year.
What they lost: Utah arguably lost more than any other team with the departure of Nevill, Borha, Green and Tyler Kepkay. Though only two of the four were starters, they totaled for 52.2 points and 20 rebounds per game.
What they didn’t lose: Carlon Brown, Luka Drca and Kim Tillie remain from the starting lineup, but have a lot of ground to make up. The other returning players are all sophomores and have not recorded a lot of playing time.
Luke Nevill has come a long way since starring beside Rick Moranis in "Honey I Blew Up the Kid."
What’s new: The Utes recruiting trail has brought them a trio of true freshmen for ’09-’10. Shawn Glover is a 6-6 guard/forward out of Cedar Hill High School in Texas where he was named first-team all-region, all-district and all-state as a senior.
Marshall Henderson is a strong scorer, but has skills all-around. The 6-2 guard out of Hurst, Texas has the all-time Div. 5A record in Texas for three-pointers made. Henderson averaged 25.8 points, 5 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 3.8 steals a game as a senior, and has even scored over 50 points in a single high school game.
Jeremy Olsen, a 6-10 power forward from Collins Hill High School in Georgia, had an outstanding high school career and holds nearly every scoring and rebounding record at Collins Hill. Olsen will have this year to learn from Kim Tillie, before being his replacement as a forward with size on the Utes lineup when Tillie graduates.
Chris Hines, a 6-1 guard, and Jason Washburn, a 7-0 center, both redshirted last year for the Utes and will be freshmen this year. Washburn was highly rated out of high school and was named the best prospect in the Mountain West in his class by Rivals.com.
The Utes will also be the beneficiaries of three junior college transfers who will all join the team as juniors this year. 6-9 forward Matt Read played at Collins County Community College last year and at the University of Texas-Arlington in ’06-’07. Ricky Shoff is a 6-2 guard who played at Salt Lake Community College last year and at Dixie State College in ’05-’06 with a two-year LDS mission in El Salvador in the interim. Finally, 6-7 forward Jay Watkins makes his third college stop after playing for the University of San Francisco (’06-’07) and the College of Southern Idaho (’08-‘09)
Schedule notes: Utah will play in the Las Vegas Invitational in late November taking on Illinois and either Bradley or Oklahoma State. Later in the non-conference schedule, Utah will take on Michigan, Oklahoma and Illinois State in a row at home and then prepare for conference play with a trip to Baton Rouge to take on LSU.
More About:
College basketball
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
What awaits the Lobos in San Diego? How about a chance to go 9-0 (the best Lobos start since ’95-’96 when they went 10-0), get their third …
New Mexico improves to 7-0 with a win over #25 California in The Pit. Steve Alford’s style of “small ball” allowed the Lobos to play …
