Kragthorpe Article Larry v Kyle

Part of the clan? **Eye roll**

It’s apples and oranges comparing these two sports programs. Fb and bb success don’t really map to each other. Ute fan perception of our standing in the two sports is different.

We look at the PAC-12 and only UCLA (by a long shot) and Arizona (we’re in the ballpark) really have more to offer historically than Runnin’ Ute hoops.

In football, we’re much farther down the chain with a lot of catching up to do.

In short: in football, we know we’re still building a legacy. In basketball, we feel like we already have one and should be capitalizing on it.

I don’t think they are immune. I went to grad school in the Pac 10 and was familiar with their FB and BB. When we joined, I wanted to compete for championships right up front. However, I am also realistic enough to realize it is a long road for schools moving up in the ranks. FSU was an exception everyone else would like to repeat, but most will have to pay their dues year by year. Sometimes we talk about doing better like it should be so easy. Realistically, we could easily be worse off. Perspective from someone that has been here since the 60s.

All time win percentage of other PAC 12 Coaches at current school

.444, .555, .417, .404, .360, .111, .768, .333, .333, .665, .685, .500

Can you tell me which one is coach Whit? I’ll give you a hint, he’s in the top 3.  But since you chose to be selective on which stats you looked at, this won’t matter to you.  

While we all remember the high’s of the Majerus era, it’s easy to forget how it ended in a whimper. After that ’98 run the ’99 team was surprisingly good and probably underachieved by losing in the second round with a team that most thought was at least a S16-type team.

And from ’00 until Rick left, it seemed like the team struggled with some bad luck (Johnson’s mono, Burgess’s knee), recruiting whiffs, and just a general malaise that seemed to creep its way into the program. Fans weren’t excited by just making the tourney anymore, and Majerus, for whatever reason, had lost his mojo that built us into a national contender. It was this weird Ute hoops purgatory of good but no longer great.

And yet, as dissatisfying as that little era was, we had no idea about the drop-off that was just around the corner…

Actually, lagging defense is what I would expect starting 3 freshmen and trying to work in a lower level Sr transfer and a JC transfer. It took Parker most of his career to be able to play defense, has taken Johnson some time as well. Next year throws in several new guys that hopefully will get minutes. But I hear you, at some point we need to have a team where most do play good defense. Along the way, we need to match the athletes others have as well. Last, we need enjoy a coach that others are trying to steal from us.

You’ve obviously never played basketball. 100x more difficult to get the players a team needs to be able to make some noise in a tourney to come to Utah. Without Nike, Jordan, or Adidas sponsoring your team your f**ked.