Fire his Ars…

[PAC12Teams]

That is what Ohio State just did…

[The Miami Ute]

My guess is that it’ll hit home for Harlan when the Bay Area schools come to town and the only people in the stands are family and friends.

[AZUTE]

Can’t afford the buyout. Still paying for Coach K’s. For that reason he’ll get at least one more year.

[The Miami Ute]

The buyout is less than $6M. Better to buy him out than go through a season with an empty Huntsman and end up with an 8-25 record in the Big 12.

[EagleMountainUte]

If there is an option where you think improvement can take place you get rid of Smith. Harlan feels safe in not worrying too much about it because Football reigns supreme. After this upcoming season you are most likely facing a situation of evaluating a post Whitt era and hiring another Basketball Coach?

I would do it this season. Fire him rip the bandaid and bring in the next coach. There is no post season for this team.

[RustyShackleford]

Harlan is not the guy to lead us during this phase

[EagleMountainUte]

Assumptions can be made. Who knows if Harlan’s replacement would be any better.

Who was the Athletic director assistant under Chris Hill during the P12 expansion? Didn’t he leave when Harlan retired? I wouldn’t mind looking at him.

[chinngiskhaan]

Smith did a good job putting this team together. They had the talent to get to the tourney. He couldn’t figure out how to get wins on the road, and the wheels completely fell off in a triple overtime loss to ‘Zona.

Allowing the team to completely collapse like they have when they should be a resilient group of seniors is ridiculously bad coaching.

[AZUTE]

So let’s talk replacements.

Would love to hear everyone’s idea of the guy to right the ship.

The list has to start and end with Alex Jensen

[The Miami Ute]

Jensen has minimal experience as a head coach and has been out of the college game for well over a decade. Not saying that he wouldn’t be a good fit or excel. Just that, once again, you’re rolling the dice.

[EagleMountainUte]

Alex Jensen was my pick but I don’t think he wants the job.
Johnnie Bryant was my second choice. In 2024 heading into the Big12 I don’t think he wants this job either.

2021 I don’t know what exactly happened with all of that. I remember getting flamed for saying Harlan was blowing this hire. Well I can confidently say he blew this hire. Smith never got off the ground at all.

[Rick]

It won’t happen now but another candidate emerged when Harlan fired Smith. Porter Moser reached out and got no response. The word that got to me is he wanted the Utah job over Oklahoma. Harlan proactively pursued Smith, which certainly makes some sense; but he was blind to the interest of Moser and Randy Bennett (who also reached out through intermediaries). Neither were given interviews. If anyone believes the Alex Jensen interviews were legitimate, I have swampland to sell you. Alex will never work under Harlan.

[EagleMountainUte]

I am assuming you meant when Harlan fired Krystkowiak. I still feel Coach K should have got one more year. I take many unpopular positions but the moment seemed like a waste and now Utah is in the same position again but I don’t feel like you can wait this time.

From what I understand Alex Jensen did do a courtesy interview. Jensen was being looked at for Head coaching positions and is very well respected in the NBA. Comparison now is like Brian Johnson. Well BJ is not looked at so well today after the Eagles choke job. But it is similar. BJ and Jensen are not leaving for a step down to Utah. Just my opinion.

[Rick]

Yes Eagle – sorry, I get ahead of myself too often on the keyboard.

You are correct that Alex did a courtesy interview. I can also tell you that Harlan, under pressure of several key alums, tried for another conversation. Alex was so underwhelmed from the first interview that he declined.

That was tough to know at the time but no fault of Coach Smith’s. I’ve been rooting for him to do well but what we’re seeing is unacceptable.

[EagleMountainUte]

I don’t think I have held anything against Smith from the process. It is just an unfortunate consequence because I felt like I was burned really badly during the Boylen years. I still admire Coach K very much honestly. Allowing him one more year or finishing his contract seemed wiser to me.

I guess I am kind of smug in that I am completely apathetic to Smith leaving but I think it needs to be done right now. Not like I am going to pay the buyout so my opinion is meaningless. Just my view as a fan is all. If you can even call me a fan of Men’s basketball anymore.

[MDUte]

No question, Alex Jensen is the #1 guy. Problem is Alex has worked hard to build his career for an NBA HC job. I don’t believe he’s interested in moving away from that for college.

