If Saturday night's game against BC Dona Zagreb was any indication, the 1993-94 Runnin' Ute basketball team has a brilliant group of freshmen.
Utah coach Rick Majerus said the game was no indication."I could have looked like Charles Barkley if I played against that team tonight," Majerus said after Utah's 93-72 win in an exhibition game.
While BC Dona Zagreb looked like a road-weary team playing its fifth game in five nights - which it was - Utah's freshman class was impressive. Keith Van Horn, a 6-foot-9 forward from Diamond Bar, Calif. scored 18 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, showing agility inside and a nice shooting touch from the outside in the process. Jimmy Carroll, a 6-foot-5 swingman scored 16 points and was the Utes' most effective long-range bomber, hitting on 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Redshirt freshman center Jason Jackman from Hurricane, Utah, scored a team-high 19 points - all in the second half - on 9-11 shooting from the field, while redshirt point guard Terry Preston effectively ran the team, dishing out six assists with no turnovers. A fifth freshman, Ben Melmeth, last year's Utah Mr. Basketball from Judge Memorial High, was held out of the game and is expected to redshirt this season.
While the crowd of 12,743 had to be impressed with what they saw from the youngsters, Majerus is withholding judgment.
"That team's been on the Battan Death March of exhibition games," Majerus said. "They were dead. This game tells you nothing."
With three of the Utes' expected starters sitting out the second exhibition game of the season serving a suspension - Phil Dixon, Darroll Wright and Ed Johnson - the eight remaining scholarship players saw considerable playing time.
The outcome of the game was never in doubt. Sophomore guard Mark Rydalch hit a trey to open the game and the Utes never trailed. Utah led by as many as 17 points in the first half and 27 in the second.
DC Dona Zagreb, which lost to Southern Utah Thursday and Weber State Friday, kept the score from getting ridiculous by hitting 10-20 three-point attempts.
Rydalch and senior Tony Block, the only two Utes to play who saw much playing time last season, finished with nine points each, while Chinese Olympian Ma Jian and sophomore Doug Chapman scored seven apiece.
While the competition Saturday night wasn't as strong as Majerus had hoped, it doesn't look like it will get much better when the regular season begins next Saturday. The Utes will host Southern California. Not the Trojans from the Pac-10, but Southern California College, enrollment 1,000.
"I hope they're worse than (BC Dona Zagreb)," Majerus said of his regular season opener. "I always schedule an opening opponent I think we can beat."