State of the BB program

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Majerus knew he was leaving and quit recruiting his final year. Biggest mistake the athletic director ever made in my opinion was not hiring Judkins to take over. Two bad coaching hires and the hole was dug.

Coach K brought the program back to respectability but the hole was deep and hard to get out of. Pac 12, better athletes and a changing style of play in CBB made it tough to recruit and adapt for the “old school” coach. With a depleted fan base an active portal and little NIL money Smith was back in the hole.

Next up Jensen. Cupboard has a few items to pick from. Some increased NIL money and booster support. Alex has major street credibility to recruit and develop NBA talent. He needs fan support to take the program to the next level. The hole is still deep but Alex has the tools to get out. I’m excited to watch good smart basketball again. Go Alex and go Utes!!

[NarfUte]

Giacoletti took that “bare cupboard” (that had the #1 pick in it..) to the sweet 16 and a 29-6 season. Don’t blame Majerus for the current state of the bball program.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I removed my post

[NarfUte]

Bogues was a freshman during Majerus’ last year (the one where Kerry Rupp coached the last 10 or so games) Giaco had to re-recruit bogut to come back.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Narfute I stand corrected. You are right. The incoming recruits of 2004 was Majerus last recruiting year. After Bogut left the cupboard was bare. Sorry for the confusion.

[NarfUte]

I was a student during Giac’s last year and Boylen’s tenure sitting in the front row of the Muss. Giac was gifted a sweet 16 team and then he sank that ship and he sank it fast… We had to watch freaking Luke Nevill, Luka Drca, Shaun Green and friends flail around the court.

Highlights of that time were Marshall Henderson and Boylen telling Gordon Monson “nice of you to show up”

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I was good friends with Shaun Greens dad and he told me Majerus quit recruiting his last year because he knew he was done. I’m not blaming Majerus at all. He left Giac with great talent but not much incoming behind them. Tough time to be a student!! I was a student with the Pimm era. Judkins Buster Metheney Jonas era.

[NarfUte]

Run DMC – Drisdom, Markson, Chaney. All Majerus recruits who were Jr’s in Bogut’s sophomore year (Giac’s first year)

[EagleMountainUte]

Oh gawd the Majerus hate from the start. Reliving the past failures of Hill and Harlan when it comes to basketball is so painful.

Hopeful for the future but slandering Majerus is just factually inaccurate.

[Uteanooga]

Maj was far superior in each of the three areas of recruiting, developing, and in-game coaching than anyone else we have had in the modern area. He was not elite in terms of being nice to all the players- particularly players that had deficiencies or were not matches for his system. I knew a family member of a player who accused him of being abusive and heard the stories from a sibling. Maj was clearly capable of harsh treatment or “tough love” if you prefer that term.

The players that bonded with him, on the other hand, appear to have a tremendous affection for him. As I remember, the NCAA sanctions were predominantly because of his personally taking a player to the airport late at night after a death in the family and buying the player a sandwich and cookie- with his own money, gasp!! That seems so quaint compared to BYU paying 7m for a recruit.

All of us are familiar with the success of his teams- which feels rather improbable at this point.

He was also extremely entertaining and a regular darling of the national media after his team exited the tourney. I miss that almost as much as having good teams. Remember when he said in the press conference “the guys played hard, I want them to relax, maybe take some broads up to Park City.” I have been laughing at that for 30 years.

He did not coddle the local media and they did not love him.

He was a flawed hero and many were anxious to run him out of town. We have seen the results. He was the best we have ever seen and very possibly the best we will ever see wearing Utah kit. He was the opposite of what the program has become- perfecting indifference from the fan base. RIP big man.

[Yergensen]

I’m by no means a BYU apologist in any way, but we are exaggerating their NIL deal with Dybantsa.

Their donors are paying $3m to Dybantsa, not $8m or $7m noted above. Endorsement deals with Nike and Red Bull will pay him $5m next year.

Why is this an important detail?

1 – BYU’s coffers aren’t $7m to $8m deep for one player. Their buying power is less than we’re telling ourselves or others are telling us.

