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Los Angeles • The Utes are on the road this week, but for nearly half of the team's roster, it's homecoming.
With four Los Angeles natives playing for Utah — five if you count transfer Gabe Bealer — the days leading up to games at UCLA (Thursday) and USC (Sunday) have been filled with making arrangements for more than 100 guests and hoping for a chance to grab chicken and and waffles at Roscoe's.
But if there's something that Chris Reyes, Brandon Taylor, Dakarai Tucker and Delon Wright are looking forward to more than California sunshine, it's winning — and getting the respect that comes with it.
"We're always out there fighting," Reyes said. "We want to prove to other people that we can play with top recruits and everything. It's just going out there and fighting with these guys."
All of the L.A. players for Utah (16-3, 6-1) have something in common: They were unheralded. For every list that gave them two stars next to their names, there was another that had none.
But for each of them, stars don't mean much. Neither do national rankings: Even though Utah is at No. 11 this week in the Associated Press poll, the players brush it off.
"We've never been ranked our whole lives," Taylor said. "We couldn't care less about rankings. [Dakarai], I know for sure he doesn't care about rankings. He doesn't care about anything like that. That's something that's so key for our team."
It's not an accident: Utah has actively recruited diamonds in the rough from the Los Angeles area.
Southern California is a cutthroat recruiting market: There's a lot of talent, and many kids want to stay close to home. "Looks" from coaches are as treasured as scholarship offers themselves, and a lot of recruiters make judgments about a recruit's ability to play early in the players' developments.
"Show me a kid, and I'll show you a handful that say they can play and a handful that say he can't," said Josh Gershon, an L.A.-based recruiting analyst for Scout.com. "When the voices who say a kid can't play are louder, it's really tough for some of these guys to get their names out there."
This dynamic, Gershon said, helps breed motivation for overlooked players. Russell Westbrook, a former three-star recruit, may be the poster child of chip-on-his-shoulder success. Others such as Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard were respected-but-not-elite recruits who went outside the Southern California market on their way to the NBA.
In recruiting its L.A. talent, Utah played on the egos of the players it wanted. You want to prove you're better than these other guys, they said, then come to Salt Lake City and show them.
"Part of recruiting Delon, Dakarai, Brandon and all those guys was the schools in L.A. didn't [believe in them]," Utah assistant coach DeMarlo Slocum said. "And we're saying, 'Here's a chance to show you deserve to play in this league and at this level. Even though your name's not mentioned in the top 100, we see something in you and here's an opportunity to prove it.' "
Utah didn't just look for raw talent. Coach Larry Krystkowiak and his staff sought players who could be coached and molded into roles. The strategy has paid off.
Reyes and Tucker are valuable pieces on the team, with Tucker going off on Sunday for 19 points in a big win over Washington. Taylor has elevated his game every year, and he may be up for all-conference honors by season's end. The star is Wright, who as a do-it-all guard is in consideration for the Wooden Award.
That kind of development gets attention, especially with players few gave a second glance, Gershon said.
"The important thing the Utah coaching staff has going for it is taking talent and overachieving from a team perspective and player perspective," he said. "Kids that appreciate how good that coaching is are going to notice."
Twitter: @kylegoon —
No. 11 Utah at UCLA
P At Pauley Pavilion, Westwood, Calif.
Tipoff • Thursday, 7 p.m.
TV • ESPN2