There is very little evidence of Coach knowing what he’s doing.
Here’s my view. He got to Utah and scored a few huge recruits early on. That lead him to think he could get blue-chip recruits, which, without criminally cheating like USC and Arizona, he was never going to get. Meanwhile, he can’t keep the players he does land, so he’s always got one of the youngest teams in the league.
So now, he’s bringing in a bunch of foreigners, because that’s all he can commit, especially given his lack of success…sound familiar? Yeah, pretty much the same strategy Boylen and Giacoletti used here.
Also, even when he had three legitimate NBA guys on his roster, he still lost 9 games in ’15 and ’16 and flamed out of the NCAA tourney early (I consider it early given the talent he was working with). In my opinion, his Xs and Os are pretty weak. He can develop big guys, but game planning and in-game coaching are less than average. His record is weak in close games over the years. His record against good coaches is abysmal.
The path to success at Utah has been demonstrated by Majerus (and Whitt). Get willing role players, land a few diamonds in the rough, develop players, and do a good job with film and game planning. Larry has failed on pretty much all fronts. Oregon is a good example of this kind of success.
Larry is mediocre at best. His record shows that plainly.