Agreed.
I will say, the public-ness of the AJ interview made me think it was a done deal. If it had stayed quieter, my gut that he wanted to stay NBA would have remained intact. But the known on-campus interview made me think it was down to dotting the I’s. Maybe it was closer than we think… but still, embarrassingly, a no.
With that said, who the heck was Rick Majerus? Who the heck was Ray Giacoletti or Jim Boylen? We knew who Larry was with his NBA/Jazz history and some success at Montana. But our history in the last few hires is that we grab some seemingly random dude that NO ONE had on their radar. Some have worked better than others.
There was a fairytale feeling to bringing in Jensen. Real life doesn’t often go that way. And who’s to say he’ll never consider it? Maybe it was not a “No. Not ever” and more of a “Not right now, I need to see where this other thing goes first.” (I’ll at least cry myself to sleep telling myself that.)
There are many good candidates out there and at least one is going to think he’s hit the jackpot with the Utah job. I think the biggest hit we took today was that surefire, fanbase-is-crazy-stoked hire. Now we’ll get…a guy. A guy who could be the next Big Rick or the next Giac.