Boylen says Utah will turn focus back on its defense

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 26, 2008 by Mike Sorensen Deseret Morning News

All season long, Utah men's basketball coach Jim Boylen has preached defense, but in concentrating more on offense in recent games, he feels the Utes' defense has slipped.

So after allowing New Mexico to shoot 57 percent from 3-point range, including three killer 3-pointers in a two-minute stretch late in the game, Boylen wasn't happy.

"I did not like our defense against New Mexico," Boylen said at his Monday press conference. "I thought we gave up 16 points on non- alert, non-communicative, non-Utah defensive plays. We haven't done that much this year. We've been a solid defensive team. But looking back at the film, I didn't like our defensive consistency."

To try to get back on track defensively, the Utes spent all of Monday's practice time on defense after recently spending 50 percent of their time on it, down from 80 percent earlier in the year.

"We're going to be a good defensive team, and we're going to get better on defense," Boylen said. "That's what we're going to hang our hat on."

JOCKEYING FOR SEEDS: Saturday's loss pretty much eliminated the Utes from any hope of finishing higher than fourth place in the conference.

Now the Utes need to try to finish no lower than fifth, so they can avoid a first- or possible second-round matchup with UNLV.

The Rebels are likely to finish second or third in the standings unless BYU loses a couple more games. The Rebels are a game behind BYU, but must face San Diego State this week and play at New Mexico next week.

The last thing the Utes want is to fall to sixth or seventh, where they might face a matchup with the Rebels on their home floor like they did a year ago. The Utes are 0-4 all-time against UNLV in tournament play at the Thomas & Mack Center.

At 6-6, the Utes are in fifth place, just a half-game ahead of Air Force (6-7) and a game ahead of TCU (5-7).

If Utah can win two of its final four games, it would pretty much assure itself of the No. 4-vs.-No. 5 game since it owns the tiebreak over Air Force and TCU isn't likely to win three of its last four with two road games and a home game against BYU.

BRYANT AT THE LINE: Johnnie Bryant is shooting free throws at a better percentage than anyone in Utah history and almost as well as anyone in NCAA history, for that matter.

However, because he hasn't shot enough free throws this season, he won't have a chance to be in either the Utah or NCAA record books.

Bryant has sunk 47-of-49 free throws this year for a sparkling 95.9 percentage. However, the Utah record book requires a minimum of 100 attempts, which Bryant has almost no chance of getting. Josh Grant made 92 percent of his free throws (104-of-113) in 1992-93.

The NCAA requires 2.5 makes per game and, right now, Bryant is making just under 2 per game.

The national record is 97.0 percent by Missouri State's Blake Ahearn in 2003-04. To beat that record, Bryant would have to end up with 75 made free throws, assuming the Utes play 30 games. That means he would have to make about five free throws per game the rest of the way.

The catch is, he can't miss any more either. With 75 makes in 77 attempts, he would finish at 97.4 percent.

UTE NOTES: Wednesday's game at TCU starts at 6 p.m. MST, but will not be televised. Saturday's game at Wyoming begins at 2 p.m. and is televised on The mtn. ... The Utes rank in the nation's top 50 in four categories. They are 10th in 3-point percentage (40.3 percent), 18th in free-throw percentage (75.3), 20th in field-goal percentage (48.3) and 40th in scoring defense (62.2 ppg). ... Bryant ranks 13th in the country in 3-point percentage at 45.6 percent. That won't be good enough to break the Utah record, set by teammate Shaun Green a year ago, but he should break Marc Jackson's career 3-point mark of 43.8 percent. ... The Utes have 89 blocked shots already, well ahead of last year's total of 66, led by Luke Nevill, who has 41. Shaun Green has 21.

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