On the sideline.

With ice on his knee.

The 7-foot-1 junior sat out most of practice Friday after playing for three days on a sore right knee. Nevill has some tendinitis, Boylen said, and banged knees with a teammate. He's likely won't participate in a scrimmage today at the Huntsman Center, which is free and open to the public.

The scrimmage begins at 5 p.m. and is expected to last about an hour.

The injury to Nevill isn't believed to be serious - "nothing is structurally wrong," Boylen said - but after a day off Thursday, Boylen said he thought it would be wise to hold Nevill out of the workout to give him extra rest. Instead of playing basketball, Nevill worked out in a swimming pool along with Boylen.

Even before Nevill was hurt, the Utes were enduring their share of nagging injuries during the preseason.

Forwards Shaun Green and Sayre Brennan and guard Carlon Brown have missed several days of practice at various times - Green with a strained leg muscle, and Brennan and Brown with ankle injuries. A groin injury continues to bother guard Curtis Eatmon.

"My team is breaking down because they've never worked this hard before," Boylen said.

None of the injuries is especially serious, he said. but they did come at a bad time.

"When you miss this time of the year - foundation, conditioning, the system, teaching it like we're doing - it's just hard to get that back," Boylen said. "When you start playing games, you don't have that time. That's why it bothers me. . . . You miss five days this time of year? That's like missing 15 in January or February."

Casting ballots

The Utes won only 11 games last season - something about which Boylen continues to remind his players every time they resist doing things his way - yet have received an unexpected surprise:

Votes in a top 25 poll.

The Utes received four points in the preseason USA Today/ESPN Top 25 coaches poll, meaning they received either one 22nd-place vote, four 25th-place votes or some combination in between.

"Interesting," Boylen said.

San Diego State's Steve Fisher seems the most likely to have voted for the Utes, among the 31 coaches who cast ballots in the poll.

Ticket sales

Single-game tickets and ticket packages will go on sale Thursday, with one exception. Single-game tickets to the rivalry game against Brigham Young on Jan. 19 won't go on sale until two days before the game, though they can be purchased next week in one of the packages.

Looking good

Judging by his comments over the past couple of weeks, Boylen has been most impressed so far by forward Kim Tillie and guard Lawrence Borha - though he spent much of Friday's workout excoriating Borha for being soft and lazy.

Boylen said the 6-foot-9 Tillie has been terrific defensively since recovering from an injured toe that limited his preseason individual workouts. Tillie missed the last 18 games of last season with a broken ankle. Boylen said Borha is "getting it" and playing hard, poised to earn the starting job at shooting guard.

That starting lineup, by the way, figures to also include junior Tyler Kepkay at point guard, sophomore Stephen Weigh at small forward, Green at power forward and Nevill at center. Senior guard Johnnie Bryant, sophomore swingman Luka Drca and Tillie figure to handle the most prominent roles off the bench.

mcl@sltrib.com