THE FIRST shot Utah forward Brandon Jessie launched came hard off the rim. It had all the finesse of a grenade. You wondered if someone would call out "Incoming!"

All things considered, the shot wasn't what the Utes had in mind.The reason was, of course, that the Utes were beginning their first-round NCAA Tournament game against Canisius, Thursday night at Reunion Arena, without their star player, Keith Van Horn. They were going to try doing "On the Waterfront" without Brando. They were hoping to fly the friendly skies without their pilot.

With that in mind, they had gone to their backup plan, which was to get Jessie, their second-best player, off to a big night. But one shot into Utah's 72-43 rout, that idea wasn't looking good. The score stood Utah 4, Canisius 3, Jessie zippo.

The idea of taking up the slack, for whatever reason, wasn't entirely new. Jessie has been doing that since he transferred to Utah. He's always been up for best supporting actor. You had Van Horn, the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a projected lottery pick, and you had Jessie, a star once-removed. Because Van Horn has averaged 21.7 points and 9.1 rebounds a game this year, Jessie was only the second guy on the marquee. The guy who shows up on the second deck of the headlines.

The only way to get top billing was for Van Horn to come down with an illness that would put him flat in bed for a week.

As it turned out, that's exactly what happened. Just as the Utes were preparing to go to the NCAA Tournament, Van Horn took sick with the flu.

If the Utes had had their choice, they would have chosen a better time for Van Horn to take ill. He could have missed that big contest against St. Thomas last December, when the Utes ran away with a 24-point win. He could have become queasy the night the Utes beat Cal State-Fullerton by 50. He even could have called in sick for one of the WAC games against Air Force or UTEP.

But somehow he managed to get sick on the way to the NCAA Tournament. He started getting the chills just when the CBS cameras arrived. After a week with no practice, and three days in bed at his hotel room, his best moves were still in the direction of the bathroom. By Thursday morning, it was obvious he wouldn't be doing lunch with anyone, he'd be tossing it.

"I stopped and saw him before the game," said Ute coach Rick Majerus. "He was awake. He had left all kinds of food outside the door, so I grabbed some as I left."

"Keith has gotten more publicity from being sick than playing," observed Jesse.

Having determined an Horn would spend the night watching on television, the next item of business was to devise a way to avoid losing to Canisius, which suddenly saw itself with a chance to pull off an upset. "We went out there with the attitude that we were going to take our shots and take everything they were going to give us. The ball went rolling pretty well for us early," admitted Canisius Guard Mickey Frazier.

But that was only as long as Jessie was missing shots - which lasted one attempt. "His shot is like the weather," said Majerus.

Soon, Jessie was gaining momentum as he went. He had gone from partly cloudy to sunny and clear in an instant. He made the next six shots, racking up 14 points before the half. By the time they took him out of the game, he had 23 points and the Utes were up by 30. His 3-pointer with 7:46 left put them ahead 63-33, and Canisius was looking for a broom closet to hide in. Majerus mercifully took Jessie out for the final 7:46.

Once Jesse was gone, all that was left was to phone the relatives with the news. Doug Meacham, Paul Jonas, Andy Jensen and Kelly Leonard - players who don't normally play even in blowouts - made appearances. Majerus was sending in guys he didn't know by their first names.

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"Somebody," said Jessie, "has to step up and make up for (Van Horn's) 21 points and 10 boards," he said. "Our team came together and did that."

So throughout the last half of the second half, the Utes pulled back and coasted in. Storming the castle was fine, but staying around to watch it burn would have been uncouth.

"I felt sorry for them in a way," said Jesse. "But they wanted to do what Fresno did and upset us. They wanted to go to the Big Dance and that's what happened. They're here, but it's too bad they've gotta go back to Buffalo."

And too bad for them that Jessie was there to see them off.

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