Muted by Utes

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005 | 9:19 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY -- New season. New coach. Same old results.

UNLV's 70-52 loss to Utah on Monday night was eerily similiar to the Rebels' last trip to the Huntsman Center here last February when Charlie Spoonhour was the head coach. The biggest difference this time was that star forward Odartey Blankson didn't openly call out his teammates and coaches afterward.

No, Blankson and his teammates were practically speechless after this one ... and for good reason.

The Rebels (7-6, 0-1), who talked all week about getting revenge for a bitter 73-70 loss to the Utes (13-3, 1-0) in last year's Mountain West Conference championship game in Denver, were flat-out embarrassed in their MWC opener.

Consider:

That last figure should include an asterisk, however, because starting point guard Marc Jackson was held out of the starting lineup for violating team rules. Jackson's mistake? He missed two practices so he could be with his wife, Brooke, who gave birth to a healthy son, Kolbyn, on Friday.

Jackson came in after just three minutes and dominated his head-to-head matchup with Rebels point guard Jerel Blassingame. Jackson finished with a game-high 23 points (5 of 8 3-pointers), four rebounds and three assists while Blassingame scored eight points and had more turnovers (three) than assists (one).

The good news for the Rebels is that Utah starting forward Richard Chaney, the team's third leading scorer at 11.5 points per game, didn't play because of a broken left hand or the score might have been even worse.

"I'm surprised because we had four good practices heading into this game," said Blankson, who had 12 points and four rebounds. "But we went out there and once again didn't execute or play with any fire or passion. They beat us to all the loose balls. We just didn't get it done."

Forward Andy Hannan added: "We just didn't have any intensity tonight. We just completely let this game out of hand. We didn't hustle like we could. We didn't play aggressive. We didn't carry over what we had worked on in practice, so it's pretty disappointing.

"There's a loss of words in the locker room right now because we get these things done in practice and the coaches prepare us and the players -- all of us -- we haven't carried it over to the court. Everybody's feeling pretty down right now."

Despite their rebounding woes, the Rebels actually made a game of it for most of the first half and trailed by just a point, 20-19, with 6:10 remaining after guard Romel Beck sank a 3-pointer.

But Utah went on an 11-5 run to end the half, highlighted by one possession in which the Utes got three offensive rebounds. Junior center Chris Jackson converted a layup on the fourth shot to give Utah a 31-23 lead and seemingly knock the air out of the Rebels in the process.

Utah started the second half with a 17-7 run to blow the game open, 48-31, and led by as many as 22 points late in the game.

"We just didn't have very many aggressive plays, offensively or defensively," Rebels coach Lon Kruger said. "We somehow have to figure how to become more aggressive." The Rebels, who flew back home this morning, have four days to try to figure that out before hosting San Diego State (7-7, 1-0) on Saturday night.

"Hopefully we can get our confidence back and start playing the way we know we can," Blankson said.

If not, it could be a mighty long season for the Rebels.