[fosternano]

This is the best team under Smith, and still so many issues that have shown for the past 3 years. At this point it does look like an issue of coaching

[MDUte]

I have followed this team, and basketball in general, very loosely compared to the rest of you. This is because I just don’t like the way basketball is played in the modern era.
That said, I’m not as emotionally attached to Utah basketball like I once was and believe I can offer a little more of an objective opinion.
Pros for Smith: from what I’ve seen, he did a really good job recruiting from the portal and assembling this team with talent. The team has great length, speed, shooters…really everything you’d need to contend in the conference and make the Tourney. Also, the players seem to really like Smith. And this can’t be overlooked in the modern era. Kids today aren’t going to put up with an old school style of coaching like Majerus or Coach K…the transfer portal has made it impossible to retain talent if you’re not all about the kids as a coach.
Cons against Smith: he’s way too soft defensively. Utah consistently gets out-rebounded in every game they lose and many that they win. This tells me a couple of things. There isn’t as much of a focus and commitment to defense as there is to the other side of the court. Rebounding is not a talent stat, it’s an effort stat. And when the team has a front court full of length (Carlson, Lovering etc) and strength (Keita) this Utah team should NEVER get out-rebounded by anyone. Getting out-rebounded is also the reason Utah consistently gives up some ridiculous amount of points defensively…I think I saw something in the 80s that teams are scoring against Utah. That’s ridiculous, especially given the guys on the roster. If Smith was a really good coach, he’d have a much stronger defensive game plan for each opponent, focused on taking away whatever that opponent likes to do most to make things uncomfortable and difficult for that opponent. From what I’ve observed, whoever is playing against Utah does about whatever they want. Their star players have big scoring nights every time playing against Utah. That’s especially a recipe for losing games on the road. Yes, the free throw shooting is horrendous and I agree this shouldn’t be the case. But I’ve seen worse free throw shooting teams still win because they played much better team defense and rebounded. IMO, that is the difference with Utah being Top 3 or Top 2 in the league and a definite Tourney Team this year.

After 4 years, we know what we have with Craig Smith. And he had more than enough talent to get it don’t and secure his job for the future. IMO, it’s clear that Smith isn’t the answer long term for Utah. He’s a good coach that puts an entertaining product out on the court. But he’s never going to take Utah to the level of success Utah fans desire.

Knowing the buyout situation, I don’t see Utah wasting more money hitting the reset button now versus waiting another year or maybe even 2. Football is the priority that can continue to provide cover for a struggling basketball program. Utah has to continue to do absolutely everything in its power to make it into the P2 in the short term with football. If successful, Utah would have the ability to hit the reset button every year in basketball if it wanted until we finally found the right coach to bring basketball back to where it belongs. But while our future is on shaky ground, it doesn’t make any sense to waste precious resources on basketball, even if that means the Hunty continues to remain empty.

[The Miami Ute]

If the rest of the season continues to go downhill and the Utes don’t make a coaching change, the only time the Huntsman will be half full is when we play BYU. And it’ll be full of BYU fans.

[Rick]

I think your “pros” around recruiting the portal are a bit too kind. I think most of his portal recruits have not been very good at all and, even though at times you can make cases for Madsen and Smith, both players are pretty inconsistent. Remember that Smith was pretty non-existent in the loss to ASU which was an absolute killer for us in terms of any post season hopes. Madsen is super streaky and is a bad road player.

I just don’t see it.

[MDUte]

Respectfully disagree. Deivon Smith is a legit PG and the best PG Utah has had since Delon Wright. But he isn’t getting coached up at all. Nearly getting a triple double in multiple games is no joke. Again, he’s just another example of talent who isn’t reaching his potential in CS’s system.
Madsen might be streaky but he’s clearly a talented player. He’s a solid shooter who can create his own shot and finishes well at the rim. But a guy like Madsen shouldn’t be needing to create the majority of his shots. The offense should create more open looks for him.

Those are just the 2 guys you mentioned. But bringing in Keita was another great recruiting win for CS. In college basketball you need 3 dudes (1 of which being a super star level player) and then surround those 3 with talented role players. Utah has this with Brandon Carlson who is a legit super star headed to the NBA. And then Deivon Smith, Madsen, and Keita give you 3 more dudes to surround Carlson with and take pressure off of.

