He rants.

He raves.

He dares, and taunts, and calls names - and he can get pretty crass and personal about it, too, before he pats guys on the head and tells them he cares about them. Yet for as hard as Boylen can be on them, the Utes universally insist that they understand and support his methods, which stand in stark contrast to the more tranquil approach that former coach Ray Giacoletti employed.

"He gets on us, but it's all for good," junior guard Lawrence Borha said. "He wants us to be better, you know?"

Perhaps more than anybody, Borha has warmed to the new regime throughout its limited summer and preseason workouts. Inconsistent as an occasional starter last season, he said he already has had his confidence restored by Boylen's tough love approach - and Boylen has singled him out several times for his improvement.

"Last year, you would mess up, and it would be like, 'You messed up. Oh, you suck and get on the bench and you won't play,' " Borha said. "This year, it's, 'You suck, now you go out there and you do it better!' You know? That makes a big difference."

Certainly, Boylen has not been afraid to call things like he sees them.

Barely six months into his first head coaching job, he has unflinchingly described the program he inherited as "mediocre" and "average," described the team's guard play last season as "poor," publicly chastised just about every player for one deficiency or another - most them need to "grow up" - and suggested that fans who complain about removing players' names from the backs of their jerseys this season should "buy a program."

Obviously, there's no room for delicacy when last season ended with the worst record in 23 years.

"I'm not down on our guys," Boylen insisted. "We just need to get better."

Which is why Boylen already has made the same kind of impression on the basketball team that former coach Urban Meyer did on the football team when he arrived nearly five years ago.

The workouts have been relentless, and the players all talk about how much harder they are now than in the past. In his effort to toughen the players, Boylen has gone so far as to have his team managers stand near each basket during a full-court layup drill and wallop each player with a big, stuffed football blocking dummy as he tries to make the basket.

"I don't think they've been held accountable or exposed to how hard you have to practice to be a winner," Boylen said. "And my goal is to have them understand that we have to work harder than they're used to. My job is to push them to places they can't go themselves, and that's what practice is all about. So, you can interpret that any way you want."

Nobody has fallen in for more criticism, it seems, than junior Shaun Green.

A former all-state star at Olympus High School, the sharp-shooting 6-foot-8 forward has started 52 of 59 games in his career with the Utes and ranked as their third-leading scorer last season.

But Boylen believes Green has been too soft, and that benefits like his starting role have come too easily for him. So in challenging Green to improve his toughness and all-around game, Boylen sometimes derisively calls him "Golden Boy" or "Mr. Utah" during practice.

"Yeah, he rides me a little bit," Green said with a grin. "But it's a good thing, because I know he's just trying to get me better. That's the confidence thing. I feel like he's yelling at me to get better, not yelling at me just because I'm messing up."

In explaining how the Utes have "been allowed to be mediocre," Boylen likes to recount the story of his first conversation with junior center Luke Nevill. According to Boylen, he asked Nevill how he was doing in school.

"Pretty good," Nevill replied.

"What's pretty good?" Boylen asked.

"C's," Nevill said.

At that point in the story, Boylen screws up his face.

"That's not pretty good," he said, simmering like he does when a drill starts to go wrong in practice. "You know what I mean? That's not pretty good in my program. That's average. That's bulls---. That's mediocrity, and I don't want mediocrity and people don't want mediocrity. And we have enough here not to have mediocrity."

Starting, they hope, with a coach who sometimes seems a lot more like a drill sergeant.

mcl@sltrib.com

Nov. 1 - Exhibition

Utah vs. Montana Tech, 7 p.m.

Nov. 6 - Exhibition

Utah vs. Northwest Nazarene, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 9 - Season opener

Utah vs. South Carolina Upstate, 7 p.m.