Basketball practice is starting already?

The Utah basketball team held its first practice of the fall Monday at the Huntsman Center.
What? Practice starts in mid-October, not mid-September, doesn’t it?
Officially, that’s true, but thanks to an NCAA rule change a couple of years ago, college basketball teams can practice together for two hours a week up until the official start next month when they start practicing daily.
Coach Jim Boylen had his team going through defensive drills for most of the hour Monday. He reminded his players how they improved from 9th to 2nd in the league last year in field-goal percentage defense and told them that this year they would be 1st.
The drill for the final half hour had players practicing 4-on-4 with freshmen and walk-ons on offense and the main players trading off on defense. One group included Luke Nevill, Shaun Green, Carlon Brown and Luka Drca, while the other group included Lawrence Borha Tyler Kepkay, Kim Tillie and freshman Jordan Cyphers.
Afterward, Boylen talked about how excited he was for the upcoming season and said he was pleasantly surprised by the play of some of his new players already. One or more of his freshmen might redshirt this year and the one most likely to play at this point is Cyphers, a 6-4 sharpshooter from Wichita.
Last week, the players participated in a mile run, which they do periodically to meet goals set by the coaches. So who won the mile run? Would you believe it was Tillie, the 6-8 forward from France, who ran a 5:18.
Two players have been battling injuries — Drca is overcoming a thigh bruise and an ankle sprain, while freshman Chris Hines was hobbled for several weeks with a severe ankle sprain.
Even though the Utes have four players committed for next year, including two who committed last week, Boylen is not allowed to even acknowledge the fact publicly until the players sign official letters of intent in November.