Columnist Dean Juipe: One Utah team looks like another

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 10:32 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

They clone these guys in Utah. Got it down to a science.

They've got the genetic ingredients in the right order to produce the exact type of basketball player they want, and they do it as if it were an assembly line.

They want 'em tall.

And sort of thin.

And to have some good moves around the basket.

And to be able to routinely hit the mid-range jumper and at least occasionally nail the 3-pointer.

So they churn 'em out, year after year, so that every Utah basketball team looks precisely like its predecessor.

Oh, and for good measure -- and to further their advantage over their opponents -- they send many of these young men off on religious missions and then have them return to the team looking like grizzled veterans.

Yes, from all appearances, the Utes have a good thing going.

And sometimes it just doesn't seem fair.

Such was the case, at least periodically, Monday night at the Thomas & Mack Center as this season's version of the Team That Never Changes wore down UNLV in the midst of an 85-77 victory.

The Rebels didn't play poorly, they just couldn't match the Utes when it came to size and skill across the front line. It wasn't the David vs. Goliath advantage that Utah has against some teams, yet the visitors had the monsters.

They always do.

It was a tough loss for the Rebels to swallow, but one they probably had coming by the karmic forces. After all, they stole a victory with a buzzer beater at Wyoming last week and then came back from a 16-point deficit to pick off a win over BYU over the weekend.

To the Rebels' credit they made a game of it with Utah after a lapse in which it looked as if they had lost their legs.

When it was running, UNLV was playing very well and the transition game was clearly working in its favor for much of the night. But a letdown fairly early in the second half allowed Utah to go up 54-39 and everything the Rebels did from there had an uphill feel to it.

While they repeatedly clawed back to the verge of pulling even, the 15-point margin was a mountain to overcome. And Utah had the steely reserve to fend off the Rebels' advances.

What was learned from the outcome?

For starters, the Mountain West's once-powerful home-court advantage has been lessened the last couple of weeks. And UNLV is now 1-1 against the point spread, having failed to cover the minus 2 it was favored by against Utah. Also, Utah looks the same even without Rick Majerus on the bench. And UNLV isn't looking much different even after the switch from Bill Bayno to Max Good.

This was a game with an enthusiastic crowd, although the 16,629 who took in last year's UNLV-Utah meeting at the Mack had more fun in the long run. But it was an entertaining night, in spite of the dreadfully late start to accommodate national TV. Given the 9:05 tip-off, a snoozer was all anyone could have reasonably expected.

Instead they saw a spirited contest, to say nothing of proof of the genetic duplicating that always makes Utah such a challenging team.