If Alex Jensen has indeed been offered the HC job at Utah, it’s obvious Mark Harlan is taking a gamble. However, I would argue it is much less of a gamble than some may believe. Here’s why:
1) “He’s never been a head coach…” – actually he has. He left the Billikins of St. Luis (while working under the Maji) to become the head coach of the NBA’s D-League. He won coach of the year in his second season! That’s rather significant, IMHO. His position with the Jazz came next, as an upgrade to this D-League head coaching position. He has had head coaching experience and has been super successful at it.
2) “He has never had to recruit…” – which is true from what I have seen. “Could he recruit well?” is the real question. Some have heard him say in the past that he doesn’t want to recruit, that’s why he has stayed in the NBA so long – he hasn’t had to recruit. It’s possible he thought the recruiting high schoolers to play for him was more work than it’s worth because the pay of college coaches wasn’t that great. “Not worth the hassle…” could have been his M.O. That may have changed now that he can make roughly the same coaching at the U than he could with the NBA. This is pure speculation. Could he recruit? It’s all speculation on my part, but knowing what I know of him peripherally, I can’t see any reason why he couldn’t win recruits over – especially if he knows how to put together a winning team from an Xs and Os standpoint. We know he can develop players, something that seemed to be lacking in our current team. He’s developed NBA players to thrive among the best players in the world. If he can develop college players to succeed in the NBA, I’d be shocked if kids didn’t want to play for him. Coach K seemed a little too old-school (hard-nosed) for today’s kids. Some were ok with his style, others weren’t and transferred out. But I think his old-school reputation made it difficult for K to recruit. (Yes he has landed some ballers. I get it. But he’s also lost out on some too – Lohner, for one). It’s one person’s opinion, but if you heard Hanno Mottola’s interview, he talked about how approachable Jensen is as a person. Mottola deals with recruiting kids every day in his overseas program and he’s confident that Jensen could recruit, no prob. This is a gamble I’d be willing to take. If he wants to recruit, I’d wager he’s going to be extremely successful.
3) “Jensen isn’t a super-star hire…” – he isn’t well known in the collegiate coaching circles because he’s spent much of the last decade in the NBA. So the national media won’t throw a confetti party when the U holds a press conference. Would they have thrown a party for us anyway? I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. Irregardless, they’ll have to watch US party when we cut down the nets.
As you can see, I’m all in on the Jensen idea. I’d love to have him return as our HC. I think he’s well worth the risk.
Sincerely,
-the Huntsman Center Hooligan
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