I've had several friends in surrounding states say that whenever they play Utah teams they can't believe how talented and skilled Utah players are. My son also played AAU basketball on a Utah based AAU team and they played some of the best talent in the country including the number one ranked AAU team in the nation (which included a player committed to North Carolina) and they hung with them which nobody would have thought could happen just looking at the two teams before the game. This was typical of the LP team that won the National Championship, they would show up to play some of the top teams in the nation and they said that the other team was taking LP lightly and sort of laughing at them and giving them no credit - but then LP would go on and beat them (and sometimes soundly). Utah has some very good competition. Some of it I believe has to do with that Utah has many churches with gyms and players can more easily work on their game and improve.