There's a two-hour morning practice, followed by three hours of down time, followed by a two-hour evening practice. He's sampled just about the entire menu at the hotel restaurant the past week and can't help but feel like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day."

Even if he hasn't gotten used to saying he plays for the Utah Jazz, Almond has learned the first lesson of his new life.

"They're not joking when they say it's a job now," said Almond, the No. 25 first-round pick who will make his debut tonight in the Rocky Mountain Revue. "Once you tell yourself that and convince yourself of that, it's a lot of basketball, but this is what I do now."

For all the course offerings at Rice University, Almond had to arrive in Utah to start NBA 101. He became a star the moment commissioner David Stern announced his name on draft night and an instant millionaire when he signed his rookie contract.

After barely sleeping the night after the draft, Almond flew to Salt Lake City for his first press conference and quickly learned how much things had changed. There in the airport, perfect strangers offered congratulations on coming to the Jazz.

There's no way to predict success, but the least that can be said about Almond is he is well-adjusted. He bounced around between Army bases until eighth grade, with his father stationed in Kentucky, Colorado, Georgia, Germany, Ohio and Kansas.

Almond also overcame what his father described as a "devastating" two years at Rice, when he couldn't get off the bench. He remade himself as a player, averaged 26.4 points as a senior, and became the first Rice player taken in the first round in 25 years.

Looking back on things, retired Army Maj. Willie Almond said, "If Morris had said, 'I can't take this anymore,' I'd have said, 'When do you want me to pick you up?' "

And Almond was schooled enough to know what teams best fit his game as a shooter. After going through 14 workouts in 20 days before the draft, Almond still says in every interview that he couldn't have landed in a better place than Utah.

In fact, Almond describes the Jazz the same way he describes himself, as the player "that's never been the most fun to watch, but just really efficient." Maybe it's no surprise the teams most interested in drafting Almond were Utah, San Antonio and Detroit.

"Everybody likes to see the dunks," Almond said. "No one likes to see [a guy] coming off a screen or running the floor and spotting up or back cuts or posting up smaller guards and things like that. Things that I excel at."

The early reports on Almond have been encouraging. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan called Almond "an interested learner" with an innate ability to get open. "It's always interesting to watch a guy that can score," Sloan added.

A MODEL SON TURNED MILLIONAIRE

For now, Almond is focused entirely on basketball. Everything else will come after the Revue, including meeting with a financial adviser. The first check won't be deposited until August, but Almond has to decide about buying a house and car.

Playing for the Jazz is the first job Almond ever has had. His mother plans on still teaching middle school, but his father, who now works at Fort McPherson in Georgia as a civilian, would like to find some way to be involved in his son's career.

"He's been taking me to AAU practices since the day I can remember," Almond said.

Willie Almond calls Morris "a model son" who did something he admits he couldn't have in sticking with the program at Rice. "He's demonstrated that when things get tough, he didn't try to run away from it. He perseveres and he tries to rise above it."

Almond can barely remember all the places he lived with his father, stationed at bases from Fort Knox to Fort Carson to Fort Leavenworth. They even spent time in Germany, when Almond attended the same base school as Shaquille O'Neal while his father served in the Gulf War.

The family settled in Georgia so Almond and his younger brother could stay put in high school. Long before that, Willie Almond, who played in junior college, gave Morris a Wilson basketball on his first birthday and a toy hoop on his second.

"We used to get complaints all the time," he said, "because Morris would be running, jumping, playing basketball in the apartment."

The Almonds don't plan on moving to Salt Lake City, but hope to fly in twice a month to check up on their son and watch him play. Willie Almond has tried to counsel Morris as best he can for what lies ahead.

"I always tell Morris that being a professional athlete, you're probably going to be different because everybody knows you," he said. "I think Morris understands that he has to keep those people that he knows and trusts around him, and that's what we're going to do."

The hardest part might be convincing Almond that everything has changed. He's still wearing the same clothes as in college. He was still driving his dad's Toyota Tundra the day after the draft. He is still living off the money in his college savings account.

"My name's not Greg Oden or Kevin Durant," Almond said.

That said, Almond's first rookie contract guaranteed him nearly $2.1 million. Should the Jazz exercise both option years, Almond could stand to make more than $5.3 million. But he figures he can't blow much money since he doesn't have his ears pierced.

He won't have to wait to buy a new laptop or headphones or even the Chevy Tahoe he's thinking about. But Almond also says, "I'm definitely going to live below my means, really just get myself established on the floor in my first year."

TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY

In that respect, Almond also is starting over. After knowing where to be on the court at Rice, he has to start from scratch with the Jazz. With only four days of practice before the Revue, Almond has been studying DVDs of plays in his room at night.

"It's like the first day of tryouts or something like that," Almond said. "That's how I felt. You don't want to mess up. You want to play as hard as you can and make sure you're letting everybody know you're giving the right effort because you're just learning."

His college coach, Willis Wilson, predicted that Almond would do well because he would be able to devote his full attention to basketball, instead of writing papers and studying for tests. "They didn't give us degrees at Rice," Almond said.

As for his role as a rookie, Almond is prepared for whatever comes. The competitor in him wants to play and wants to hit key three-pointers for a team that reached the Western Conference finals. The realist knows he might have to wait his turn on the bench.

In high school and college, Almond blossomed in his junior season. What he's most looking to do is build a foundation as a rookie. "I probably know better than anyone things don't always go as planned in your first year," he said.

"When a team is already as established as this," Almond added, "you just want to get in where you fit in your first year and just learn as much as you can."

From high school in Atlanta to college in Houston, Almond now is in Salt Lake City, which is small enough to remind him of Rice's close-knit campus of 4,800. "Everybody knew their routine," Almond said, "and that's what I hope to establish here."

The one thing he has done outside of basketball since arriving last week came in hiking with Mark McKown, following a tradition the strength coach started with Karl Malone. The goal is to adjust to the altitude and get a view of the city from the hills.

"I think he had fun," McKown said, even though they went on a 103-degree day and Almond had to carry the group's water as a rookie.

In the meantime, Almond will try to learn as much about the life as he can. His former high school teammate, Atlanta forward Josh Smith, told him he'd be tired for a third of the 82-game schedule. His new teammates suggested he find a hobby to fill all the down time.

"You listen to what people tell you," Almond said, "especially people who've been through it, and you just prepare for it the best you can."