He was a very fun player to watch. Even in an era of three point shooters, he did it with more flair.
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Over the weekend when Pope’s name came up I was saying to myself, “Hey, we have another Frank Arnold!”
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Apparently Demarlo Slocum was at the Ute facilities today. He is a former Utah assistant and apparently was with Smith at CSU.
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He’s played 4 years (hopefully got a degree) Was implied somewhere in the last few days his family back home is having a rough financial stretch and he’s eager to start helping them out. Not NBA ready at all, but G-league or Europe could use someone with his skills.
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Good to see the new coach understands the relationship between pre-season scheduling and invitations to the NCAA Tournament.
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What do you think the ideal schedule is for the Utes? I understand the scheduling thought process in football. Win all 3 OOC games and lose no more than 1 in conference and you have a shot at the playoff. Lose more than 1 and you are out.
this should probably be in a football thread, but my perfect OOC schedule:
- school from another P5 conference (home and away, or neutral site)
- rotate every other year playing USU and BYU (home and away)
- non P5, non FCS school preferably revisiting old MWC ties in recruiting areas (example: SDSU, UNLV, CSU, SJSU, Fresno)
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Not a fan of playing either one of them away. But I’m a drunken Ute.
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I just know the NCAA punishes you for not playing a strong non-con schedule. LK would have a couple more NCAA invitations strictly based on PAC 12 play. You get rewarded for non-con quality wins and punished for not playing non-con quality teams.
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I agree, but I also think we could mix up the state teams with Weber and USU as well.
Sweetgrass, while I’m sympathetic to your passion, I respectfully disagree.
I think antagonism just brings drama where it doesn’t need to be. Ultimately, honestly, I just aa soon play those guys every Couple -o- 4 years or so (like any other team) and do the best we can to beat them without cheating or being hackers.
That’s for all sports; and if they beat us as sport’s-people on that particular day, so be it: it doesn’t have to be a requiem for political discourse or anything else. On the other hand, I don’t want to play those guys every year. Not simply because it’s a huge money grab, profit incentivized-over dramaticization of a very long and very contentious rivalry. BYU also has an extended history with USU…
It’s reasonable for us to play all the other public universities in our state.
It’s also reasonable to pursue our own future through our own conference under our own priorities.
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I like the way you are thinking. Hearing that one Finnish player is going pro back home. He’s finnished. We all know who. Wonder if that makes a difference to Battin.
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Contract deets: 12.6M guaranteed over 6 years.
I think he’ll be able to squeak by on that income,
That really is fair for his experience and new position and expectations. He might feel he has ‘made it’ as a head coach of a P5 program but still leaves him hungry to do better and get a 2nd contract (or extension after great performance). 6 years is good time frame to establish the program and culture. And by 6, we’ll know if he’s meeting expectations or not (see Shaka). Hopefully Harlan rewards overall momentum and results, not just a single great year. ADs get themselves in trouble when they keep giving amendments/extensions. But I do understand it’s a balance to keep the coach.
Here was the path for Coach K - he got rewarded after the Sweet 16, but the amendment after 2 NIT appearances probably wasn’t warranted. Hill basically got scared of losing him and having to look for a new coach:
“You look and see if you’re in danger of losing a good coach or maybe you want to make a preemptive strike to keep people off your doorstep,” [Hill told the Tribune on March 17, 2018.]
Far better and more attractive to start regular games against Weber and Utah State than schedule Mississippi Valley State and Idaho State.
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He’ll need to shop at Family Dollar on occasion.
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I agree; BB and FB, if we must, then home only.
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Jon Wilner likes the Smith hire. Good article.
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Well now I don’t want him.
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