Nov. 11, 1999

Tuesday night following his team's second exhibition game, Majerus had plenty to say after his Utes unexpectedly LOST to the California All-Stars 70-68 at the Huntsman Center.

That's right, the 15th-ranked Utes actually lost a home game, something that hadn't happened in nearly three years since Tim Duncan's Wake Forest team beat them on New Year's Eve, 1996.

Of course, this exhibition defeat won't count against the Utes' third-best-in-the-nation 35-game home winning streak, and it won't go on their season record. But the loss still didn't make Majerus very happy.

"Defensively we stunk," said Majerus. "We didn't play with any heart, energy or enthusiasm. We didn't play with physical presence."

Unlike the other night, Majerus didn't mind talking about his players individually, either. He had something to offer about nearly everyone.

"Al (Jensen) got stung for nine in the first half. Hanno (Mottola) got no offensive rebounds. Jeff Johnsen was more concerned about his shot than his defense. (Gary) Colbert and (Trent) Whiting have no clue about the toughness that will have to occur at this level."

Majerus is genuinely concerned that the real season begins less than a week from now, Nov. 16, against Arkansas State in the first round of the Preseason NIT.

"Nobody feels a sense of urgency other than me," he complained.

Majerus is also concerned about injuries that have been piling up. Starting center Nate Althoff has been out of most practices this fall, junior college-transfer point guard Whiting has missed about half of the practices, and Adam Sharp has been slowed by a broken leg suffered during the summer.

With four minutes left in Tuesday's game, Mottola joined the list after getting knocked down and heading straight to the locker room (Mottola was diagnosed with a medial knee strain that could keep him out as long as a week).

"We've been lucky for a long time, but now the injury thing has really hit us," Majerus said. "We have no continuity — we just have guys injured."

In the early going of Tuesday's game, the Utes looked pretty sharp, jumping out to a 16-6 lead by hitting five of their first seven shots, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range.

However the all-stars, consisting of ex-collegians such as Charles O'Bannon, who starred at UCLA and played with the Detroit Pistons the past two years, and Jimmy Carroll, who played at Utah for two years before transferring to Nevada, fought back.

Just before the half, they took their first lead at 37-36 on a 3-pointer by Corey Anders.

Mottola, who finished with a game-high 24 points, scored nine of Utah's first 11 points in the second half to put the Utes up 49-46. But O'Bannon (team-high 13 points), led the all-stars on a 14-3 run to make it 66-58 with 3:46 left.

Utah made one last burst as Jeremy Killion hit a pair of 3-pointers and Johnsen and Harvey sank free throws to cut the lead to 70-68. After a miss by California, the Utes had one last chance to win or send the game into overtime. But they had no chance to set up a play because Majerus had already used all five of his timeouts (four in the first half alone).

On an out-of-bounds play with 1.2 seconds left, Phil Cullen took a pass inside from Jensen and was fouled at the buzzer. After a timeout, Cullen went to the line all by himself but clanked his shot off the back of the rim.

The All-Stars were noticeably up for this game after playing six games already this month, in which they were 3-3 and were impressed with the Utes.

"They're definitely the best team we've played," said all-star coach Jeremy Eggers. "It was our best effort so far. We're trying to play hard, and tonight we rose to the competition. We threw everything we had at them."

The all-stars have seven more games before they disband, with as many as eight players expected to play pro ball.

If the Utes win Tuesday against Arkansas State, they'll play at Kentucky Nov. 19. If they win that game, they'll play a pair of games in New York in the NIT.