When Jordan High and Cottonwood High meet on Saturday in a preseason boys' basketball contest, both teams will arrive earlier than usual.

They will take in their surroundings. They will pose for team pictures. They will savor a moment that most likely won't come along again in their careers.

What's so special about Saturday? This game will be at EnergySolutions Arena, the home of none other than the Utah Jazz.

"This is going to be a pretty fun game for us," Beetdiggers coach Rob Geertson said. "It's going to be fun playing on the same court as the Jazz. The kids have been getting ready for this game, and they're pretty excited about it."

Getting the game was actually pretty easy. The Jazz, as a part of an initiative on their part, have wanted to set up games for the past few seasons. The organization reached out, and Cottonwood coach Dave McConnell made a lot of it happen.

In order to get it done, McConnell and the Colt program, since it's Cottonwood's home game, had to sell $4,000 worth of tickets, which was accomplished. The other major hurdle was actually scheduling the game over the summer around a time when the teams would be available and the Jazz weren't in town.

"That was the difficult part," Geertson said. "The high school schedules are pretty much set around late spring from the year before. The NBA schedules aren't set until the middle of the summer. So that kind of made things a little bit difficult. But it all worked out, and this should be a pretty good experience for the kids."

Cottonwood, entering this week, was 2-3 on the season but that's proven to be a deceiving number. The Colts have lost to Olympus, Hillcrest and West Jordan, teams that are expected to be in the playoff race come February. They've beaten Taylorsville, and they've beaten Highland, a very good strength of schedule win.

The thing about the Colts that strikes you is the unselfishness. There isn't a scorer that teams can key on in hope of stopping the team.

Indeed, Cottonwood has had five different players lead it in scoring in five different games.

"We're all pulling together pretty good," McConnell said. "We don't have any superstars and we say that in a good way. This is a balanced team and one that I think is going to get better as the season goes on."

Jordan, on the other hand, has plenty of upstarts. The Beetdiggers feature Kevin Goldsmith who is averaging 18.6 points per game, a number that's third in Class 5A. Steven Morgan is running the point guard position expertly, averaging 7.8 assists per game, which leads the state.

Jordan, behind Geertson, is 4-1 on the season with wins over Murray, Taylorsville, Riverton and Judge. The Beetdiggers loss to Davis is their only setback of the season.

tjones@sltrib.com