Burgess gone back TDS

[homer]

Basketball needs a MAJOR $$ infusion.

[NarfUte]

Success in football drives the bus – if it means basketball burns as a result…

[FountainofUte]

It’s totally fine and feasible to be good at both football and basketball without sacrificing football.

Regardless, our near future is set in stone…

Smith is screwed, next year is going to hurt, then he’s gone 11 months from now and we do this crazy hire train all over again. We convince Alex Jensen to pull a Kevin Young, or we hire Burgess away as our HC, or we pull a USU and go get a hot up-and-coming coach capable of running a D1/P5 program that has no business sucking as much as ours does.

[NarfUte]

Sure it’s feasible, but we can’t get enough bball NIL to hit a mid P4 level. If the sacrifice is that NIL money is going to football, it’s a net +

[FountainofUte]

How is Utah State Doing it? Do they spend more on hoops NIL than Utah?

Our basketball program is DOA. Honestly, with this Burgess move – (he left being an assistant at Utah to be an assistant at BYU!!!! Are you efffffing kidding me!!??) — I think our program is more dead than it was with Giac or Boylen’s lows. At this point we absolutely should have held onto Krystko. We’ve gone nowhere but backwards with the Smith hire. Unbelievable.

I’m not convinced that we’re so far behind in NIL that we can’t put a competent program together. I’m not saying we have to be Kansas, Arizona, or whatever, but why can’t we be as good as Utah State? Arizona State? Washington State? These teams are competent and make the tourney now and again.

[NarfUte]

Utah would have made the tourney if they played in the MWC last year – possibly would have been the regular season champ so I don’t get that argument. It costs much more to be in a power conference in MBB, NIL wise

Our biggest basketball benefactor decided his billions should go toward solving a massive societal issue. Byus biggest benefactor is a bro who likes bball

[RustyShackleford]

At least Larry could recruit

[UTEopia]

Burgess made a smart move. He is leaving a program that has an HC who will be gone next year and joining a coach with a 7 year deal.
I don’t see Burgess as the next HC at Utah whether he had stayed or left. You don’t promote an assistant in a losing program to HC of that program.
Utah basketball is as dead as it could be. I wanted Giac, Boylen, Larry and Smith to have long term success. It didn’t happen with any of them.

I feel bad for the players. Should they just fire Smith now? Should they release all of the players from their scholarships now so that they can try to find a landing spot?

[The Miami Ute]

The earliest Smith will get fired is at the end of next season. And that’s only if the Utes crap the bed during their inaugural Big XII season. If they have a season similar to this past one, Smith will continue to run the show on the Hill. Personally, again unless the Utes implode spectacularly next season, I don’t think Harlan cans Smith until a fifth season without going to the NCAAs.

[FountainofUte]

I agree, but the way things are going it’s a darn near guarantee that they’re going to crap the bed next year. Smith is a dead man walking. The next 11 months are a formality. I get that we kinda have to just ride it out until next March because any other move would be even worse than the present reality, but it’s already bleak.

Harlan, or maybe Randall, has to figure out how this sinking ship is going to be salvaged. And it’s sinking hard and fast.

I can say, for all of the ups and downs of this program in the last 20 years, I think this moment right here, right now is the lowest it’s felt to me. And that includes when Jimmer was dropping 50 on us in our own house making half court shots while the upper bowl of blue howled on. Like, my “hope meter” is in the negatives for this program right now. And it’s weird how my hope has lowered with each year of Smith. It’s not supposed to go like that with a new hire, right?

Like, we knew this year would be a peak year with BC, and the best we managed was an NIT run with an almost guaranteed slide back next year unless we start to see Smith-era trends literally reverse course.

It’s going to be painful to watch this program unavoidably slide into a deeper hole next season and knowing there’s literally nothing that can be done. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion.

[D T]

Don’t fret, we’re about to make a CFP run in King Football!!

[The Miami Ute]

Not going to tell you how to feel but saying that this is the lowest the program has been in the last 20 years, I think, is recency bias. Personally, as a Utah fan, the lowest I’ve ever felt was during Giacoletti’s and Boylen’s last years. Those teams really, really stunk.

Who knows…the way everyone is thinking that next season is going to be a disaster, maybe the Utes surprise us. It wouldn’t take much…

[FountainofUte]

Not for me. With Giac and Boylen it still felt like we were a firing/hiring away from getting back on track.

I don’t feel that this time.

I really felt like our stock was about to soar when LK took us to the Sweet 16. I had no idea that was going be the beginning of an 8-year-and-counting crash. Utah basketball was Utah basketballing again. How short lived that was.

There is something institutionally wrong with mbb. I don’t believe letting Smith go will fix us alone. I no longer believe that Jensen or Bryant would be a sure cure for our ills. Heck, I almost don’t want to see either of them take the job because I respect them too much. This time it feels out of our control. There’s no John Huntsman there to bail anyone out. NIL is out of control. No one actually in charge knows what’s wrong or how to fix it.

Our way out is this: someone’s got to figure out the business and culture side of mbb. That includes NIL. That HAS TO get on track. That same person has to figure out crappy concessions, the harm of the curtains, etc., etc., etc. THEN (and also)…

We need a disruptive hire. We need a Majerus. Not in that sense that we need a little basketball savant. But we need to think outside of the box. And we need this coach to think outside the box. A traditional, safe hire isn’t going to fix us. Our problems are too big for that.

