The Basketball Utes

[apjp]

There has been a lot written about the fact that Utah Basketball isn’t performing the way that many fans expected that they should.  That is a position that I reject.  In the first place, that the team was able to win as much as it did last year was an accomplishment in and of itself.  The PAC 12 was better than the Eastern Press thought: it was 9 and 4  (69.2%) in the NCAA Tournament; Big East 8-7 (53.3%); Big 10 8-7 (53/3%); Big 12 9-6 (60%); SEC 11-5 (68.8%); and the mighty ACC 10-7 (58.8%).  The top half of the PAC 12 was competitive and should have had one or two more teams in the dance.

 

In the second place, the coaching staff was blindsided by Miller, Mawien, Chapman, Reyes, Ogbe, and Wright making the decision to leave last Spring; Miller went even before January.  There are six different reasons for why they left, but I am sure that a part of that decision had to do with playing time.  They had been practicing with Johnson, Collette and Barefield for half a year and could see that there would be lots of competition for playing time the following year: Barefield would take away playing time, either directly or indirectly, from Ogbe, and Wright while Collette and Johnson would do the same for Mawein, Chapman, and Reyes.

 

Had two or three of the group of Mawien, Chapman, Reyes, Ogbe, and Wright stayed, it is unlikely that Rawson and Zamora would have been signed.  Chapman, Ogbe, and Wright would have given the Utes much more flexibility with their offense, plus the defense with them in the line up would have been much better than it was last year.  In all probability Daniels would not have had the playing time that he did and would have been brought up more slowly; frankly I think that his early success went to his head and he acted accordingly.

 

Whatever the reasons were, all of these players to decide to leave, the coaching staff now had to scramble to fill at least three positions they hadn’t counted on having to fill.  Rawson, Jokl, Seeley, and Zamora were late signees; two of them were from the Jr college ranks, not a staff preference for recruits; Rawson did not play as well as expected and Zamora was a liability on defense and not team-oriented on offense; I do understand why Zamora was not asked to stay.

The other two were coming in as Freshman, but unable to contribute in their first year: Seeley was injured the entire year and from all reports Jokl didn’t know English well enough to understand and respond to the coaching that was given him.  Daniels was an early signee.  He played well enough to give Ute fans hope, but something happened in the middle of the conference season.  I am not good enough at reading the tea leaves to understand what the problem was that led to his suspension (although I made a guess above) and the ultimate decision by him and the coaches to take his game elsewhere.

 

The point of this is that an unusual situation of having three excellent players practicing with the team, but not eligible to play, who would probably receive considerable playing time in the following season, led to this one-time, I believe, mass exodus last year.  This year’s two defections seem to reflect the new normal in college basketball.  Last year’s scramble to fill up a roster that would have enough players to practice resulted in the signing of several players who were not as well vetted as recruits normally are. The repercussions from that continue to today.  While Daniels is a good player with a good skill set, it seems that there were personal issues that were not good from a locker-room point of view.  Zamora just was not a good fit.

 

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This year in their regular cycle the coaching staff has signed Carlson and Brenchley who look to be excellent recruits for the Utes (arguably the best of the 2017 Utah HS class), but because of planned missions, these recruits will not be in a Ute uniform until 2019/20 season.  Next year we will find out if Jokl and Seeley will add value to the Ute team.  So far, Tillman is the sole recruit for this year, assuming he signs in the singing period, who will be in a Utah uniform next year, but the Utes, given graduation and the defections, have another three scholarships to give.  Since there was already one scholarship available before Zamora and Daniels decided to leave, the coaching staff is most certainly looking at other potential players.  I have noted that in the last few years, that the better prospects seem to wait until the normal signing period rather than sign early.  Much of the Gonzaga team that won the national championship were players that were signed last Spring.  Maybe the Utes will be able to sign another excellent player or two for next year.

[HoosierinUt]

Wait—-what exactly are you rejecting?

Bringing in players that are not vetted enough, or are not “PAC 12 quality”, or are a “defensive liability” or “don’t want to be a reserve player” and thus they transfer out is 100% the fault of the coaching staff. They brought all of those players here. They are responsible for the vetting of players! They also brought barefield, etc here so they knew full well what type of environment was being created in practices.

The mass exodus last year was a surprise to the coaching staff?????? No, not buying that at all. How could it be a surprise that of all the players that left, none were starting material at all? They were recruited over and didn’t like it. Again, the coaches brought them here.

And we have had three transfers so far this year, not two. You’re leaving out the player that left the team in the fall.

As for the strength of the PAC 12…..I’m not buying that. The conference was really top heavy and nothing else. Utah (4th place team) beat absolutely nobody of significance last year. I don’t consider USC significant.

1st round loss in the NIT to Boise at home??? If we were NCAA tourney quality, what was Boise?

1 player transferring is normal in today’s environment (be it a graduate transfer or whatever) but the amount of transfers we have had over two seasons isn’t normal at all. It’s systemic and needs to be addressed (through recruiting the right players for Utah and Larrys system). Larry has brought in players and run off players that simply don’t fit. As ticket holders, we pay for those recruiting mistakes.

He is a demanding coach and I really like that. But that means he has to recruit players that can deal with that. I don’t care how many stars are next to a 17 year olds name.

[Kim]

I agree the coaching staff has done a good job with what they have but I really think the problem is with who they are signing.  Look at the impact of the people who leave.  We have exceptions, but mostly they are role players.  Not everyone needs to be the star but you best have 7 or 8 in our league.

[Author]

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