Stumbled across a recent interview with Larry Krysko

I’m glad to see he’s moving on, and he frankly sounded like he was a lot happier than he would have been otherwise (contract payout allowing you to watch the kids grow up will do that).

I never wished him anything but the best, and it seems like the best is coming to him now. I’m happy for him.

And, I’m happy for the Utes going forward with Smith.

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I really liked LK. I don’t know that Smith is any sort of improvement (at this point I hope I’m wrong). LK brought in the best recruiting class in Utah’s history but since he left, they’ve all left as well. The thing that concerns me about Smith is he hasn’t landed a single HS recruit, not even a hard core Ute fan. If he fails on the front next year as well I would say he’s much worse than LK.

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So the recruiting presser might get interesting.

“Recruit signatures did not land on LOI.”

And yet LK couldn’t win with his amazing class, or even keep his recruits at the U.

I don’t know that you thought through that argument.

I believe I did think it through. Maybe they should have won more as freshmen, but they weren’t exactly awful last year. I think it would have taken a year or two but those recruits would have been a very good team at Utah. The fact is we will never know because they all left when LK was fired.

I hope Smith rips it up but so far he can’t even get a hard core Ute kid to sign so I am less impressed with his recruiting than with LK’s recruiting. If we’re arguing the same thing this time next year I’ll know Smith is worse at recruiting than LK.

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You know it takes a while to build something significant, right? Please wait three years instead of three months before bitching. The rest of us gave Krystkowiak a lot more than that.

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My point is if Smith can’t get a decent HS recruit by this time next year then it wasn’t any sort of upgrade from LK.
Larsson and Chandler were in the bag and he still lost them. If that continues then he will fail.

Not bitching, just stating the obvious.

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You know, recruiting ain’t what it used to be. How to build and maintain a team ain’t what it used to be. The transfer portal alone has changed things significantly. A good staff is looking into the portal to find players they need who are ready to play now. Based on the staff, it would not surprise me to see some schools simply forego HS recruiting as an emphasis for building a program and just get who you need from the portal.

“One and Done” is a problem, too. The reality is most of the players who think they are ready for the NBA after one season aren’t. Even the one’s all the prognosticators think are ready are rarely ever ready. Honestly the NBA ought to do away with the rules creating the one and done and simply draft the kids and send them to the G-League for development. They do it in most other basketball leagues throughout the world. Why not here?

I am sure Smith will do just fine. The fact we won 8 games so far is encouraging. Hopefully when it comes time to reload the roster he can find who he needs. Just realize it isn’t going to get there the way we are all used to seeing it get there.

It’s impossible to have a discussion about this with someone who has a completely different reality. I guess you don’t know it takes time to build something significant. (Highlighting the different environment in recruiting now, Smith brought better players than Larssen. Chandler is a missionary which doesn’t interest me at all. Smith doesn’t need to upgrade the recruiting. I am optimistic that Smith is a substantial upgrade in coaching.) Krystkowiak advocacy is also so passe and boring. We have no choice but to give Smith a chance. For what it’s worth, I think he was a homerun hire and that we are seeing evidence of this.

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I hope so.

But my point is, so far the signs aren’t looking good by missing two kids who by every measure should be at Utah.

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Let’s give the guy time and see how his local recruiting improves. His work on the bench has been terrific, I think, consider the way this team was patched together and the rash of injuries it has had. I think 9-4 is a pretty record in light of these issues.

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I agree. I’m hoping for the best.