Utah @ Nevada

Who will WIN this matchup?

Utah Utes

@ Nevada Wolf Pack

Current odds:

Utah Utes: (+180)

Nevada Wolf Pack: (-220)

• The line for this game is Nevada by 5 points.

• Utah has undergone a roster overhaul for the second straight year, and enters the new season with only three returning rotation players. The new-look Runnin’ Utes will open on the road Tuesday night, visiting neighboring state-rival Nevada of the Mountain West Conference. Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak is back for his ninth season, and although the Utes’ run of 20-win campaigns ended at five last winter without a postseason berth, he did guide a roster featuring one returning starter and 10 newcomers to the program’s fifth straight top-four regular-season finish in the Pac-12. Now, entering the 2019-20 campaign, Utah’s roster features 12 newcomers and only seven combined seasons of Division I experience.

• The Utes’ opening opponent finds itself in much the same boat. Nevada has won 110 games and has made three NCAA Tournament appearances over the last four seasons but coveted coach Eric Musselman has moved on to Arkansas and six of the Wolf Pack’s top seven scorers, including all five 2018-19 starters, also have departed.

• The Utes’ returnees are headlined by sophomore Timmy Allen, a 6-6 second-team All-Pac-12 preseason selection who finished second on the team in scoring (12.2 points per game) and third in rebounding (5.1) last season. Also back are sophomore guard Both Gach (7.7 points, 2.1 assists) and sophomore forward Riley Battin (6.4 points, 3.4 rebounds). That trio is expected to be joined in the starting lineup by freshmen Rylan Jones, a four-star point guard recruit from Salt Lake City’s Olympus High School, and Branden Carlson, a 7-foot center who just returned from a two-year Mormon Church mission.

• Former UCLA and New Mexico coach Steve Alford takes over for Musselman and inherits a reconfigured team which was still picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West in the preseason conference media poll. Guard Jazz Johnson (11.0 points) is the leading returning scorer after hitting 45.2 percent of his 3-point attempts last season and will be joined in the backcourt by fellow senior Lindsey Drew (8.1 points, 4.3 assists in 2017-18), who missed all of last season due to multiple surgeries. Big things also are expected from newcomers Jalen Harris, a 6-5 junior swingman who was selected to the 2016-17 All-Conference USA Freshman Team before transferring from Louisiana Tech, and 6-10 freshman forward K.J. Hymes, who has been selected the Mountain West’s preseason Freshman of the Year.

• Utah leads the series 10-1, but Nevada’s lone win came last season with an 86-71 road victory in Salt Lake City on Dec. 29.

• Under Krystkowiak, the Utes have won all eight of their season openers, but this will be the first time they have tipped off a season on the road during his tenure.

• Harris led Nevada with 21- and 26-point efforts in their two exhibition wins last month.