The way the Utah basketball season is going, Ute fans (not to mention coaches) have to be awfully grateful Andre Miller decided not to turn pro last spring. Without him, it's likely the Utes would be staring at a 1-6 record right now (we're assuming they would have handled Azusa Pacific regardless).

They certainly wouldn't have survived against a mediocre Long Beach State team Saturday night. After trying to get his teammates more involved in the offense when he didn't even attempt a shot during the first 15 minutes, Miller turned into a one-man show and scored 22 of the Utes last 25 points over the final 10 minutes.Miller leads the team in scoring (19.4 ppg), field goal shooting (56.3 percent), 3-point shooting (44.4 percent), assists (5.7), steals (2.7) and minutes played (34.6).

Before his 29-point performance against Long Beach, Miller put on a dazzling display in Chicago in front of dozens of NBA scouts and a large gathering of national media by scoring 28 points and coming up with six steals against Rhode Island.

If there was any doubt who the nation's all-American point guard is, Miller proved it that night. While he was taking MVP honors despite playing for a losing team, his main competition, Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves, only managed nine points and two assists against Duke. Cleaves was named on most preseason first-team all-American lists while Miller was on most second teams.

WHEN WILL HE PLAY: Ute coach Rick Majerus still isn't saying when or if Tony Harvey will begin playing in Ute games. After the Long Beach State game, he said it was unlikely Harvey would make the trip to Texas this weekend.

Harvey, a JC transfer from California, has been sitting out for investigation of credit card fraud.

Besides his success on the floor, one of Majerus's strengths at Utah has been his steadfastness for proper behavior off the court. He has always been a stickler for rules and has a hard-nosed attitude toward any sort of wrongdoing (he reportedly once sat a player for several games for not paying for a $10 pizza) even if it costs him wins.

To keep Harvey fresh, the Utes have been using assistant coach Jeff Judkins, still a pretty darn good player at age 42, to work out with him. Judkins stayed home from last week's trip to Chicago and the week before joined the team late on the trip to Maui so he could work with Harvey.

The guess from here is that Harvey will play in a game before Christmas and be ready for some serious action by the time the WAC starts in January.

MORE NERVES: Some folks expected 6-9 freshman Phil Cullen to be the second coming of Keith Van Horn based on his similar looks and skinny body.

But Cullen has struggled so far, shooting only 29.4 percent and missing all eight of his 3-pointers, despite a reputation as a good outside shooter.

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If anything, Cullen has appeared to be overly anxious as most of his misses have been shot too hard.

So it was surprising to see this quote by Cullen in the Tacoma News-Tribune.

"In high school I used to get nervous before every game. But in the state championship I wasn't nervous at all and it's kind of carried over. Now I don't get nervous at all."

Perhaps Cullen's shots will start falling if he can get a little more nervous before games.

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