Utes practicing well before big game

When it was Utah’s turn for its public practice at 4:15 this afternoon here at the American AIrlines Arena in Miami, the team actually practiced. That’s not how it used to be for years back when Rick Majerus was the coach during NCAA tournaments. Majerus would take his players to a local gym before showing up at the public practice where his players would basically just stand around and shoot baskets.
Boylen’s Utes treated it like a regular practice with drills and coaches barking out instructions to the players. It turned out to be the only practice of the day for the Utes who cancelled a morning practice at Florida International University. The Utes had practiced there the day before and Boylen thought his team was so sharp he decided he didn’t need a morning practice. Plus he might have been concerned about his team getting overly fatigued the day before the big game.
“I feel like we were as strong a family as we could be the last 10 to 12 days in practice and it’s been that way here, too,” Boylen said. “I feel good about where we are at.”