Then you’ve got talented role players with guys like: Worster, Bajema, Lovering, Ben Carlson, and Erickson.

Say what you want, but if Majerus had this roster back in the day (not now but back in the 90s when these kids wouldn’t have bolted for the portal) I guarantee you the absolute floor for this roster would be the Sweet Sixteen.

This roster lacks a true system that gives a team an identity. They lack the type of coaching where the players understand what they need to do individually and collectively each night to win games.

I stand by my post that Craig Smith is a good guy that players will enjoy playing for. But he’s only a good-to-average coach who isn’t going to raise the program to the level Utah fans want and expect. He’s unfortunately not the answer people hoped he was going to be.

The question is when to hit the reset button. And I believe you don’t do it until it costs the least amount of money. Unless there’s a donor out there who only cares about MBB and wouldn’t give any money towards football and is willing to eat all of the cost of buying out both Coach K and Craig Smith to bring in a new hire…short of that, it’s not worth spending any money to make a change now.

[MDUte]

I don’t know what the deal is but I’ve tried every which way to create new paragraphs and it always jumbles everything together in one massive paragraph. I’ve even created it in MS Word and copied and pasted it in and it still comes out as one big massive paragraph.
When I go to edit, I see the paragraph breaks are there but it doesn’t translate to my actual post. It’s not intentional, on my part, to not use paragraphs to make it more difficult to read.

[ryynoo]

For what it is worth, I see nicely laid out paragraphs. I’m on the web on a computer though.

[MDUte]

Thx ryynoo. I fiddled with it some more and got it to start to cooperate a little. But it’s always a battle on the phone for some reason.

[The Miami Ute]

I truly like your commentary but there’s absolutely no way that Carlson is a superstar headed to the NBA. He’s not even going to get drafted and, if he wants to play in the NBA, it’ll have to be after he makes his bones overseas or in the G-League. Most scouting reports have him anywhere between the 200 to 300 best prospect of the 2024 draft.

[MDUte]

Let me clarify. Superstar college player, not future NBA superstar. Any player in college with the ability to put up 30 pts in a game and can go inside as well as stretch the D at 7’ is a superstar you can build a team around. I definitely see Carlson moving on to the NBA and would be surprised if he didn’t get drafted. But that’s just my opinion and I totally get it if you and others disagree.

[The Miami Ute]

I don’t necessarily disagree with you. I am transmitting what knowledgeable people in the business say about Carlson. Sometimes we become enamored of our players without realizing that there are thousands of other players at the HS and college level that are both better and have more potential. Ask yourself this, what has changed from last season that has made Carlson a better pro prospect after this season?

[MDUte]

Totally agree with you Miami. As stated before, I’m really not a big Utah hoops guy and haven’t been for a long time now. I love the U of U so I tune in from time to time. But I’m sure you and everyone else on this thread follow it far more closely than I do. I’m just commenting on my limited set of observations.

And although I’ve seen the draft projections and realize most don’t have him getting drafted. The draft projections are always so far off from being accurate outside of the obvious lottery picks. If you look at guys that those analysts have projected higher than Carlson, most of them are players that are a dime a dozen in terms of measurables and talent. But there aren’t 100s of true 7 footers out there with the ability to go inside and out with shooting ability to stretch a defense. NBA teams tend to take chances on guys like Carlson. And that’s mainly why I think he’ll surprise a lot of people and end up getting drafted. But again, just my opinion that most believe will end up being wrong…we’ll see.

With the way the pro game is played today, I think Carlson could end up being a better pro player than college (similar to Kuzma) if given an opportunity.

*not saying Carlson and Kuzma are similar players. Only saying similar to how Kuzma has experienced greater success at the pro level than he did at college, I could see the same thing with Carlson.

[Yergensen]

Our problems may run deeper. Harlan’s track record doesn’t provide evidence that he can hire the right coach.

One could argue that Harlan is a sustainer at best, riding Chris Hill’s coattails. At worst he is a poor evaluator/decision maker (see his USF and his Utah hires to date, not good).

We have big decisions and strategic navigation to be made in the next few years. With Chris Hill (McBride, Majerus, Urban, Whit, PAC 12) we would be confident in the AD leading us. With Harlan, who has none of these career successes, we don’t know.

[Author]

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