Utah men’s basketball head coach Alex Jensen isn’t mincing words anymore.

A week after saying his team “quit” down the stretch of a double-digit loss to BYU, the Jensen delivered another brutally honest assessment of the Runnin’ Utes following their 81-69 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday.

“We were very selfish tonight,” Jensen said during his postgame press conference. “I thought we were getting better at that, but we were individually very selfish.”

Jensen’s group was neck-and-neck with the Cowboys for a majority of their Big 12 tilt at the Huntsman, until another late-game collapse costed Utah (9-12, 1-7 Big 12) another opportunity at earning a league win.

Despite a stretch of miscues, the Runnin’ Utes found themselves down by three with just over 6 minutes left in regulation. They struggled to find the bottom of the net the rest of the way, though, leaving the doors open for the Cowboys to grow their lead to double-digits inside the final 2 minutes.

Utah’s offense stalled, in part, because of a lack of ball movement. The Runnin’ Utes didn’t have an assist in the final 6:40 of regulation and finished the game with 11 dimes total, tied for their third-fewest in a game this season. Utah went 3-for-11 from the field after falling behind, 62-59, with 6 minutes left in regulation.

“Too many guys are in their own world,” Jensen said. “Too many guys started the game thinking about just scoring.”

“There’s other ways to be selfish: guys not talking, guys not being ready to shoot. Players win games, not coaches, and the players can’t do it unless they do it together.”

Utah looked less than prepared to defend Cowboys fifth-year guard Anthony Roy, a career 42.8% shooter from 3 who came into Saturday as one of the top outside shooters in the Big 12. The 6-foot-3 Oakland, California, native lived up to his reputation against Utah, as he knocked down five treys in a 26-point performance to lead Oklahoma State.

“We’re not a very good defensive team,” Jensen said. “A lot of times it’s not the scheme; you just got to guard the guy in front of you. I don’t have a solution for that right now.”

The defensive end of the floor continued to be a problem for Utah, which dropped to No. 234 in the country in adjusted efficiency on KenPom.com. Saturday was Utah’s 11th time allowing 80 or more points this season.

Perhaps the only positive Jensen took away from Saturday: the energy inside the Huntsman Center noticeably improved from where it was at the start of the season.

“The crowd was great tonight,” Jensen said. “I’m embarrassed because that was far from the University of Utah team that’s been here for decades. We might lose, but we’re not going to lose that way. So we’re going to work on it and find some different combinations.”

Terrence Brown led Utah with 20 points, marking his 15th such game of the season. Only Andrew Bogut (22) and Keith Van Horn (20) have more 20-point games in a single season in Utah history.

Keanu Dawes added 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Don McHenry had 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting.

The Runnin’ Utes are back in action Wednesday for a home game against Arizona State (7 p.m. MT, CBS Sports Network).

MORE UTAH NEWS & ANALYSIS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill Saturday that expands the state Supreme Court from five justices to seven as frustration has mounted among Republican lawmakers over a string of defeats before the tribunal.

Advocates for the change argued that it would help improve the court’s efficiency, but legal experts said it could have the opposite effect and set a dangerous precedent at a time of tension between the branches of government. The state’s judiciary did not ask for more justices on the court.

Democrats, who were united in opposition to the bill, called the timing suspicious. The Legislature has been preparing an appeal of a ruling that gave Democrats a strong shot at picking up one of Utah’s four Republican-held congressional seats in the fall.

New justices could be in place when the court decides the fate of the congressional map.

Because the bill received approval from more than two-thirds of legislators, it took effect immediately after the governor signed it, allowing him to bypass a several-month waiting period to start adding justices.

In Utah, justices are appointed by the governor and approved by the state Senate. Justices in many other states are elected.

Most states have five or seven Supreme Court justices, but a few have nine. Cox, a Republican, has said the additions would put Utah in line with other states of its size. He has denied that the policy is politically motivated, noting that Republican governors and senators have made all recent appointments.

