How many players did Majerus "lose" in any given year?

He seemed to lose a few more in the years following the 98 loss to Kentucky, like he never could get over the pain from that game.

Afraid that ‘9 in 2 years’ is correct.  Hopefully last year (6) in particular will be the exception rather than the norm in coming seasons.

Stop with the innacurate statements. 9 players lost? No. more like 7 players sent packing, 2 players not getting enough time and vacating themselves. Did we really lose Reyes? Did we really lose Brandon Miller? Did we really lose Mako Mawien?

Quite a bit, actually.  I mostly remember the controversies surrounding *why* they transferred, particularly Lance Allred and Jordie McTavish.

Per Sports Illustrated:

But then, consider this: Of the 80 recruits Majerus signed with the Utes, only 33 survived to play as seniors. Nearly 59% of them transferred or otherwise left early, most unable or unwilling to meet Majerus’s exacting standards or endure his mercurial, sometimes crude, even cruel behavior. And some who stayed considered bolting too. By Christmas of his freshman year, 1996, Mottola had scribbled himself this note: This is beyond what I can handle. For the next three years his stomach lurched each time he saw Majerus step onto the court.

I get the comparison. That said, when are we going to move on from the Majerus era? That was quite some time ago. Should we not look at today’s basketball landscape?

How is our program doing vis-a-vis our primary competitors (i.e. P12 schools)? What about our peers in other P5 conferences (e.g. Wisconsin). What about the “perceived” lower-tier, non-P5 schools that have established themselves as consistent performing basketball programs (e.g. Creighton, Butler, and obviously Gongaza)?

Oregon State, USC, ASU, Stanford, and Cal (tier-2 P12 schools) all have 4*+ players coming in next year.

As SoCalPat pointed-out on Ub5 forum, it’s great that we were considered by top recruits (e.g. Markkanen, Tillie, Jackson), but we didn’t get any of them; are the likes of Colman, Zamora, Jakl, etc., really the next-best options? We’ll see how Johnson develops — he looked just ok to me. Not particularly impressed with our guards and wings. They didn’t pass well and didn’t seem to really grasp the concept of angles. Ball-handing skills were average.

Ok…enough from me for one evening. 🙂 Still….GO UTES! (please, LK)

He lost 5 in 2002, 5 in 2001, 3 in 2000, 3 in 1999, 3 in 1998, and 2 in 1997.  A total of 21 in 6 years for an average of 3.5 per year.

The big difference, to me, with Majerus, was that the players who left were rarely of consequence. The big names always stayed in the program. That is, until Marc Jackson, who left with a flourish of classlessness and publicity.

Before that, it was always bench warmers who left. Even in later years – Markson, Cheney, Drisdom, etc… all stayed put. Bogut was one guy who may have left, as he was pretty openly not a fan of Majerus, but he didn’t, and I suspect a post-season one-on-one meeting with Majerus about his draft standing and potential earnings may have kept him around too.

Another difference for Majerus was that he got the most out of the talent he had available. Larry does not do that. (See Boise State, St. Mary’s, San Francisco, Oregon State) His teams generally play exactly to their expectations. They occasionally lose headscratchers, but they never pull off the big upset. You have to look back to Brandon Taylor’s senior season and the home win vs. Arizona to find an upset (and even that wasn’t much of one). I think that shows a lack of coaching and game planning. There’s a reason Utah always loses to Arizona, Oregon, Butler, and the like – because Larry isn’t as good a coach as those teams have. You could easily make the argument that Utah had more talent than Oregon in the Wright and Poeltl years, but they lost all the games to Altman’s ducks.

Larry will continue to get us 20 wins and a top 4-5 finish in the PAC, but I don’t expect any greatness from him or his teams, unless he finally lands those 5 star guys he keeps missing on. Talent wins games. Talent plus coaching wins championships. We lack the latter.

I think he is a good coach. The team needs a better recruiter. He is better than Alford, but definitely no Shawn Miller. I expect top three finishes in conference with the occasional down year. Winning the conference? Yeah, I don’t anticipate that happening without some bad luck happening to other teams.

But overall I think he is a good coach. Good for Utah.