UTAH 76, ARKANSAS STATE 43
Poor Utah, having to open its basketball season Tuesday night with all those injured players. They were going to be in big trouble against Arkansas State in the opening round of the Preseason NIT, weren't they?Yeah, right.
Sure the Utes missed senior forward Hanno Mottola, who will be out a few weeks with a knee injury.
But not much.
The 16th-ranked Utes came at the shell-shocked Indians from all sorts of directions in cruising to an easier-than-expected 76-43 win at the Huntsman Center.
All 11 dressed Ute players scored, and 10 played at least 10 minutes in a balanced attack. The Utes' leading scorer turned out to be a guy who wasn't even supposed to play, or perhaps play five minutes at the most.
Nate Althoff, who has sat out most of fall practice with a back injury, scored the first two baskets of the game, played 20 minutes and finished with a game-high 14 points and seven rebounds.
Althoff's mere presence on the court, after Ute coach Rick Majerus almost guaranteed he would be out until after Thanksgiving, caused ASU coach Dickie Nutt to quip, "Being the doctor that I am . . . Althoff is not hurt."
Majerus claimed he wasn't "sandbagging" about Althoff, who practiced with contact Monday for the first time in weeks. He chalked up Althoff's fine play to experience.
"It's amazing what experience can do," said Majerus. "This is Nate's fourth year and he came out and was able to play well tonight."
As for Althoff's reaction to his big game, well, he wasn't allowed to speak to the media by Majerus, who is routinely shielding certain players from post-game interviews this year.
One player who was allowed to speak was Jeff Johnsen, who had another strong outing, scoring a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. He also came up with a team-high five assists and three steals in 27 minutes of action.
"It felt good tonight," said Johnsen, who returned from an LDS mission in June. "Coach (Majerus) stresses rebounding and that's what I tried to do."
"He's not a pretty player, but he played real hard," said Majerus. "He's starting to work his way back to how he played the last six weeks before his mission."
Alex Jensen, who has the mantle of team leadership on his shoulders, especially with Mottola out, scored just nine points, but was a force on the boards, pulling down 14 rebounds.
"We always play well, especially after a loss," he said. "We felt like we had some good practices and we came out with more enthusiasm and excitement tonight."
Another one of Utah's injured players, Trent Whiting, had a good game, scoring nine points on 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Whiting has missed about half of the Utes' practices because of an injury similar to shin splints.
One of the keys to the Utes' easy win was their gameplan of shutting down the Indians' top player, Chico Fletcher, a two-time Sun Belt Player of the Year. The 5-foot 6-inch guard was completely befuddled by the Utes defense, which double-teamed Fletcher when he had the ball and denied him the ball when he gave it up. Tony Harvey, who enjoyed an 11-inch height advantage, guarded Fletcher most of the game.
Fletcher missed scoring in double figures for the first time in 33 games, finishing with just four points, while giving up seven turnovers.
JC transfer JC Rosser led the Indians' scoring with 13 points, while C.J. Pepper added 11. ASU finished with just 31.9 field goal shooting and was outrebounded 47 to 29.
Nutt called the game "a reality check" for his young team and said it will take them awhile to find themselves.
As for Utah, which knocked off his team in last year's NCAA 80-58, Nutt said, "They're just an outstanding team. I think they're better than last year."
Predictably Majerus wasn't handing out accolades afterward.
"We played hard defensively, but I don't think (ASU is) very good," he said. "They are very young and inexperienced. And playing on the road is hard. We're going to experience the same thing on Friday."
The Utes are expecting to play Kentucky Friday night in Lexington, where they headed Wednesday morning. The only thing is, Kentucky must first defeat Penn Wednesday night to earn a second-round home game. If Penn happens to win, Utah will return home to host the Quakers Friday at the Huntsman Center.
UTE NOTES: The victory was the Utes' 36th in a row at home, the third longest home win streak in the nation . . . If the Utes win Friday, they'll advance to the NIT semifinals in New York Wednesday night. They would also play again Friday, win or lose . . . The Utes shot just 41.7 from the field and 66.7 from the foul line . . . Phil Cullen started and scored nine points, mostly late in the game . . . Gary Colbert struggled with five turnovers, but also had seven rebounds.