Craig Smith - Everybody's working for the weekend

[“Fire Craig Smith”] Isn’t that what you all said every single time krystkowiak lost a game? Just holding them to the same standard.

No. Look at this team. Look at the effort. Lks teams lacked this kind of effort for the last three years.

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I’m so sick of losing to these pricks. Hire someone who can win for hell’s sake. My patience is gone. Pay the money and let’s get this thing going. The last 20 years have been a ■■■■ show. Where is our self respect? Pay the damn money. It’s not like we don’t have it.

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Paying the money might be more about NIL going forward instead of coaches contracts.

The best coaches in college basketball have traditionally cheated by paying players to get the best talent. Now it’s legal (sort of)

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What do you mean?

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When he said, “you all,” he clearly meant, “a few of you.”

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I agree with everything you’re saying (and others) relative to Smith being an improvement over Coach K.

But I also recall thinking exactly the same thing about Coach K’s early teams.

Although I will never give him credit for being a great X and 0 guy (but he did have Tommy Conner for that) , I think Krystkowiak was on the right track, through about 2015, until he started feeling sorry for himself when he kept losing his highest recruiting targets to cheaters. And don’t mistake this as defending him, it’s not.

It is to say, that while the NCAA does little or nothing to clean up the mess with basketball recruiting, and assuming that Utah is not going to suddenly start paying players wildly under the table, and that most of the kids going to college now know nothing of the fabulous tradition of Utah basketball from inception to say 2000, that I have reluctantly tempered my expectations.

I’m thrilled that Smith is off to a better start than I was expecting, and I’m sorry he lost his first game tonight to the crew down south, but mostly, I’m just going to keep watching and hoping that after the better part of 20 years of down Utah Basketball, we have a coach that will reverse the trend, and stay here long enough to reestablish this once great program.

Go Utes!

You all called for Krystkowiak to be fired every single time Utah lost a game no matter who the opponent was. Well, I’m just holding the new coach to the same standard. After all, it would be extremely hypocritical to not do that to the new guy while you all did it to the old guy no matter what games the old nor new guy actually wins. Because apparently the only acceptable result for this fan base is for their team to go undefeated and win the National Championship every single solitary year or the coach deserves to be fired. Not like, ridiculously unrealistic and arrogant expectations or anything like that. Sorry. I’m just bitter. I’m not actually calling for Smith to be fired after one loss. I’m just playing Devil’s advocate and venting anger.

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Who the hell is “all”? “Everytime”? Ok…Mr. Hyperbole.

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I think you’re overstating your case.

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Whoever the OC is for the basketball team might want to watch out.

We like to fire those guys in here a lot…like drummer of Spinal Tap having accidents a lot. :wink::wink::wink:

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Hundreds of people spontaneously combust every year, it’s just not widely reported.

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Is that really what we did, idiot?

Yeah pretty much. Like, they lost to USC in the Pac-12 Tournament in Triple overtime and all you guys could do is call for Krystkowiak to be fired, regardless of the fact that USC was a pretty outstanding team last year. They literally went to the Elite 8. Sometimes they don’t lose because they played badly or did things wrong. Sometimes they lose because their opponent is really really good, as was the case last year in that USC game. But none of you cared about that. All you see is the result of the game, not who the game was against nor the circumstances that led to the defeat. It’s like you guys were cheering for them to lose so you could justify your previously held desire to fire their coach, which caused Utah to lose several really good recruits to the transfer portal (Ian Martinez and Pelle Larsson). Those guys came to the program because of Krystkowiak, and it’s no surprise they decided to transfer after he was fired. I dealt with it the entire season. It’s like you don’t even watch the actual games, and only see the results of them and use them to fuel your “fire the coach” narrative.

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So, does Larry pay you by the post, or are you on salary?

Seriously man. Move on.

Larry is a great person, but his ship sailed.

His results did not match what he was being paid. That’s coaching.

As for players leaving. Ian likely came because of his dad. But it’s not like we lost a world beater. He’s got some ability, but it hasn’t translated to the court yet. For his sake I hope it does.

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I have moved on. All I ask is that you all treat the new coach in the same manner as the old one. Because you all demanded that he win virtually every game he coached, and if not you called for him to be fired. It’s hypocrisy to give somebody new the benefit of the doubt when you didn’t give their predecessor the same treatment. Because if you do that, it PROVES that you simply wanted the old coach fired at all costs and there was literally nothing they could do to possibly change your mind. I mean, what if they had won that game against USC in the tournament and then gone on to win said tournament, thus earning an NCAA Tournament Selection? Would you STILL have called for his firing?

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You do realize there’s more to this than what you’ve done for me in one game right? Or even a handful of games.

I attended Ron McBride’s last practice, there’s another board member who attended with me. We were the only people allowed in who were not part of the team (and some tried to kick us out. Mac himself had to come save us).

Despite my love of Mac, and those kinds of ties, it was time for a change.

Larry could have won that conference tourney, but I for one still believe it was time for a change. It’s not personal, it’s about what’s best for the program. Obviously for you this is personal. That clouds judgement, as you know.

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No, I too want what is best for the program. It’s just that some people have unrealistic expectations. This new coach has not proven anything yet, so, until he does, I will be skeptical of decisions that are made. Especially when I don’t agree with them at the time. I’m not stupid.

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Your posts sure don’t come across as smart, unbiased or supportive.

Especially when we hired Larry, a guy who I think hadn’t proved much of anything himself when he was hired.

You’re misrepresenting your opponents positions something fierce.