The possibility of facing UNLV in front of its rowdy crowd at the Mountain West Conference tournament without two key post players is reason enough for Utah men's basketball coach Jim Boylen to be a little uptight this week.

But the Utes' third-year coach has been nothing like a coach who recently had a very publicized meltdown after losing to his rival and is facing an immense challenge Thursday.

Far from it, in fact. Boylen has joked with members of the media, has been easygoing around his players and has greeted the matchup with the Rebels (11-5, 23-7) with a devilish smile. "Playing them on their home floor again, I'm excited and the team is excited," he said.

So what happened to the coach who was snippy and despondent after the Utes' 71-51 loss to the Cougars? Truth be told, that incident was a rare moment for Boylen this season. His team (7-9, 14-16) has struggled, but he has almost relentlessly focused on the positive. Make no mistake, losing doesn't sit well with him, especially when the losses are at home to BYU. But Boylen say his biggest concern is ensuring his team improves. And at this point, he says he has seen enough to keep him upbeat.

"I think I'm handling this year better than a lot of people," he said.

His reaction after the BYU loss might not have won him any politically correct style points, but it showed how much he cares about the program, forward Jay Watkins said.

"He doesn't take losing kindly, none of us do," Watkins said. "We want to win as much as possible, that is why I came here."

Boylen doesn't like the Utes' record anymore than anyone else, but says it's his job to judge his team on its performance and improvement, not the win-loss record alone.

"I'm encouraged because we've gotten better," Boylen said. "The fans and people want to win, but I was brought here to build this program and I feel like we are doing that on all levels. Whenever you lose a home game to your rival and shoot 20-something percent, it's tough. That was disappointing. I so wanted to win because it was the last game for Luka Drca and Kim Tillie. I'll remember that game forever and so will they, and when they think back they aren't going to feel good about it. Those things grind on me."

The Utes were picked to finish fourth in the league, so they fell a little short of that projection by tying CSU for fifth-place.

However, the Utes started the season with a rash of injuries and off-court issues which didn't help a young team already facing a challenging season. "It has been frustrating and disappointing," freshman guard Marshall Henderson said. "A lot of emotions in one."

Injuries, absences and suspensions forced the Utes to use eight different lineups this season. Among those missing valuable time included centers David Foster and Jason Washburn, forward Jay Watkins, forcing the Utes to change their focus from improving to simply finding a lineup for games.

"It put pressure on our roster," Boylen said. "We were going to redshirt Shawn Glover and he had to play. A lack of having the team together on a consistent basis, with new players hurt and young players hurt, hurt us." Disappointing too was the play of veterans Carlon Brown, Luka Drca and Kim Tillie. Brown and Drca in particular struggled in the Utes' big games, such as their 3-of-15 shooting performance against the Cougars.

As a result, the offense has never caught up to the defense.

"At times I felt like I coached the freshmen like seniors and the seniors like freshmen," Boylen said. "I've struggled with that."

There are positives. The defense remains the team's strength and the playing time the younger players have received this year will help next season.

The Utes might not have improved enough to make a tournament run like they did last season. And Foster and Tillie's ankle injuries make Thursday's task against the Rebels that much more daunting.

Boylen, however, remains consistent in his belief the season is about more than winning and losing, which is why he said he is in such a good mood despite the two-game losing streak the Utes take into the tournament.

"We're still practicing hard and playing with force and we're going to keep doing that," he said. "I don't think losing is always taking a step back, sometimes you can take a step forward. We'll see what we can do."