Unless you are a perennial Top 5 program living on the “One and Done,” if you are seeing more transfers than graduates and not getting even a sniff of the big dance, you are not a good program and something needs to change.
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Other than Jayce, who was a fan favorite?
Anyway, I agree that the program is not in a good place. I do think this is Larry’s last year unless he makes the tournament.
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I’m not sure jayce was a fan favorite.
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Jayce was hyped, the highest-rated recruit LK had landed. Seems like everyone thought he was going to be great. LK was going to develop him the way he had developed other bigs. He was a solid rim protector and rebounder. Donnie Tillman was supposed to be a difference-maker. Kenneth Ogbe. Brekkott Chapman (maybe higher-rated than Jayce?). Isaiah Wright was supposed to be Brandon Taylor’s successor. Makol Mawein was no fan favorite, but supposedly had tons of potential. Devon Daniels.
Anyway, I don’t want to argue about each of these guys, they’re just examples. The pattern is the same. We drink the Kool-Aid, the players leave, and we talk about how they really are no loss to the program and we look for the next round of promising recruits.
Yes, we have a great class coming in this fall. But a lot of us have become pretty jaded. We’ve seen this movie several times before.
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They are examples, but not of fan favorites. They are examples of players that fans have said positive things about… but every one of those guys had major flaws to say the least. The loss of any one of those guys is not the problem. None of them would have made our team much better in the years after they left (maybe a little, but not enough to get us anywhere really).
The problem is that these guys are recruited thinking (and I’m assuming being told) that they will have a chance to make the NBA. Then they get here, don’t have the role they imagined, and they leave. Some leave before they can develop. Some stay a few years and don’t improve much, some get worse.
All of these things collectively suggest that there is in fact a coaching issue, along with the on court product (ie. the yearly inability to break a half or full court press, and lazy passing otherwise).
I’m willing to give coach another year or two because I really like our current roster. I think they are fun to watch, and I think guys like Carlson have a ton of potential… but there are certainly coaching issues.
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You’re right, most of them weren’t fan favorites. I should have stated my point better. They were all players that we all got excited about to some extent. Now we’re supposed to get excited about another bunch of kids. I’m not buying it. And I’m as diehard a fan as you’ll find. I’m keeping my season tickets because I know this will have to change sooner or later. And yes, I agree there is a coaching issue.
Yeah, j I think it’s easier for me to be patient because I don’t pay good money to watch terrible basketball year after year. I would be ticked if I had more time and money invested in the program.
College basketball is hard enough to watch these days without the problems our team has.
There are a few positives though. I love that we finally have a guy that can get to the free throw line regularly, and finish through contact.
Carlson has NBA potential if he gets stronger and keeps working on his shot. Jones is the best pure point guard we have had since miller. Jantunen is a great hustle guy. Plummer is a good microwave guy. This team was actually fun to watch when things were rolling.
Now we just have to get them to stay
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Every recruit thinks he is going to be in the NBA. They have been the star of some team or Mr. Basketball in some state.
Most of those listed had multiple offers. Brekkot is still listed as the highest ranked Ute recruit.
It takes a ton of work to make it to the next step–did Brekkot work on his body to get stronger–it never looked like it.
I. Wright never developed an outside shot.
In an early episode of The Last Dance–Jordan said he was working just as hard as everyone else–& he was told so what–if you want to be the best you have to work harder than everyone else.
Jordan Loveridge was always in the gym shooting. Kuzma was also always working out.
You can teach desire & drive.
Only 5% at most make it to the NBA.
When the transfer with no waiting passes–the Utah situation may be the new normal.
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Just FYI, “Jim Fassel Era” is moose.
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So let’s ask ourselves this: Does it matter who the coach is? In other words, do we believe the program’s problems are beyond Larry’s control? That no other coach could do better?
Like I said, a movie we’ve seen a few times before.
Later Thursday evening, the school released a statement on the situation in which head coach Larry Krystkowiak didn’t sugarcoat it.