2 – The MBB NIL gap between BYU and Utah is therefore less than we’ve been telling ourselves or others are telling us.

As rumored, if Utah NIL donors double or triple their MBB donation with Jensen at the helm, then we shrink that gap and it’s not as big of a gap to begin with as we’ve believed.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I apologize to all for a poorly worded post. I changed the wording after I posted and reread. Thanks Narfute for the corrections. I’m not a Majerus hater by any means. The post was meant to look at how we got to this point in Utah basketball. I have been a faithful follower of Utah BB since my dad took me to games at the old Einar Nelson field house days. I attended the first game of the new “special events center” now Huntsman. My family were friends of the Pimms and he used to help me with my shooting when he was a Ute assistant with Jack Gardner. I have a love for the program and the past history of Utah BB.

[AllInUteFan]

This is the first year since 2000 that I’ve missed a men’s bball conference tournament. Significant withdrawal. I love watching 4 games a day in the early rounds. The tourney being hosted in KC had a lot to do with it.

A bare cupboard post-Majerus and a bare cupboard today are very different. NIL money and transfer portal rules make a turnaround much more achievable in this environment. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easily done.

I’m not sure what right formula is for a good team, or, ever more important may be how much that costs. Is it 1 superstar player with good, but not great, pieces around him? Or do we need 2-3 top-tier players to really make a splash? What is the most sustainable, e.g. not having to buy a new team every year?

I’d love to see a well-coached, high-effort team with enough talent to be consistently in the top quartile. I’d gladly continue buying tickets for that. Plus, with the ever-increasing cost of football tickets, perhaps my money is better spent on the bball team.

[Minnesota Ute]

I feel like I’ve heard a lot about the lack of talent on this team. But I feel like I saw RM take teams with less talent than this to the tournament, and win at least one game as he always did.

While I think Craig was a better coach than Larry, and certainly better than Boylen or Giac, he was just not good enough. We’ve all carped to some degree or another about his personnel decisions, and putting the right players on the court is a big part of winning. But the measures that for me set him apart from Larry were things like creating scoring opportunities off of inbounds, or end-game scenarios where you are trying to get a decent shot. Turnovers in these situations were not uncommon under Larry, in fact they felt like the norm. I also note that this year we are among the leaders in the conf if not the country in assisted baskets, which speaks to some good coaching. We got a LOT of back-cut baskets this year, where with Larry, we would turning the ball over like crazy as opponents were overplaying the passing lanes, I’m screaming at the TV for a back-cut, but to no avail. While our turnovers were still pretty high this year, it seemed more heavily weighted to errors of commission.

So while I am glad to have Alex coming in, and was not a fan of keeping Craig, I can say that if offered the choice, I would take a 54-42 record against SOS of 8.3 (higher is better) as compared to 45-42 against SOS of 7.5. This is the last three years of Smith against the last three years of Larry. Other than his first year, which I don’t usually count (win or lose), Smith had a winning record, and I did feel like I was seeing steady improvement in the players. Would he have been able to keep any of them around? Would the boosters have support him with NIL $$? Would he take the help that was offered by guys like Andre & Josh? I’m glad we don’t have to find out and can move on.

All that said, the one thing that RM knew was that defense can be the great equalizer. If you don’t have the raw talent to overwhelm a team and score a ton of buckets, then you have to shut them down, no easy shots, no second chance points. That’s always been something of a love/hate with the fan base. I don’t mind a grind it out slug fest of a game, especially if we are controlling the tempo and give ourself a chance to win. But I think there were years where the team was good, tournament bound, but we didn’t pack the Hunty because of the style of play.

I guess the bottom line is that personally, I hope Alex starts with making us the defensive and rebounding juggernaut that we once were, as that will keep us in almost every game. Then if we can mix some good talent with good coaching on the offensive end, we could be great again.

[TomahawkCruise]

So am I. I expect to see a completely different look and feel with next year’s team, in both coaching and player performance.

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