Once he fills the new seats, Cox will have appointed five of the seven sitting justices.

Last month Republican lawmakers took authority from state Supreme Court justices to select their own chief justice and gave that power to the governor.

“Seven sets of eyes reviewing the most complex and difficult issues our state has ever faced is better than having only five sets of eyes,” said House Majority Leader Casey Snider, a Republican sponsor of the bill.

John Pearce, who recently retired as associate chief justice, said this month that he doubted the change would make the court more efficient.

“The more sets of comments you have to take into account, the longer the process takes,” Pearce said. “If what the Legislature is hoping to do is speed up the work of the court, it’s going to be counterproductive.”

Two states — Arizona and Georgia — have added justices in the past decade after making similar arguments about efficiency.

In the first few years after Arizona grew its court in 2016, several past and present justices said it made things less efficient because more people had to review opinions before they could be published.

Arizona’s court now issues slightly more rulings per year, while Georgia’s issues slightly fewer than before.

Utah Chief Justice Matthew Durrant told legislators on the opening day of the 2026 session the court had “essentially no backlog” and urged them to add judges to lower courts, where the need is greater. Bill sponsors responded by adding some lower court judges and clerks.

The Utah State Bar has raised concern over the expansion and other proposals that it said would weaken the judiciary’s independence. Among them is a bill that would create a new trial court with exclusive jurisdiction to hear constitutional challenges. The governor would appoint three judges who would be confirmed by the Senate.

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Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Utah Legislature is sending the courts expansion bill to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, making it one of the first bills to make it to his desk for the 2026 session.

The bill, SB134, passed after a vote on the House floor Friday morning, 57 to 18. Once Cox signs the bill, as expected, it will mark the first time since 2016 that a state has increased the number of judges on its Supreme Court bench.

The court expansion bill, headed by Sen. Chris Wilson, R-Logan, adds two more judges to the state Supreme Court’s five-person bench. It also adds judges to the Court of Appeals, and one district court judge each in Salt Lake City, St. George and Provo.

So much of the feedback given through public comment during the bill’s circulation in the legislature was focused on opposition to the two additional Supreme Court justices.

Wilson’s bill, and others focused on overhauling the judiciary this session, have been accused of court packing, ignoring the requests made by the state’s judiciary and trying to breach the independent separation of powers between the two governing bodies.

When asked during Senate availability what it says about the House and Senate’s priorities to be sending this bill so quickly through the Legislature, Senate President Stuart Adams said, “It tells you we value the courts.”

Wilson added that SB134 is the “biggest commitment” Utah lawmakers have made to their law-interpreting counterparts. During the House floor vote, the bill’s floor sponsor, Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, said he hopes that public perception sees the bill as “in the spirit with which it is offered, which is that of one in hopes of being helpful.”

Utah Democrats oppose Utah court expansion, but GOP says it’s overdue

Despite GOP lawmakers’ intentions, the bill was largely opposed by their Democratic colleagues. Rep. Grant Amjad Miller, D-Salt Lake City, said that though he favored some of what the bill offered, he ultimately voted against it because it doesn’t prioritize the needs of the public. He also noted “the great expense” it would cost the state to expand the Supreme Court alone.

“The courts have issued a wish list to us,” Miller said during the House floor vote. “At the top, they have asked for support for their staff and for their judiciary clerks and assistants. Nowhere in their wish list have they asked for two Supreme Court justices.”

Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy, added that he believes adding more judges to the bench would further complicate the process.

“I don’t think that this is the route if we want to speed up our cases,” he said. “The hold up is in the district court and occasionally in the court of appeals, but is not the Supreme Court.”

Despite their opposition, Wilson said that “it’s a great bill” and “a great step forward … ”Looking at the number of filings, looking at the case complexity, it’s obvious, in my opinion, with the data and evidence, that it’s long overdue.”