I don’t see Larry being outed after this year. I could be dead wrong.

[Ute Dub]

I have zero insider knowledge, but the buyout is too much, the fans are too hopeful which is why it gets so much run, IMO. Unless there’s a can’t miss hire to replace I just think it’s only 20% chance a change is made. The full team is coming back this next year sans Plummer, unless Timmy and some others decide to leave or transfer, right?

Curious to hear others perspective or likilihood estimate % of a change happening. Thx

[AZUteFan]

Agree with you that LK isn’t going anywhere. And it’s because Harlan doesn’t have the balls. Currently he can blame Dr Hill for the insane contract /buyout while LK puts a mediocre product out there. Harlan is allowing  Utah basketball to die a slow death. 

[PhiladelphiaUte]

The pandemic took a huge bite out of our receivables, so austerity had become our primary action item.  If LK doesn’t get pink-slipped by season end, we can’t assume it’s because Harlan doesn’t have the sack.  It could be that he simply doesn’t have the purse.

[Trailgoat]

Agreed. Harlan is shaping into a lame duck AD. Dude is a slippery, schmoozaholic. Harlan is using the Utah AD job for a future move. No way Harlan’s cutting Larry loose at the expense of his own career risk. He knows LK has BB celebrity power. Letting LK go after this year might risk Harlan’s image for the next job. 

Not sure if anybody else caught Harlan say “Thank You Rob” to Bill Riley at the end of his interview last week. What a tool. 

[Utah5410]

It’s worse if he isn’t ousted. He’s a lame duck. Even if he does well next year there is no way in hell his contract gets renewed. Utah is better off moving on. Yes I know the contract blah blah but the program is already losing money hand over fist and worse very few people care anymore. I used to love utah ball. I can’t support LK. Was done with his excuses after last year, he doesn’t develop, core guys leave every year. He can’t adapt to this new college ball

[Ute2]

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m totally for the utes moving on from Larry at this point.

But IMO the Larry k era isn’t irredeemable. I think he could turn this thing around. My main beef all year has been an antiquated offense that acted like Poetl or collete or Andrew bogut were still with us.

Unlike last year, As the season has worn on ive seen our offense start acting like we have dynamic wing players and guards, spacing the floor and letting dudes make plays. I think that has been a major factor when we’ve been successful and we’re moving more towards that. It’s been way too late but better late than never I guess?

If Larry can figure out the offense (which he is kind of doing, albeit a day late and a dollar short)In the off-season or turn it over to somebody who knows what they’re doing, he might have a great year next year with everybody back. (Can’t Plummer come back if he wants?)

I think Utah does a lot of other things well like defending, rebounding, transition, etc.

I like Larry and if he gets one more year, I’d hope he really figures this out because we have the talent… oddly enough, I’d be thrilled though to see us move on because I’ve been quite disgusted with the last 2 seasons and all the wasted talent which I think we’ve got a lot of.

[UtahUtesRock]

Bill was saying on the broadcast that Plummer could be back next year. So I’m holding out hope. 

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

He can come back because the NCAA froze eligibility. No player has to leave if they don’t want to.

[AZUTE]

Larry is gone. 7 mil over four years isn’t that much. This year has been a huge disappointment and another year of no NCAA tournament.
It would cost more to keep him in terms of recruiting, season tickets revenue as fan apathy is at an all time high.
One win over an asu team that had given up doesn’t change the overall poor season.

[EagleMountainUte]

Boosters ain’t opening the wallet for this program. Larry K should do the right thing and resign. Harlan has to fire him to get money flowing back in.

[Ute Dub]

The ASU win has nothing to do with it IMO. Harlan won’t make a knee jerk move before the end of next season unless there – killer hire that he can’t pass up. Who is that hire?

[Utesbyfive]

Oh I get so tired of the “who is the next hire” game. We don’t know, we can never know. Harlan has connections we can’t imagine.

[Ute Dub]

I bet we could “imagine”, hope I didn’t wear you out there.

[Johnny]

We have no idea what happens within that team. I can kind of tell it was chaos for sure these last couple seasons. At least he’s not in Bobby Hurley’s seat. 

But yeah, he needs help closing the game out. He is horrible at coaching the crunch time. I’ll never forget Majerus clock manage a game against Wyoming I believe in 1992. The Utes were down 10 with 2 minutes left. I think the Utes won by 3. It was a master stroke.

I like Larry, but I don’t ever see him coaching himself out of a bag like that. There are many coaches out there that can, though.

 

[CincyUte]

Are you saying we need a coach like Majerus or more opponents like Wyoming?

[CincyUte]

If our current team was losing by 10 to Wyoming with 2 minutes left, this board would be beside itself.

[Johnny]

I think that 1992 Wyoming team sent 2 guys to the league. 

[CincyUte]

Nice spin.

Wyoming was 16-13, 8-8 that season.  Sixth place in the WAC.  And, apparently, they still almost beat us when we had Majerus.

[Johnny]

A coach like Majerus as far as game management in the final minutes. The coach at Oregon is a prime example. He’s been around for a long time, way before Oregon. He’s a good coach, but is he a cheater?

[McBride of Frankenstein]

Larry’s team was very young this year and finished about where they were predicted.  That is the bottom line. 

In my opinion you don’t pull the plug on a young team with some promising wins for a coach that has shown he can recruit.  I think we see how this team pans out over the next two years and then decide the future of the program.

[Charlie]

What I have not liked.  I expected more and better big men to come thru Utah, Larry should have been able to recruit them.  Larry’s teams have been turnover pron.  Not so much from over agressiveness, more from mental lapses.  I would like to see more timeouts that turn a game, or generate good plays coming out of timeouts.  I would like to see more plays run out of end outs.  Losing players like Gach.  I hate not being involved in post season play.

What I forgive.  Coming in second with so many big recruits.  We want him to try and there is pleanty to suspect of the winners we lost to.  Loosing Daniels was needed for locker room chemistry.  Loosing Lohner seemed connected to his dad’s employment.  We had a string of losses due to Jantunuen’s absence. 

What I have liked.  I think it is a good move, if you are a bit grumpy old school, to recruit international players.  They have a better work ethic and accept coaching a bit different.  I think this strategy bumped our talent.  Bringing in Donny to address the same.

Each year we have a significant talent gap with 2, 3, teams.  That will be more difficult to fix than we think.  We just are not at the point that we will be one of the most talented teams in the Pac, and it is a long shot that will change with a new coach.  But that is not to say we could not do better.  I don’t think the average Pac coach flip will help us.  To improve we need a much above average coach flip.

Of all the years to ring up an extra investment, this year is not.  This is a year you make do with the old car.  As to the team, Utah’s team may be one that will improve.  Two international players coming in (wish I knew more about Stefanoic but Thelissen looks awesome), I expect Plumber to stay, and Allen is 50/50 to stay improve his draft chances.  Not sure many Pac teams will keep all their keys and add.  I expect Harlen may kick the can, leave the decision to 2022 and create questions letting Larry go into his last year.  Larry should not have a single complaint, we have bought and paid for that.

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