Friday afternoon notes.

• Rick Majerus' coaching career at Saint Louis has officially come to an end. He had a 95-69 record over five years at Saint Louis, the last of which was his finest (included a national ranking and NCAA tournament win against Memphis). His 25-year career coaching record is 517-216.

• Colorado gave the Pac-12 its first marquee win of the season a couple hours ago. They defeated #16 Baylor 60-58 in the second round of the Charleston Classic.

• Rice transfer Arslan Kazemi will be making his debut for Oregon this evening against Vanderbilt. He was recently granted eligibility to immediately begin play with the Ducks.

• Oregon State, who fell to Alabama last night, has another chance for a win against a top-tier program in Purdue.

Next mission: Beat a D-I team.

Competition gets incrementally tougher this week as the Runnin' Utes take on Sacramento State from the Big Sky Conference.  The Hornets return their top five scorers from last year and had a nifty win last night against Cal State Bakersfield.

What the Hornets lack in talent they make up for in experience.  They rotate four Seniors and two Juniors. Meanwhile, they were led in scoring last night by two Sophomore guards (Dylan Garrity - 21/2/7 and Mikh McKinney - 23/5/3). They defeated Bakersfield by nearly the same score Cal did four days ago. They appear to be a formidable opponent for our young Utes.

Personally, I really like the way this schedule sets up.  It gives the Utes every opportunity to establish their rotation, get their act down and hopefully string together a few wins in the process. Unfortunately, the fans won't get a lot of info to work with until the competition ratchets up another notch after Thanksgiving.

Happy Signing Day!

And congrats to the Albany Great Danes, who became the first team this season to beat the Pac-12.  Before beating Washington last night, Albany's biggest win in program history was the 59-58 win against Utah in 2006-07 (although Albany's coach is a bit hazy on the details).

In other Pac-12 action, UCLA isn't exactly living up to its #13 national ranking. They survived an overtime scare at home against UC Irvine. With three seconds left in regulation and the score tied, the Anteaters' Will Davis missed two free throws.  Then in overtime, Larry Drew made the game winning layup with 17 seconds left and sealed the victory 15 seconds later with a steal.

+ + + 

The results are in. The precincts have reported. Rivals.com is indicating all four Utah basketball commits for 2013 submitted Letters of Intent today. They are:

Marko Kovacevic	C	6'11"	235	Western Nebraska C.C.
Brandon Miller	PG	6'2"	180	Brighton H.S.
Parker Van Dyke	SG	6'3"	175	East H.S.
Delon Wright	PG	6'5"	185	City College of San Francisco

Read the official announcement here.

We're #1

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Nevermind the fact those stats came against a D-III team picked to finish last in its conference.

+ + +

• In case you've missed it, the ESPN.com Uni Watch blog notes the slight variation in Utah's uniforms this season.

• Utah's Basketball Media Guide is finally available.

Weekly Pac-12 Rankings

The first weekend is in the books.  Now we must try to make some sense of this very small sample.

The following rankings are based solely on what transpired over the last few days.  I gave no credit for any pre-season analysis or projections.  Rather, I simply looked at the way the teams performed, taking into account their respective levels of competition.

1		Oregon State (2-0) | Last week: N/A: The only Pac-12 team with two wins so far. Looked particularly good against a decent New Mexico State team that went to the tournament last year. But a strange outing from Devon Collier (0/1/1, FO in 12 min.).
2		Cal (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs were dominant against CS Bakersfield. But with the game well in hand early on, I would have liked to see more contribution from the newcomers.
3		Colorado (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Appear to have all the same elements that made them so dangerous last year.
4		Stanford (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Got pushed by a solid mid-major at a neutral site. The emergence of Dwight Powell compensated for unusually poor shooting from Aaron Bright and Chasson Randle.
T5		UCLA (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Not much to say about the five teams tied for fifth place. They all won over the weekend against unimpressive competition -- but none appeared as dominant as Colorado or Cal.
T5		Arizona State (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Ditto.
T5		Washington State (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Ditto.
T5		Southern Cal (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Ditto.
T5		Washington (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Of all the fifth place teams, Washington looked the most sluggish early on. They let Loyola hang around for the first half before Aziz N'Diaye's defense led to a big second-half blowout.
10		Utah (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Solid play from several newcomers make us wonder how good they might be. And while they did what they were supposed to do against a D-III team, still . . . Utah fans must be mildly, and pleasantly, surprised.
11		Arizona (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Got a severe scare from Charleston Southern. The Wildcats struggled on defense and were out-rebounded 34-31.
12		Oregon (1-0) | Last week: N/A: Had a real tough time dispatching with Northern Arizona.

Week 2 TV Schedule

Date	Time MST	Game	Channel	Comcast Salt Lake	Dish
Nov. 12th	7:30	Portland State at Oregon	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 12th	9:30	CS Fullerton at Stanford	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 13th	7:30	Long Beach State at USC	Pac-12 LA		alt
Nov. 13th	7:30	Pepperdine at California	Pac-12 BA		alt
Nov. 13th	7:30	Albany at Washington	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 13th	9:30	UC Irvine at UCLA	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 14th	8:00	Utah Valley at Washington State	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 15th	10:30a	Colorado vs. Dayton	ESPN3
Nov. 15th	5:00	Oregon State vs. Alabama	ESPN2	669 (HD)	144
Nov. 15th	7:00	Alcorn State at Stanford	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 15th	8:00	UTEP at Arizona	Root Sports	693 (HD)	414
Nov. 15th	9:00	James Madison at UCLA	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 16th	10:30	Colorado vs. Baylor	ESPNU	755 (HD)	141
Nov. 16th	3:00	Oregon State vs. Purdue	ESPNU	755 (HD)	141
Nov. 16th	6:00	California at Denver	Root Sports		414
Nov. 16th	7:00	Sacramento State at Utah	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 16th	8:00	Washington State at Pepperdine
Nov. 16th	9:00	Vanderbilt at Oregon	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 17th	5:30	Washington vs. Seton Hall	ESPN3
Nov. 18th	1:00	Florida A&M at Arizona State	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413
Nov. 18th	2:30	Washington vs. Ohio State	ESPN2	669 (HD)	144
Nov. 18th	6:30	Colorado vs. Murray State	ESPN2	669 (HD)	144
Nov. 18th	7:00	Belmont at Stanford	Pac-12 Net	757 (HD)	413