We need someone who’s crazy like a fox. Who can see problems uniquely and fix them in ways in which they’ve never been addressed. Someone who can sell manure as if its gold. Someone who can envision Utah basketball as something its never been before. Looking backwards cannot help us at this point.

[The Miami Ute]

There are guys out there who would be disruptive hires. I just don’t think that Harlan is the guy to get them. I think we all saw that when he hit the easy button and just went an hour up the road to hire Smith.

[Tony (admin)]

Fountain I’m going to hire you as my speech writer 

[MDUte]

This is kind of funny…

Alex Jensen, you’re our only hope pic.twitter.com/NVPHqA1vH6

— MUSSEMERITUS (@MUSSemeritus) May 1, 2024

[RedRocks]

Utah hired Craig Smith away from Utah State…

[Utah#1]

That was mistake #1! Stay away from Utah schools!

[Charlie]

For the near future, the money pumped into TDS’s BB program by Ryan Smith will make competing with them quite difficult without our own Huntsman…

[The Miami Ute]

Yeah, the way things are now, if BYU was a generic, non-denominational private school (like a Miami or USC), there’s no way that Utah would be able to compete with them and Smith’s financial doping. They kind of screw themselves by having all students have to abide by the Church Educational System Honor Code instead of being a typical university.

[//r00t4Utes]

Links are always good.

But yeah, this sucks for the U
247 link

[Utah#1]

Craig Smith has failed to win on the road and keep his top two assistance. Utah’s athletic department has failed the MBB program by keeping him. BYU is determined to outshine Utah by any and all means necessary, even if it means, taking one of our top assistance coaches who left his alma mater to possibly coach the same position at its rival. How pathetic is that?! Apparently, Utah’s athletic department isn’t doing enough to keep the MBB program competitive! Out of the two programs, football reigns supreme, but lets not neglect the next important program, MBB. I personally don’t think BYU’s new head MBB coach is all that. He maybe a very good coach, but I don’t think he’s everything BYU’s advertising. Will see in a few years, but this should be a wake up call for Craig Smith and the athletic department. Don’t make local hires in the state of Utah, look outside and do your due diligence! Do your homework and make it work by bringing in a solid coach. Maybe go after Gonzaga’s head coach? Go UTES!

[Trailgoat]

Harlan needs to go. Look at his two big hires at Utah (Farden and Smith) combined with his history at USF. Educate me on what Harlan has done to better the Utah athletic program that wasn’t already in place or in motion during Chris Hill’s tenure? First red flag for me was Harlan parading himself out if front of the Ken Garff donation and RES remodel that was pretty much shored up before Harlan was hired.

I agree, football drives athletics. Utah is in a very critical position moving into the next 3-5 years needing strong leadership at all levels representing the University athletic department at the table. I have confidence in Randall truly a Utah Man at heart. Harlan seems to be a liability during a very critical time moving ahead for the University.

[chinngiskhaan]

Baseball has been better under Harlan. He hired that coach. Also, he hired Farden’s replacement, who did very well. You are way off base IMO.

[//r00t4Utes]

Pretty sure it’s been Trailgoat’s prerogative to post negatively about Harlan, I could be wrong as there are a couple of posters who are. And it is definitely his right to post and have whatever his opinion might be. It’s good to have opposing views and opinions for sure.

However, I also want to point out that I believe Farden was the next in line and recommended by the Marsden’s. And by all accounts was looked at as a good hire, how it ended obviously not good. So not sure that’s the bone to pick if you’re looking to make him look bad.

[MDUte]

I don’t have any inside knowledge one way or the other about Harlan. But after spending a lot time on UteZone (247 Sports site) the past couple of years, there was an awful lot of smoke around Harlan from people who seemed to be “in the know” (based on their track record of posting, similar to Onlyu). Again, not sure if Harlan is great or terrible for the U of U. But it’s an ongoing concern.

I will say that I believe we’re better off having continuity in our top leadership (Randall, Harlan, Whitt) at this time with so much uncertainty surrounding the future landscape of CFB and therefore College athletics. Everything seems to be happening on an accelerated timetable with the collapse of the P12 and with the ACC looking like it’s on the brink of a similar fate. I don’t think it would be in Utah’s best interest to have any drastic changes in leadership while trying to do everything possible to best position the U of U from not getting left behind.

[EagleMountainUte]

Harlan needs to go. He can take Smith with him.
Embarrassing really.

[OldAsDirtUte]

Wasn’t it just a few months ago we were hailing Harlan for saving us from the PAC-12 debacle, getting us a prime landing spot?

[MDUte]

Oh geez…if the board was giving Harlan credit for Utah moving to the B12 that would be misplaced. Utah was always the crown jewel of the B12/Yormark’s dream scenario for expansion. Harlan didn’t land Utah in the B12. It was always a last resort option that was open to Utah.

[The Miami Ute]

That’s exactly right. Utah was always going to find a life raft after the PAC imploded. The problem is that the raft they found was basically the floor of offers.