A lot of us thought Larry had us turning the corner after those first few seasons. Romping to the sweet 16, beating Duke in the pre-season, and beating BYU a few times (even knocked them off in Provo). Then we just seemed to slowly fade with a series of mediocre seasons.
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This.
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Agreed. Interesting comments from Jeff Jones on Mark Harlan. I think what he said needs to be considered going forward. Also, JJ had some interesting thoughts on a player or two who bailed on Utah. They did not do well or as well as maybe they thought. The point about recruiting your own players is solid, not sure if K3 did that, but I have no idea. JJās opinion about Alex Jensen is interesting: thinks he is the only guy for the job, but the massive drawback according to JJ is having to work for Harlan.
One aspect that JJ touched on is about the state of basketball today. He thinks it sucks. Players donāt want to work. Said he told K3 that he felt sorry for him given the game, and the corruption in recruiting. Maybe that is one reason K3 had issues with some players. He wanted them to work, become better, play defense, work for a good shot, pass the ball.
I just donāt know what to think. Both sides to this debate have merit. One thing that I believe is that we make our own breaks in life. Maybe that is why K3 was tapping Europe. Work to get kids to come to Utah where he ran a clean program and got kids to graduate except for the ones who left. He did have a long string of bad breaks. In the end, that string is what sank him. JJās comment on the quality of Utahās players was also telling: they are not very good.
Disheartening all around.
bingo! Doesnāt want to own up to the fact that he was wrong about Larry getting canned, so he creates another account and trashes Mark Harlan for making him look stupid.
I love JJās passion, but you canāt tell me the majority of players on Utahās roster donāt want to work, thatās B.S! Are you going to tell me with a straight face that our core group of Jones, Januuten, Larssen, Martinez, Allen, Carlson, Battin, etc didnāt bust their ā ā ā all year long. I donāt believe it or buy it and its unfair.
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No. As a matter of fact, Pimm discouraged players gaining any bulk. I was friends with one of the players in that era, and he said that Pimm would get upset if players put on weight.
Where JJ said that he was referring to college BB players today, that was not Utahās players. He said its all 3 point shows, little D. Iām not even sure I buy that, but he said it. Sorry, I had beginning in the same paragraph that ended with Utahās players. But I did not mean to conflate the two. So I can see how you connected those dots which was not my intent.
I agree, Utahās players work hard and that was obvious. But JJ did comment on the quality of Utahās players with respect to the Pac-12. Listen to his ESPN700 broadcast. I was just reporting the parts that stuck out to me.
JJ is good family friends with the K3 family. He said that so he was in a roundabout way defending Coach. Then he ended with that bit on Utahās players. My reaction was this, since I like some of these guys, that is the problem in a nutshell. At the end of the day, responsibility has to be on Coach. He recruited them and developed them. Therein to me is the indictment that led to K3ās termination. Great guy, not connecting on some level somewhere, somehow with these kids.
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I donāt really understand basketball. It appears to be a very physical game without the real rule structure of other physical game sports. It seems to rely upon refereeing and itās hard to really understand what exactly is going onā¦ but, as stated, Iām ignorant.
That said, how does Gonzaga do what they do every year? I mean, is it coaching alone? Is it something in the water? How can they possibly recruit such a stellar team and do so well, - relatively, every year for such a small school? If the coach is that amazing, why is he not coaching the pros?
Iām just curious.
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Primary themes: Talent evaluation, player development, culture, coaching.
Secondary themes: Success begets success, players recruit other players, transfers want to win & get a shot at making money at the game.
Donnie Daniels has been at the top - here in '98, long time at Gonzaga - and heās seen a program not measure up & and fail, most recently here. Heās been a head coach, heās settled into being a trusted wise assistant. It would be interesting to hear what he has to say, outside of loyalties and filters associated with a current job.
My sense is itās a delicate art, that evolves over time. How to get talented players and have them want to stay? How to get the last 5% of potential out of players, without having them detest you & playing the game?
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Iāll bite. Coaching college could just be fun. College is fun. Developing young players could just be fun. Mark Few just loves coaching college kids and has no desire whatsoever to coach pros. He loves living in a smaller town in Washington. He has built something to admire.
Mark Few is a great coach, with the right disposition, and personality and he has ways of relating to players where he gets the absolute most from them. Its him. He is that good. He knows basketball, X-Os. So his teams win, while Gonzaga is a bigger fish in a small pond.
Once the team demonstrations winning year after year better quality players want to play on that team. That takes time, but once the winning begins and the kids like the coach and stick around for four years, well, winning begets winning and better players beget better players. Its a process built on a foundation of the coach and his excellent choices in staff.
And that is fun. Success breeds success.
Edit: I just read @Ma-akeās post above where he also but first used the verb ābegetsā. I did not see that when I wrote my note. That is just spot on; he hit the nail on the head.
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I watched BYU almost none this year - I simply donāt care about them. Less than 10 minutes the entire season. Maybe 5.
But the glimpses Iāve seen of Lohner donāt make me think he would have been a big difference maker.
Example: we made Jaime Jacquez of UCLA look like Shaquille freaking OāNeal trying to tear down the backboard with a 2 handed tomahawk jam going right down the key. Lohner did the same Matador Defense maneuver and Jacquez went right down the middle with a 2 handed monster jam.
To me Lohner is Riley Battin with curly hair, has to be a better shooter, probably doesnāt have Battinās hang-ups from being stymied by PAC forwards over & over again.
Either Jacquez is a pretty damn good athlete disguised as an average 6-8 forward, or both Utah and BYU have less than average athletes trying to stop him, or something in-between.
We really need a coach who can recruit so weāre not lamenting the loss of a heavy legged player who left us for them.
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Any word on where or what Larry is going or doing?
Collecting a $7M paycheck to stay home
Itās good work if you can get it
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I would hope he has a nice place on Whitefish Lake and he spends a lot of time sitting on the porch.
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