He means the other one
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At least they played hard today. Could not make shots. This team has a number of deficiencies on both ends of the court. Offensively, they do not have a post player who they can throw the ball into and either make a shot down low or distribute the ball out to a shooter. When Brown penetrates there has been only one consistent 3 point shooter to kick it to and today he could not hit anything.
Regardless of how we got here this is where Utah MBBall is today. I’m more interested in what the roster will look like for next year and not what coulda been had more guys from a year ago been retained, since nobody on here knows ■■■■ about the effort and money available to retain those guys.
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No sense talking about NIL until Utah gets competent coaching and a commitment to building a program rather than chasing shiny new toys very year. Utah needs to build a program like Iowa State or Florida. Florida’s best player last season was a fifth year senior picked #18. UConn is the same. So is Houston. Championships aren’t built on renting ones and dones.
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Smith was a disaster. That was a terrible hire. Hopefully Jensen will turn things around now that he has a chance to bring in some players that aren’t last picks on the playground. The idea that Jensen would retain most of last year’s roster while he was still coaching in the NBA is silly and naive. Jensen has already shown that he can coach defense. If he can bring in a solid big to play back to the basket and a lockdown 3 pt shooter and they will be in much better shape next year. They simply didn’t have the horses this year and didn’t really last year either.
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At least most programs aren’t built on 1 and dones, Puke seems to do ok. That said Duke does develop some players.
The Majerus era was so long ago. Sigh. Heck, the Delon Wright/Poetl/Kuzma years were a decade ago.
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FWIW, here’s Google Gemini’s take on who will be back next year. (The sources provided were old press announcements & a minimal Wikipedia article, so I’m curious how it arrived at some of these opinions. Is it digging through box scores or other sources? I suspect it will be wrong about some of this, will be interesting to see where.)
Core Players Likely to be Retained
These are the players with remaining eligibility who are considered the “building blocks” for the 2026–27 season:
- Terrence Brown (Junior, Guard): The clear priority. Brown has been the “engine” of the offense this year, averaging over 20 points per game. While he will be heavily recruited by other Power 4 schools via the portal, he is the #1 retention target for the Utes.
- Keanu Dawes (Junior, Forward): A versatile 6’9" forward who has emerged as the team’s heart and soul. He averaged nearly a double-double this season and is expected to return as a senior leader.
- Seydou Traore (Junior, Wing): Statistically Utah’s most impactful defender. His ability to guard multiple positions makes him a schematic necessity for Coach Jensen’s system.
- Kendyl Sanders (Freshman, Forward): A bright spot in the 2025 recruiting class. He showed flashes of high-level play and is expected to take a significant leap in his sophomore year.
- Jacob Patrick (Junior, Guard): A reliable rotation piece and perimeter shooter who provides much-needed depth.
I agree with Gemini. These bots are so smart!
Patrick is definitely not coming back. and Langorita could be the most impt building block.
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I have always wondered whether Larry K should have been let go. It’s true that the program had stagnated, so I can see some reasons why a change was made. But in hindsight, it makes me question the choice. Larry K took Utah to its only two NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 16 seasons. Even after 2015–16, he produced two more 20-win seasons and two other above-.500 seasons.
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I sometimes wonder if the powers that be were a little hasty in pulling the trigger there.
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I’m not saying the guy didn’t have issues. Players were leaving like crazy, even before the transfer portal. And his teams always had head-scratching losses. But even outside of the two very good 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons, his teams almost always had better products on the court than what we’ve seen since he left.
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LK came so close on some crucial recruits, eg Markkenan.
Given that DeAndre Ayton made $200K for his one season in Tucson, I have to wonder if some of those recruiting battles came down to a bag of money.
The only redeeming part of that era was Sean Miller eventually got canned… for $200K. Lol
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I don’t think that’s really something you have to wonder about.
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Agreed. I have zero interest in the tournament when Utah isn’t involved. I’m even more apathetic by the fact that Utah is nowhere close to making the tournament. So, I might not be watching sports on TV until late August.
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My interest does not fluctuate. I love the NCAA tournament regardless of who is in it. And the more upsets the better. It is my favorite sporting event.
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If the Utes Basketball team could finish above .500 and beat BYU at home AND not lose to a Big West team at home (Cal Poly) - I would be happy with that level of improvement next year.
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I especially love the first weekend of the tournament. And I absolutely love the big upsets, particularly when 14, 15 and 16 seeds win.
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I’d be almost ecstatic if the team finished above .500. Time will tell. Call me a touch cynical about the program right now.
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LK was a far better coach than Smith - which doesn’t mean that LK needed to stay, but the trade-off was a loss. But Smith was not going to get us to the tournament maybe ever so he had to go. I’m hopeful for Alex, its way too early to be making final proclamations on his success as a coach. The sports world is filled with legendary coaches who struggled out of the gate.
BUT, I’d rather try a new coach like Alex, who is invested in the program, than the same-old same-old with Smith on the off chance that we might have retained some good players for the following season.
I think there are two critical things we’re overlooking when we see our guys go somewhere else.
- We had MAJOR turnover problems with Smith all previous seasons, and he always struggled to get a full roster. There was no guarantee those guys were going to stick around even if Smith did.
- Maybe the reason they are doing well elsewhere is they got with some good coaches. Smith was a heck of a nice guy, but not cut out to coach where we want to be.
So, if the choice is to sit around hoping that things will miraculously change under Smith, or trying new things that may pay off or may fail, I’ll take the latter. Honestly, I fail to really get excited about being in the bottom half of the conference and don’t see it as that much better than being at the very bottom. The post-season results are the same.
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