Mike Sharavjamts to the Portal

[Slap hands]

Mike Sharavjamts Becomes Latest Utah Basketball Player To Enter NCAA Transfer Portal

[SouthJordanUte]

Honestly not mad about it. Unless he was fine coming off the bench with some very limited minutes. Really as this point the only ones that are in the portal that I really want back is Wahlin and Ausar.

[chinngiskhaan]

He is a great passer, probably the best we’ve had since Delon (at least). The problem is, he isn’t very good at anything else. His ball handling is just barely good enough, his athleticism is just barely good enough, and his shooting is inconsistent (strange, because he has no issues with his form, and he has soft touch).

In the handful of games I watched, the offense ran much better when he was on the floor, and he was great at getting into the offense, and finding the open guy. He was especially good passing on the break.

IMO, the issue is 1. His confidence and 2. His physical strength.

I would be more than willing to have him back. I think he will perform much better with a coach who coaches like he believes in his players. Also, if we somehow manage to bring in more talent, I think he will look a lot better than he did last year.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I’m with you chin. I hope he comes back. He could contribute next season as a secondary ball handler from the 2 or 3. Needs to get stronger to get to the basket. Has a nice shot 3 and midrange.

[Hahnenwk]

I agree, his shooting looks so good but rarely goes in. He has his moments and I thought they would increase but they didn’t.

[chinngiskhaan]

When rotations are as inconsistent as they were under Smith, it is really hard to develop confidence in your abilities. If you know you are going to get certain minutes whether you make shots or not, you feel more comfortable shooting.

[MG_Ute]

I try to be a pretty nice guy but overall I’ve felt all along we just need to blow this thing up. It is very difficult for me to forget so many of the games when we just sucked and it was SO difficilt to get excited about few if any of our players. Good riddance Mike. It is very likely whoever we bring in will be an improvement over what we had. Utah State brought in almost an entire new team and made the tournament. It can be done and I am very optimistic Alex and his staff will bring in guys who can play. And likely play better than most of the guys we had and have lost to the portal. Am I happy to have Dawes back? Sure. There are a TON of guys out there and we need a fresh start.

[chinngiskhaan]

I think that kind of attitude is bulls**t tbh. Why treat the players like that? Mike has valuable skills that could have helped us win games this year. It is pretty clear at this point that we sucked because of the coach and the complete lack of program support from fans and boosters.

I agree with the rest of your post, but I don’t fault these kids for coming here and giving it their best despite nobody else giving a damn.

Additionally, I don’t understand the view that we are somehow going to be better this year simply because someone else is coaching. I would understand it if there was some evidence that our recruiting had improved, but it hasn’t. Yes, I know it is early, but let’s save the predictions for when we have at least 5 guys on the team. Right now we have one guy who was only marginally better than any of the other contributors last year, and one guard who was a good scorer, but not a good shooter at a no-name school, who played against no-name competition. As of this moment, that is our entire roster.

Everything I’ve read says recruiting isn’t off to a great start. I’m glad we have a new coach. I’m glad we allegedly have more booster support. I’m glad Dawes came back. I’m glad we added Brown… but let’s not insult these guys on their way out (yes, you did insult him) when we (the fans) were a bigger part of the problem than they were.

[TomahawkCruise]

I agree with you on being grateful to departing players. I will always be appreciative of players who put on the Utah jersey and do their best. That includes The Shark.

I agree a bit less with your assessment of our recruiting outlook.

Terrence Brown Jr was a fantastic prospect in the portal who shows every indication that he will be very good for us.

In Florham Park, he:

-was FIRST on the team in scoring (obviously) at 20.6 PPG
-was FIRST in assists with 3.2 APG
-was FIRST in steals with 2.2 SPG
-was SECOND in rebounds with 5.6 RPG
-was THIRD in FT% at 76%

Further, Brown scored in double digits in every game he played this season and played well against power competition:

vs Creighton 20 pts 8 rebs
vs Nebraska 23 pts 8 rebs
vs Miami 18 pts 4 rebs
vs Villanova 27 pts 3 rebs 2 steals
vs Boston College 20 pts 5 rebs

And he posted two double-doubles while coming close to eight more. Also remember that many of the top programs in college basketball find plauers who overachieved at smaller schools. Several were interested in Brown before we got him.

There’s still plenty more we need, but all indications are that Brown is the real deal.

[chinngiskhaan]

that’s great to hear. The intent of my post was not to poo-poo him or our current efforts. I just mentioned that what I have read (mostly here) is that recruiting isn’t going so well at the moment. Obviously there is lots of time still, and I hope we can take advantage of the momentum we got from Jensen’s hire and the additional $ for recruiting.

Thanks for the assessment, I genuinely appreciate it.

[TomahawkCruise]

My pleasure, friend. We are all family here!

[Author]

Posts