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On draft night late last month, Joel Bolomboy's Weber State teammates were gathered around the television at their coach's home. Their star teammate, meanwhile, was with friends and family at his home in Texas watching intently as the names were called. There was frustration when Bolomboy didn't hear his name called in the first round and anxiety as he was skipped over repeatedly in the second round, too, until the Jazz took him with the 52nd overall pick.

So Bolomboy went to sleep around 1 a.m., then woke up early to hit the gym.

"A lot of people had fun, just enjoyed the night," he said. "But I was ready to get to work. It was just the beginning."

As a second round pick, Bolomboy's contract is not guaranteed and with the Jazz's acquisition of forward Boris Diaw this week, the team's roster got that much tighter. Still, Bolomboy remains hopeful he'll have a home in Utah next fall.

"I think I have a great chance of making the roster," he has said. "But that's not in my control, so I'm just going to do what I can do and do what I can control."

In four years at Weber State, Bolomboy blossomed into the Big Sky Conference's best player and its all-time leading rebounder. He averaged 17.1 points and 12.6 rebounds per game last season as a senior as he transformed into an NBA draft pick.

In his first summer league games as a pro, however, Bolomoboy has yet to really find his footing. In two games, he has scored a total of seven points and grabbed six rebounds in 30 minutes. But those who know him best believe his supreme athleticism, his knack for rebounding and his tireless work ethic give him a real chance of succeeding in his NBA dream.

Former Weber State assistant coach Phil Beckner has watched Bolomboy's transformation. Becker, now a coach at Boise State, was ecstatic to land the raw but intriguing prospect out of Texas, beating out New Mexico, Clemson and others for Bolomboy. But the forward struggled early on.

In one of his first workouts, Beckner set up three chairs in the key with a basketball on each one. The drill was simple: pick up the ball, turn and shoot a jump hook.

Bolomoboy air-balled the first one. The second one, too. Then he did it again on the third attempt.

"Are we going to have to get rid of him?" Beckner, laughing now, recalls thinking.

Not long after that, however, Beckner was put at ease. In one of their next workouts, Bolomboy got the ball during a scrimmage. He was stuck in traffic, surrounded by defenders. Not particularly skilled, Bolomboy couldn't pivot or fake his way out of the jam.

"So he just jumped straight and dunked it backward," Beckner said.

Bolomboy's 37.5-inch standing vertical leap was the best of any player at the NBA pre-draft combine last May. And he wowed fans and scouts during a five-on-five scrimmage when he took off from the left side of the basket, hung in the air, and managed to turn and flush a dunk from the other side of the hoop.

"Somebody looked at me and said, 'Have you ever seen him do that before?'" Weber State coach Randy Rahe said. "I kind of laughed, 'Yeah. I have.' "

As roommates at Weber State, Jeremy Senglin would spend late nights in the gym with his best friend, calling out dunks for him to practice.

"He's just a freak athlete," he said. "He'll do stuff you wouldn't think people could do."

But in addition to his athleticism, Bolomboy has worked to add to his game. Senglin, Bolomboy's best friend and former AAU teammate, also helped hone his skills on the perimeter in games of one-on-one.

"It probably doesn't look right, because he's 6-9 and I'm 6-2," Senglin said. But the game had a rule: Bolomoboy wasn't allowed to post up. "That helped him move like a guard," he said.

He took 55 3-pointers last season and made 20. His size and length, meanwhile, could allow him to defend multiple positions in the NBA.

Weber State athletic director Jerry Bovee chuckles at the contrast between the past two players from his school to be drafted by NBA teams. All-star point guard Damian Lillard's strong personality showed early in his days in Ogden. Bolomboy, meanwhile, didn't want to do interviews as a freshman and balked at first when Bovee suggested he followed Lillard's cue and pick up his social media presence to help increase his visibility.

"He'll talk on defense and he'll talk on offense and that's about all the talk you need out of players," his former high school coach, Gerald Sledge, said of Bolomboy.

But Bovee sees a major similarity between Lillard and Bolomboy.

"He's got that chip-on-his-shoulder mentality that guys from our school tend to have," Bovee said.

After being passed over with the first 51 picks on draft night, Bolomboy says he'll carry that chip with him into training camp.

"I'm definitely using that as motivation. But at the end of the day, I'm going somewhere I'm wanted. The Jazz took me because they wanted me here," Bolomboy said. "All the other teams, obviously they didn't want me. … I'm just going to prove the Jazz right."

After his first practices with Bolomboy, Jazz assistant coach Johnnie Bryant has come away impressed.

"He's a special guy," Bryant said.

But at the NBA level, everybody is special. Already, Bolomboy said he has had to fight with players who can match or exceed his athleticism. Bolomboy knows that means he'll have to outwork them.

Beckner recalls another early practice when Bolomboy wasn't running hard enough during fast breaks for his liking. When Bolomboy responded to the coach's demands to pick it up by saying he thought he was running hard, the coaches showed him what he needed to survive at the next level.

"We just put him on the treadmill and set the incline really high and set the speed really high," Beckner said. "If you don't run fast, you fall off."

In a way, that's the situation he finds himself in now as he battles for a spot on the Jazz's roster next year.

And Bolomoboy said he is up for the challenge.

"I'm going to come in from day one and work hard," Bolomboy said, "and everything else will fall into place."

Twitter: @aaronfalk —

Joel Bolomboy file

College • Weber State

Position • Forward

Acquired • Drafted 52nd overall in the June draft

2015-16 averages • 17.1 points, 12.5 rebounds, 1.2 blocks per game

Jazz summer league averages • 3.5 points, 3 rebounds —

Jazz Summer League schedule

Thursday's games

At the Huntsman Center

Celtics vs. Spurs, 5 p.m.

Jazz vs. Sixers, 7 p.m.