In other words, he's still grinding.

"This is a process," he insisted. "I'm not giving up."

Yet the 11-8 Utes are in a precarious state heading into their game against last-place Colorado State tonight at Moby Arena, knowing that another loss to one of the weakest teams in the Mountain West Conference will put them at risk of needing to win a play-in game just to reach the league tournament next month.

What's more, they seem to have been exposed in league play as a team that cannot win unless it can have a sensational outside shooting night.

"We'd like to say no, that's not the case," forward Shaun Green said. "But right now, it seems that it's yes. But we're going to try to fix that, to where once we miss a couple of shots, we start going inside and driving the ball more."

The Utes have lost four of their last five games, mostly because of offensive impotence. Not only did they miss potential winning or tying shots in each of the losses - junior guard Tyler Kepkay has missed at the end of the last three - but they have shot just 43.8 percent (28 percent from three-point range) and averaged only 59.8 points in those games.

"Our defense was good," Kepkay said. "It's just our offense right now that's pretty much hurting us."

Although the Rams are still winless in conference play, the Utes figure to have their hands full against guards Marcus Walker and Willis Gardner - the junior transfers combine to average 30 points per game - in part because backup guard Luka Drca will miss the game serving a suspension for elbowing TCU's Brent Hackett last weekend.

That "hurts our creative ability and our size and our defense," Boylen said.

Boylen is not convinced, though, that Wyoming provided a blueprint for beating the Utes by guarding center Luke Nevill one-on-one in order to keep pressure on the outside shooters and prevent them from getting open shots - even though it worked for the Cowboys in a 69-64 victory three days ago at the Huntsman Center.

Boylen believes the Utes still could have won that game, had they not been beaten so badly on the boards or on defense in transition. But he didn't dispute that the Utes need to improve on offense if they're going to avoid another losing season.

"When the offense is struggling, your margin for error goes down," he said. "When you're making shots and things are smooth and the ball's going in, you have a little margin for error. . . . You have to make shots."

mcl@sltrib.com

Utah at Colo. St.

Where: Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colo.

Tipoff: Today, 7 p.m.

TV: mtn.

Radio: 700 AM

Records: Utah 11-8 (2-4 MWC), CSU 6-14 (0-6 MWC)

Series: Utah leads, 96-42

Last meeting: Utah 82, Colorado State 77 (Feb. 7, 2007)

Line: Utah by 8 1/2

About the Utes: Having lost four of five, they need a win before hitting a tough stretch against the league's top teams. . . . They're shooting just 28 percent from three-point range in their four league losses. . . . They have lost two straight at CSU.

About the Rams: Playing with only eight scholarship players, new coach Tim Miles has kept them competitive at home.

. . . Senior C Stuart Creason is out indefinitely with a foot injury. . . . They're allowing a league-worst 76.3 points per game. . . . Junior G Marcus Walker leads the league by scoring 18.4 points per game - and 23.7 points in league games.