When the Michigan basketball team uses its scout team in practice, it is usually to simulate different plays, pressures or scenarios the Wolverines might see from a future opponent.

Which is why, this week in particular, being on that team may have been fun.

Last year, Utah was extremely physical with Michigan and it showed as the Wolverines wilted in a 68-52 loss. So in practice the past couple of days, fourth-year Michigan coach John Beilein has let his scout players go.

“In practice, we pretty much let the scout team do whatever they want to us,” Michigan junior guard Zack Novak said. “They come after us a little bit and it’ll be good to see how guys respond.

“You look in the past, we’ve played teams that get up, pressure you, get physical with you. We’ve had some success with those teams when we spread the floor out a little bit. With this young team, it takes a little bit of time to get used to.”

Novak said Michigan has seen physical play a little bit this year - most notably against UTEP, when the Wolverines handled it poorly, and against Clemson, when Michigan dealt with it well.

It is no surprise Utah plays that style. It has two 7-footers in Battle Creek native Jason Washburn and 7-foot-3 David Foster, who killed the Wolverines inside last year. It also follows the style Utah coach Jim Boylen learned when he was an assistant at Michigan State under Tom Izzo.

“They are very athletic, very physical,” junior guard Stu Douglass said. “They are huge. It took a little toll on us last year.”

So who has been the biggest pain for Michigan’s rotation players this week in practice?

“Corey (Person) fouls you every time you touch it, shoot it, dribble it, whatever,” Novak said. “So I’m going to go with Corey.”

Horford back soon? Michigan freshman forward Jon Horford missed Michigan’s win over Concordia on Monday after spraining his knee in the previous day's practice.

At the time, Beilein said the injury wasn’t serious and, in an emergency, he would have been available against the Cardinals.

On Thursday, Beilein said Horford was improving and he practiced Wednesday, although he didn’t go the entire practice.

“He’ll be fine,” Beilein said. “I don’t think it’s anything serious, just fighting through the pain of injury.”

This and that Beilein said he got 60 clips to review from Michigan’s 86-65 win over Concordia, mostly because the Cardinals' style of play is a lot like what Division I teams do. … Michigan’s basketball offices, as part of the slow transition out of Weidenbach Hall and into the still-being-built Player Development Center, have moved to trailers in the Crisler Arena parking lot. Assistant coach Bacari Alexander described them in a tweet as “Crisler Estates.” … Last year, point guard Darius Morris had 84 assists the whole year. Already this season, Morris has 60.

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.