Basketblog

Utah Illini get underway...faraway

Posted by: Paul Klee

Tuesday, October 3, 2006 12:00 AM

CHAMPAIGN -- Really, there's only one problem having Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Roger Powell Jr. on the same team again.

You're over here, and they're over there. Way over there, as in Boise, Idaho, over there. Three-fifths of the 2004-05 Illini's starting five is on the Utah Jazz's training camp roster. The Jazz opened camp today at Taco Bell Arena on the picturesque campus of Boise State. (Some great fly fishing around Boise, by the way.)

Williams is a budding star. So the 2005-06 All-Rookie selection is already on the team, of course. The focus -- of this blog, at least -- is on Brown and Powell. Here's part of their situation, from what I'm told:

Eighteen players are on the Jazz's camp roster, including seven rookies. NBA teams can have 15 players on their regular season roster, but the Jazz will most likely trim theirs to 14 (to leave room for a late addition, trade, what-have-you).

I'm told Utah likes to carry three point guards, a tradition that began late in John Stockton's career, when the franchise wanted to trim the Gonzaga grad's practice minutes. Williams and Derek Fisher, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, lock down the first two spots. That leaves Brown in a battle with Brian Chase, a fellow rookie out of Virginia Tech, for the third slot.

So that's Brown's task, to further prove he is an NBA point guard over the duration of training camp and the preseason. I'm told he has a good chance to make the team, and Illini coaches echoed those sentiments. UI assistant Wayne McClain had plans to attend Jazz camp at some point this week.

Powell, on the other hand, needs to shine to make the squad. He's viewed as a classic 'tweener, with the game of an inside guy, but the body (6-6, 235) of a perimeter player. I'm told either Powell or 7-foot-2 rookie Frans Steyn will probably slip into one of the final roster spots.

As of tonight, I haven't gotten in touch with Kevin O'Connor, Utah's vice president of basketball operations. I want to ask him if there's any specific reason the Jazz have a sudden affinity for ex-Illini. (Illinois is the only school with multiple players on the Jazz's camp roster.) Chances are, it's just a coincidence.

But coach Jerry Sloan is an Illinois guy -- a southern Illinois guy, to be precise, who spends a good deal of time at his off-season home in McLeansboro -- so maybe that has something to do with it. I doubt it. But we'll find out.

So that's today's update on the Utah Illini. Check back for more in the near future.

Thanks for reading,

PK

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