”We have been very supportive of Both entering the NBA draft to obtain valuable evaluations from team personnel these past two months so this comes as a surprise to myself and our staff after learning of Both’s intentions to transfer," Krystkowiak said. "Although the decision by Both to leave was not something we had planned or hoped for, our program continues to move forward with our players who are driven and excited to be a part of our Utah Basketball family.
"Sometimes one’s individual desires and goals don’t always align with the program they are a part of. However, our focus is and continues to be the players who are fully committed to our program, including our incoming recruiting class.”
I am absolutely open to moving on from Larry… but it’s his X’s and O’s That I don’t like. I’m not convinced that the transfer thing is his fault, and I’m certain that the issue is overblown.
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I think we are not a basketball school anymore. We are a football school. It’s hard to be both.
That said, a new coach generates excitement, and there’s always a chance the excitement turns into something more permanent. I think the likeliest thing is that we hire a new coach and continue to struggle. That’s who we are now. But there’s always a chance, and that’s why you have to try.
That’s my question. It’s probably unanswerable. I don’t like it when coaches being paid enormous sums are not held accountable for their results. I hear lots of excuses for Larry’s revolving door. He’s never responsible, it seems. I guess the only way to know if he is responsible will be to see if a new coach is equally powerless to avoid player departures.
I think it’s time to move on, but Larry can rescue his job by making the tournament this year. I think the best possible outcome for us would be Larry turning it around.
Starting from scratch again may be necessary, but it doesn’t fill me with a lot of hope. Our last three hires all seemed strong at the time, but none of them have really worked out. It’s not going to be easy to succeed here. We will never recruit competitively with UCLA, Oregon, UW, or Arizona. We will have a hard time recruiting competitively with USC, ASU, and Stanford. There’s not much fan support or energy for the program. It’ll be an uphill battle for whoever comes in.
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I would love to see Larry turn things around. I also would have loved to see Ron McBride get off the plateau he had the program on. But there was no reason to believe that would happen. If the upcoming season shows real promise then we will have a reason to believe. Otherwise, let’s go a different direction.
Yes, there is consensus on this, at least on this board. Everyone seems to agree.
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I’m a season ticket holder, die hard, thick and thin fan - since I attended the U starting in 1990.
I will not renew my season tickets next year. Why? The basketball isn’t good. Larry’s teams are going to give you some glimpses of what could be, then a bunch of losses they shouldn’t take, then they are going to get their asses handed to them in the first round of the PAC tournament.
That is, unless they are LOADED with talent and that talent can overcome LK’s coaching. In which case, they will lose a bunch of games they shouldn’t, and flame out early in the NCAA tournament.
Larry’s teams are like Dave Bliss’s teams in New Mexico back in the day…Good on paper, but pretty easy to game plan for and likely to underachieve.
Losing players is just an easy tangible thing. But it’s the bad basketball that’s going to keep me from renewing.
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I cannot comment on the basketball coaches, but I know from my time with the football program that the coaches know what a kid can and cannot do when he is being recruited. They also know what they believe he will be able to do with good coaching and hard work on the court and in the weight room. During spring ball and in fall camp a lot of time is spent in coaches meetings everyday getting an updated evaluation on every position group and every player in that group on where they stand in terms of making improvement in the various things pertaining to that individual player. There are some brutally honest discussions. I would say that on average there are 3 or 4 players per year who are not improving for whatever reason.
Having said that, I would be shocked if the coaches do not know the individual weaknesses and strengths of players. I would also be shocked if they did not have a plan for each individual to improve. I have a real dislike for the recruiting * system used to measure recruits probably from my days in the football program when they tried to eliminate any reference to stars from the recruiting information. As recruiting sites have become more popular, the owners want to get more traction. The way to get more traction is to over-hype and value certain recruits. Recruits with high athletic ability but low skill level are always over-valued. Watch the film. You are bright enough to see what a kid can and cannot do. If he has no shot, it will all be drives and jams. If he lacks athleticism, it will all be spot up threes.
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I don’t think we’ve been “good on paper” for years. Probably since Poeltl or at least Kuzma. The reason we’ve become known as overachievers is that we always look worse on paper than we end up being.
Don’t take this as some kind of “larry should stay” argument. I think he’s gone (and should be) at the end of this season unless we’re in the tournament.
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