All year long coach Rick Majerus and many Ute fans have complained about all the 10 p.m. starts the Utes have had to endure. The Utes played in five Big Monday games with 10 p.m. starts in January and February and a 10 p.m. game against Texas in December.
Perhaps all those 10 p.m. starts will pay off for the Utes this week, now that they've been assigned to play in the late game in Cleveland Thursday night. The Utah-Saint Louis game will tip off at approximately 10 p.m. Cleveland time, although it will be prime time for fans in Utah, at 8 p.m.Saint Louis didn't have any 10 p.m. starts, so maybe this will be to the Utes' advantage.
If the Utes survive Thursday night, they'll play in the later game on Saturday which is scheduled to tip off at approximately 1:45 p.m. MST.
WHAT IS IT: The question on the minds of many Ute fans after discovering their first-round NCAA opponent was "What in the heck is a Billiken?
The Utes are playing the Saint Louis Billikens in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday (8 p.m. MST) in Cleveland.
The definition of a Billiken is explained on the Saint Louis Web site, but even after reading that, it's hard to understand what it is.
In a nutshell, it dates back nearly a century and has something to do with a good luck charm.
Quoting from the Billiken.com Web site, "It was originally created in 1908 by the Craftsman's Guild in Highland Park, Illinois. It seems to be based directly on the Japanese "Piriken or "Pilliken" of Osaka . . . someone who has a box of money offerings in front of him. Those who offer a coin will have their wish granted if they kiss his upturned feet. The base of the plaster figure is inscribed, 'Billiken -- the god of things as they ought to be.'
Hmmm. We're still as confused as you are. All we know is that the picture of a Billiken looks an awful lot like the Dr. Seuss character, the Grinch.
HURRY UP ANDRE: Maybe Cleveland Cavalier guard Andre Miller can catch some of the Utes' game Thursday night if he really hurries after his game that same night. And Karl Malone and John Stockton could too, for that matter.
The Cavaliers play the Utah Jazz Thursday night a 7:30 p.m. at Gund Arena, which is a few miles away from the Cleveland State Convocation Center. That game should be ending a few minutes before the Utah-Saint Louis game is starting.
NOT AGAIN: It's not quite as noticeable as recent years, but many Ute fans took notice of the fact that -- who else? -- Kentucky was placed in the same subregional as the Utes.
The Utes and Wildcats have a habit of running into each other in the NCAA tournament, playing each other four times since 1993. Counting this year, Utah and Kentucky have been placed in the same Region five times and the same subregional four times.
Both were at Nashville in 1993, at Dallas in 1996 and at New Orleans last year. In 1997, they met in the West Region finals in San Jose and in 1998 met in the title game in San Antonio.
This year, however, the Utes aren't too concerned about their longtime nemesis, who beat them in this year's Preseason NIT.
"This year there's some pretty big obstacles," said Alex Jensen. "If anybody on this team is thinking about Kentucky, they're crazy."
The Utes and Wildcats, a No. 5 seed, would have to win two games apiece to meet up next week in Michigan in the Sweet 16.
NCAA NOTES: Most predictable line in a Cleveland Plain Dealer story about the NCAA subregional -- "Local restaurant owners are ecstatic with the arrival of Utah and head coach Rick Majerus, who is known to nibble a bit between games" . . . Majerus is 7-0 in first-round games since coming to Utah and also won his only first-round game while at Ball State . . . The injury bug continues to haunt the Utes. Majerus claims he'll have just eight healthy players this week with two of those eight, Hanno M