The Fall
 

This is what happened last night in the Huntsman Center:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople

The heathen fanatics despoiled civilization. A tragedy beyond reckoning. But it's ephemeral. Giacoletti will suffer the same fate as the last Emperor and we'll rise again. They don't realize that they are acutually at the doorstep of doom.

You guys are not the Roman Empire. You guys are Wyoming. Small fan base. Small recruiting base.

You got lucky with two good coaching hires Majerus and Meyer. Your success was sustained with Majerus because he was too much of a basket case to follow the normal pattern Meyer did.

Get used to mediocrity with occasional runs when you make a lucky hire before he moves on to a bigger school.

Every Y fan's fantasy.

RESEARCH

May be true for football, but not basketball. If anything, Giac is the aberration, not Majerus. They've had a solid b-ball program for decades.

Apparently you have not paid any attention to Ute basketball. Majerus is not the first great coach that Utah has had.

Don't waste your time on this. He knows that.

Ask yourself if your success the last 20 years has been fueled by recruits from your natural recruiting base.

Any small-time regional school without a recruiting base like Nevada or Gonzaga or Boise State or Wyoming or Utah or UNM can find success short term with a good coaching hire.

BYU has a national recruiting base? BYU has fellow pod people; the ones who get conned into going to BYU, that is. Most the really good Mormons don't even go to BYU. Utah's biggest problem recruiting is the perception that its culture is like BYU's.

That's too bad, becaseu it's beiggest problem competing with BYU for recruits is that its culture is so different. I guess it's hosed either way, eh?

That's true. Utah's success has been despite having the worst of all worlds.

Why exactly do you refuse to look past Majerus and see that Utah has had plenty of success outside of Majerus. Oh and Utah's best players have rarely been instate players. Utah actually has a larger recruiting base than BYU in hoops.

Can you give me examples of other regional schools with no natural recruiting base that sustained long term success in college basketball? I'm afraid for you the gig was up when the fat man left.

kansas

Utah's basketball tradition spans many coaches and over seventy years (unlike BYU's football tradition). The proof is Street and Smith's ranking the Utes no. 11 all-time. They are "regional" in your mind only because you say so, and in this, as in your other posts, you are demonstrating your propensity for self-dellusion and believing your own bullshit against all reason and the objective evidence.

Yes because we all know that Street & Smith's is the authoratative conscience of college basketball.

We took over your recruiting base.

Unless you can find a coach to recruit nationally, you're out of luck. But you have no edge on any other MWC or WAC team.

Majerus was actually bad for you in this regard because he pissed off a lot of Utah high school coaches and ignored Utah/LDS fan base (because he could). But now that that's dry and you don't have a nationally recognized coach, it might be tough for you. I think you have a stronger destiny in football where you can at least expect to be upper middle MWC.

Well they had a little bit of a head start on everyone else. Plus Kansas is bigger than Utah and KC is not a bad recruiting ground.

Really when did this happen?

Utah got the top player in the state of Utah last year in Daniel Deane.

lol, you are just getting funny on this one. You really think the Utes are doomed to be in the bottom half of the MWC. You are beyond delusional on this one. I am not expecting Majerus success, but Utah will be back in the upper half of the MWC within a couple of years.

Why don't you post a link to that Street and Smith's list, so we can all get a laugh at some of the other schools included on the list? As I recall, Weber State is prominent on that list, and we all know what a powerhouse they are.

And he's not starting on a last place MWC team?

Tell me more about your Utah/LDS recruiting the last five years.

That is because our coach is a idiot, who does not know how to use a player whose skills including defense, rebounding and setting picks.

As for the Street and Smith list, here you go.

http://daresler.net/info/top/basketball-programs/

Utah will be in the upper half of the MWC on occasion. I don't doubt that.

I am sure you think BYU will consistently be the dominant basketball program in the MWC.

Your thoughts on Ute basketball are ridiculous and are heavily biased by your dislike of Utah.

As for your LDS recruiting question, well Majerus kind of stopped recruiting LDS kids that he thought would go on missions.

Utah did get Foster this past year. A kid that BYU also recruited, and got a late push from Arizona. However, he plays defense and rebounds the ball so he is not a Giacoletti player.

Plain fact is that the weight of evidence is certainly against any claim you are making about Utah's basketball program.

I'm sure Wyoming and UNM fans think their program is one good hire from being back in the limelight. You have that in common with them. I wish you luck in that hire. A lot of schools are in your same boat.

I don't have delusions of grandeur for BYU. We'll outrecruit you in Utah but that's not a big deal. We'll get the best of the LDS, which also is a little bigger deal but not much. We'll augment that the best we can with JC's, international recruits like you do.

We have a slight edge on you but not much.

Neither Wyoming nor New Mexico have ever been as successful as Utah in hoops.

Are you talking about the period during a lucky hire who didn't move on to a bigger program like 95% of other coaches in his shoes would do, or are you talking about a time before most of us were born?

Well both, including that time before Majerus when many of us were alive and the Utes had great success in basketball. Of and the Utes will have no problem retaining a coach in hoops, this is not football we are talking about.

And no problem finding a good coach either. Ask Wyoming and UNM how hard it is.

Finding a good coach will be very hard. I also think that UNLV is a much better analogy if you want to compare Utah to another MWC school.

I was surprised Hill chose Giac, whom I believe should stay there until he retires from coaching.

However, Majerus showed he would be successful. How successful was uncertain but he showed his stuff at Ball State for crying out loud.

Giac has been mediocre wherever he went. His Sweet Sixteen appearance shows he's not incompetent, as I can't remember BYU's last Sweet Sixteen, it's too faint. Did Reid have one or not? Or was Arnold the last coach to produce a Sweet Sixteen?

Pimm had some, Majerus had several and even Giac had one. What a condemnation of our program.

How will BYU replace Young? He's a great player and Otero looks more like a defensive stopper.

Everyone knew Vegas would blow up as soon as they got a decent coach. Which would you prefer if you were a coach...or a recruit?

Utah = Wyoming, UNM, Boise State, Nevada, UTEP

Maybe you could find recruits that read The Sporting News.

You are out of your mind putting Utah in the same category as Boise St, absolutely out of your mind. Pull Wyoming, UNM, and Nevada's tournament records and conference championships and get back to me.

Has Boise St ever even gone to the NCAA Tournament. Basically Utah is exactly like UNLV, once we get a coach we will be great again. It is just a matter of getting that coach.

This argument has gotten ridiculous though, because you are throwing Boise St into the mix. Wow.

Ask yourself where would Boise State be if they had Majerus for 15 or how many years followed by a few of Giac.

The commonality with these schools is that you don't have a recruiting base, you don't have a fan base, you don't have national recognition, but you all have a chance to be good with a good coaching hire who can recruit out of California.

Wasn't UNM slightly more successful in Basketball just last year than Utah was? I seem to remember the two teams playing in the postseason.

I'm just trying to serve my beloved Ute brethren by easing your expectations a little. I'm afraid you guys are going to be suicidal if a new coach doesn't have you back at that #11 level you've been the last 100 years.

Utah- UNM seems a decent comparison, since UNM is hoops crazy. The others seem untenable. BYU also fits in about that same mold. IMO the Utes overachieved under Majerus. The Utes need to, and probably get rid of the Giac and New Mexico needs to be rid of Ritchie McKay.