NBA Draft prospect Morris Almond has worked out already for eight teams and has auditions scheduled with four more.
Tuesday's in Utah, though, is one the Rice University senior said he has had "circled on my calendar."
The Jazz too.
That is because at No. 25 overall in the first round of the June 28 draft, Almond may be the one for Utah — if, that is, he's there for the pickin'.
That's the sense some in the media walked away with after talking to the shooting guard whose 26.4 points-per-game average this past season ranked third in the nation.
With a pick so deep in the draft, granted, pinpointing Utah's possible selections truly is a guessing game.
At a minimum, though, there is ample reason to suspect the 22-year-old Georgia native — along with several others, perhaps also including Italian shooting guard Marco Belinelli and Vanderbilt swingman Derrick Byars — will receive serious consideration should he still be available when the Jazz's turn to choose finally rolls around.
Almond seemed to feel similar vibes after working out Tuesday with Ohio State's Daequan Cook, Jackson State's Trey Johnson and Keith Simmons of Holy Cross.
And that's fine by him.
He admits now, after all, to having been a closet Jazz fan when Utah made its recent playoff run to the NBA's Western Conference finals.
"It wasn't the popular thing to say you watch the Jazz and Matt Harpring and how they played," Almond said with reference to Utah's yeoman small forward who also calls the Atlanta area home. "But kind of by myself I definitely would really watch the way they were just posting up hard, running the floor, hitting open jump shots coming off screens.
"That kind of stuff is right up my alley."
That's not all Almond has to bowl over Jazz brass, who took a liking to the prospect when he performed well in last year's NBA pre-draft camp and followed that up with a super shooting showing this year in Orlando.
He's affable and articulate. He's got decent size, listed at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds. And with an average topped only by Johnson's 27.1 and the 28.1 posted by Reggie Williams of Virginia Military, he showed that — on the collegiate level, at least — he sure can score.
Perhaps more importantly than all that, though, Almond is a shooter — something for which the Jazz undeniably are in the market.
While his 48.3 percent-from-the-field success rate as a senior is solid but not spectacular, a sampling of scouting-report comments on Almond's strengths amplify the billing:
ESPN.com: "Excellent mid-range shooter. Deep range on his 3-point shot ... Hard worker who can score from just about anywhere on the floor ... He may be the best shooter in the draft."
RealGM.com: "Almond seems like a natural fit for (Jazz coach) Jerry Sloan and he can clearly shoot it better than A.K. (Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko)."
NBADraft.net: "Has legit NBA 3-point range ... Does a great job of utilizing the mid-range on his pull-up jumper ... Because of his scoring prowess, Almond constantly looks to attack his defenders and draw fouls."
Almond developed his stroke growing up with Atlanta Hawks swingman and 2005 NBA dunk-contest champ Josh Smith as a teammate at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga.
"He was a high-riser ... and I could never jump like him," Almond said of Smith, "so I was like, 'Man, if I can't dunk like that I better do something else to prove my worth."'
Shooting alone, however, won't necessarily cut it in Utah. Almond seems to know that, too.
"Defense is like a never-ending quest to get better at, whether you're an All-Star or just starting the game," said Almond, who is knocked on some of those same Internet scouting reports for issues regarding lateral quickness and defensive intensity.
"So," he added, "on this level, where everybody can score and everybody can almost shoot as good as you, you really have to earn your minutes, especially as a rookie, on the defensive end first."
Even if the Jazz decide shooting skills trump whatever defensive deficiencies Almond indeed may have, however, there is another bump that could interrupt a potential return trip to Utah.
That is the reality that Almond, who also hit 45.6 percent from college 3-point range this past season, could be gone by 25.
Several Internet mock drafts, whatever their value, suggest as much, including predictions from both ESPNInsider and DraftExpress that he'll be taken at No. 22 by Charlotte.
There's a long list of others with apparent interest, evidenced by Almond's wacky workout schedule, which already has included a Phoenix-to-Miami trip and a flight from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City after showing his stuff Monday for the 76ers, who own the draft's 21st and 30th picks.
"You get the adrenaline rush every city," Almond said, "so you don't think about fatigue and the cross-country trips."
Instead, Almond said he tries to get plenty of rest between each and buys plenty of magazines to battle boredom on commercial airline flights.
"My iPod," he said, "is getting old, if you can believe that. You know, I've listened to every song on there."
And after making at least four more trips before next week's draft, he may know the words to each.
NOTES: Simmons apparently made a favorable impression Tuesday, and the Holy Cross guard could be a possible pick for Utah at No. 55 in the draft's second round. "He played under a terrific coach (Ralph Willard), and he showed it out here," Jazz basketball boss Kevin O'Connor said ... Cook, who could join projected No. 1 overall pick Greg Oden and point guard Mike Conley Jr. as one of three Ohio State freshmen taken in the draft's opening round, suggested all wasn't rosy during his one season with the Buckeyes. "Even though I didn't get to play as much as I wanted to, I was still a team player," he said. "Whatever was going on with me and coach (Thad Matta) was off-the-record. You know, I was more worried about the team than about myself." ... The Jazz won't host any pre-draft workouts this morning, but team coaches and management are expected to hold their annual offseason planning meeting today.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com