Jim Boylen’s bunch is ready to kick off the season.
The Runnin’ Utes open regular season play Saturday against Southwest Baptist, a strong Division-II team.
The Utes are coming off a shaky win in their exhibition against Grand Valley State and are looking to take the non-conference season opener at home.
“They’re a good team,” said Utah guard Tyler Kepkay. “We just have to come in with the right mentality and get ready to defend and run.”
Southwest Baptist is a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and is ranked in many Division-II preseason polls. It lost its exhibition game last weekend, but saw some great play out of its preseason D-II All-American Matt Rogers, who scored 19 points and pulled down 18 rebounds.
The Utes beat Grand Valley State on Saturday in an exhibition 59-44. Although the Utes shot only 38 percent from the field, they looked aggressive on defense, which allowed them to emerge victorious.
“I’d like to see us make the next step defensively,” said head coach Jim Boylen. “I’d also like to see us execute better at the offensive end. We were trying to hit home runs instead of being solid.”
The team’s rebounding also needs improvement. The Utes gave the Lakers a lot of second-chance points Saturday, but with the Utes’ size, pulling down boards shouldn’t be a problem.
“(We) shouldn’t have as many mental breakdowns defensively,” Kepkay said. “We let them get a couple rebounds that we should have grabbed, they got the ball and ended up getting a score out of it.”
The Utes held GVSU scoreless for the first eight minutes and 56 seconds of the game. With their tough defense, they also forced the Lakers to shoot 30 percent from the field. They forced 17 turnovers, 11 of those coming from steals. Forward Shaun Green had five of those steals to go along with eight rebounds.
Kepkay had the big game that Boylen was expecting out of him. He scored 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and was the only player to knock down a 3-pointer for the Utes, hitting 5-of-7 from behind the arc.
Just like Johnnie Bryant last season, Kepkay came off the bench, allowing him to see the defense before stepping on the floor, a key factor in getting more open looks.
Preseason All-Mountain West Conference center Luke Nevill didn’t get as many looks at the basket as expected, but had a productive game on defense and on the boards. Nevill pulled down eight rebounds and had three of the team’s nine blocks.
Tipoff is at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Huntsman Center.
Tyler CobbLawrence Borha scores against Grand Valley State in an exhibition game last week. Utah will start their season off with their first regular season game against Southwest Baptist on Saturday.