https://x.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1894114002361315506
Timing is interesting.
I guess they want to have things clarified before the NCAA Tourney starts so maybe they can chase a “Cinderella Coach.”
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Seems these coulda win games may have finally caught up with Coach Smith. I wonder who may step up for the next coach?
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The decision is not surprising but the timing sure is. Harlan’s next basketball HC hire will be very important. Whoever comes in will have to be a magician to hang onto the better players. And Harlan will have to do something about NIL money.
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I assume there must be a plan in place which supports the timing of the dismissal. If not, we are hopeless.
When coasches are fired before the end of the season, it is usually to get a jump start on the replacement.
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Yeah, where does the program go from here? Chris Burgess? Alex Jensen (who already turned down the job once)? Johnnie Bryant? Some up-and-coming mid-major coach? The last four hires haven’t panned out (well, Larry K seemed to turn things around but then fell pretty hard). Harlan has a huge task ahead of him. I’m not terribly optimistic, sadly.
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Re: Jensen…Ive got no insider info here, but ill say that last go around he was the top assistant for a jazz team that had legitimate (at the time) title aspirations. Hes now the third assistant for a team that just traded away a top 3 player in the world. Again, he might still not be interested, but times and circumstances have changed.
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I’m not sure that I’m optimistic either. I hope that the new coach can do better. I do wonder who will pony up NIL funds, or how that will work.
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I always feel badly when coaches get fired, even when it’s obvious they’re not cutting it. Smith seems like a good guy, but he’s now just another in a 20+ years line of hires that just can’t seem to get Utah back where it was for most of the 20th century. But who can? We’ve got weak exterior funding and horrid fan support. Students don’t go to games they get into for no cost. I know my level of caring has waned the last few years.
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I never did like the hire. I thought K should have been given one more year because he had just signed a really good recruiting class, but I will admit the program had gotten stale under Larry and it needed a change.
Under Smith the Utes never did quite play with the attention to detail that winning programs always have. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something always felt off with their intensity.
He was also an absolutely terrible recruiter. Combine that with him being average (on his best day), the program was never going to be a consistent winner. As I posted on another thread earlier today, the Utes lost almost all of the close games, that is a sign of being poorly coached.
I just hope Harlan gets this next hire right. Hopefully there is an up & coming coach that will consider the job.
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whoa
It sucks that Smith couldn’t hold onto Deivon Smith and Keba Keita (seeing him at BYU makes me want to puke). Plus, former Utes Mason Falslev and Ian Martinez are USU’s two best players. Put those four on the Utes right now, and they’re win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament.
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Ok, everyone – I’m the new MBB hire.
- Free throw %= +85%
- Rebounding= always +10
- Turnover-assist ratio= 5-1
- Turnovers per game= under 3
LOL
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My contrarian theory is that the thing that did him in is that actually he had enough talent and it did not play to potential. That has been true in the past and was actually true this season despite the exodus of transfers last year. He has a lot of players who were promising freshmen (Dawes, Little, Keller, Lovering, Sharavjamtz), were all highly recruited as freshmen and transfers and came to Utah with years of eligibility. Auser was a strong DI starter when he came, was strongly recruited, and has delivered.
BYU is a valid comparison for a randomized clinical study. BYU has had a better year (again) and its best players are local kids. Its two hotshot recruits purchased purportedly with millions in NIL money, Catchings and Demins, have performed substantially below expectations, but a roster depleted by transfers and graduates and stocked with Utah kids has carried them to 10-6 in the conference and probably and NCAA invitation. Saunders has been coached up like crazy.
Yes, some of Utah’s players have improved. None has been a bust really (maybe Little has). But the team has not played up to potential. Neither did it the past two years.
College basketball is brutally competitive. You can make all kinds of excuses for Smith. But it’s not possible to say Harlan abused his discretion here.
This team has a decent nucleus of talent. Hopefully Harlan can keep it together. Yes, there’s a lot of rumors about not enough NIL money. But this team was put together with resources. They’ll never tell you they have enough money.
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I’m not going to recap in this thread but I suggest you listen to the Josh Grant interview on Spence’s ESPN700 show today . I think it was very enlightening.
As a USU Fan I’ve kept my eye on Smith’s go at Utah. Couldn’t see it at the time but, absolutely feel him leaving seems to have left us in a better place today than if he had stuck around. Look at you all, it feels as if the plan was to fire him at the end of the season unless something miraculous happened, and the timing of this really strikes me as Utah deciding they needed to fire him before the team played its way into making it a hard decision by winning just enough to be competitive.
anyway, our new coach is terrible, you don’t want him at all, don’t even look at him, in fact forget you’ve ever heard of the city of Logan
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Thank you for the laugh. I couldn’t tell you what the plan is by Harlan, or if he even has one, so your coach may be safe.
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FWIW, Josh Grant’s view and feedback regarding Smith.
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Where’s the money?
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