[Minnesota Ute]

Good point 🙂

[Minnesota Ute]

I think we can all agree that once you clear 6’8, you can be a rim protector but
it doesn’t mean you are, and you can be 7′ and suck.

Last year, if I’m remembering correctly, we were one of the biggest teams in the NCAA. But we just weren’t that good, on offense or defense, or at least not good enough to get to the dance.

While it looks like this roster AJ is building has lots of potential, most of them have a limited data set so we’ll see. Personally, I think if you have good size and athleticism across the line in the front court, you don’t necessarily NEED a rim protector. If you had a choice of 3 guys averaging 1 block per game each, or 1 guy averaging 3 blocks, I’d take the former.

But what every team needs, especially if you hope to make any impact at all, is a PG. Just watch any random NBA playoff game going on currently, guard play is critical! PG with good handles and good decision making, and a guard line that all can fill it up.

Also need a several members of the front court that can stretch the floor.

Hopefully we have all that!

[Minnesota Ute]

I wish him the best and will be very interested to see how it goes for him.

[Minnesota Ute]

My worry is whether ‘developmental approach’ is even possible anymore. You bring in a player like Kyndal, and develop him for a year or two, and he is coming along. Then some other program just throws a bunch of NIL money at him, and just like that you are starting all over.

That’s kind of what it felt like with Larry, granted it was pre-NIL so there was more to the turnover than money. But it feels like we’ve been starting over with a new roster every year for the last decade. Its fine if Alex thinks we can stop that merry-go-round, but if not, all the time and effort put in to player development just benefits other teams with more $$$$.

[Minnesota Ute]

That is one of my biggest hopes for Utah basketball is to be seen once again as legit. I feel like we went too long not being in the mix in March, and with a coach whose name just wasn’t known by anyone outside of the local fan base. A staff that just didn’t have NBA credibility and players leaving every year for other college programs rather than leaving for the NBA.

I was surprised and disappointed that Larry couldn’t parlay his success with Poetle and Delon into some sustained success. Part of that I blame on the Pac12 because that conference completely botched the media exposure. The big names (Oregon, Arizona, USC, UCLA) persisted because they could, but it seemed like the rest of the conference labored in obscurity with 10pm tipoffs and limited distribution. But most of it I blame on him not being a very good coach (IMHO).

[Minnesota Ute]

I don’t have any inside information, but from the outside looking in, a coaches salary comes with the understanding that you can be fired at any time if the organization loses confidence and doesn’t like the results. A staff member on the other hand doesn’t have that fat salary but still has bills to pay and mouths to feed. So honestly, it was probably a very nice gesture to keep him on. Obviously he could have resigned if he was uncomfortable. They maybe could have offered him a severance to provide a bridge, but other than that, keeping him gainfully employed for a period of time isn’t necessarily the worst thing.

[Minnesota Ute]

Nobody is attacking anyone. These players get paid, which makes them professionals, and in my book, open to scrutiny. This young man in particular has baggage that he himself created and for right or wrong, is on display for the world to see. We, as a fan base, are certainly within bounds to discuss those issues, just as the producers of the program were at liberty to put them into the world, and to be concerned about how they may affect the program.

I’m pretty sure that every one of us will be his biggest fans if he gets his head on straight and plays the way he is capable of, and is the kind of teammate we all hope he can be.

[Minnesota Ute]

One side note to the point about it being a job. I am very conflicted on this point. I have been one that has wanted to see players get paid. Not because it wouldn’t be good for the game, although I am trying to reserve judgement on whether its bad for the game. But more because it IS a job that these guys work DAMN hard at. My son tried one year of D3 bball and it was crazy the routine.

So my point is that everyone was making money, some making s**t tons of money. But all the players were getting for all their hard work was a free ‘education’. At the end of the day, I couldn’t abide the excuse that paying players would be bad for the game, because it’s not right to treat a class of people like indentured servants just because allowing them to benefit from their own labor would adversely impact my enjoyment of the fruits of their labor.

Therefore, my take has been for a long time, let them be paid, but hopefully try to figure out the best way to do it and cross my fingers that it’s not going to destroy the game I love.

[Minnesota Ute]

touche’ However it may or may not sting for Syracuse in the near term, I guess it depends on their depth at the guard spot. And ultimately that is my point. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have several roster spots to develop players in hopes they will stick around if they get better, but I don’t think you can count on basing a program around that anymore. We need the solid 2, 3, or 4 year players to come to Utah, because in any given year, you will never be able to count on your current players being a lock to return. I hope I’m wrong, but I just have the feeling that in the NIL era, every player is going to be trying to level up each year, and every team is going to be trying to do the same. So you kind of have to be in the mix of attracting talent that is better than the talent you lose, or you are going backwards.

[Minnesota Ute]

That was the team that got me hooked. The 1989-90 school year I was in Austin Hall on the same dorm floor around the corner from Bryon and Tyrone so Phil and Barry (Ute Dub below forgot Barry Howard who was a defensive stopper on that team) were always around too. Other plyers would come around time to time too, Walter threw a fastball to me out on the quad that scared the s**t out of me, he had a hell of an arm. They were all super nice guys. Byron once borrowed my mitt for a coed softball game and accidentally left it at the field so he bought me a new one, I never expected that and wouldn’t have cared if he didn’t.

That next year they were unstoppable, what fun!!

[Author]

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