Honest question concerning Coach K

[ProudUte]

There appears to be a number of Coach K supporters on here.  That is just fine.  I would never say you are wrong for having that opinion.

I understand that many on here don’t think he will be let go because of the buyout.  I believe that to be true too.  My question is for those who think he should stay regardless of the buyout issues – why should the Utes keep him?

I am not trying to make this a loaded question.  I am truly interested in hearing why you think we should keep him.

[Tony (admin)]

Becasue they’re going to pay him $3 million either way. His teams do show grit and don’t give up. But there are many more deficiencies than benefits IMO. 

[chinngiskhaan]

Things Larry is good at: getting his guys to play hard for most of some games. Also drawing up the occasional successful play.

things lk sucks at: recruiting the right guys. Getting the guys he does recruit to stay… and then developing them. Every last player on this team is zero percent better than when they showed up here. He can’t get open shots for the right guys on most plays. He doesn’t inspire confidence in them. So many of our players have a good year followed by another where they are afraid to screw up. This also happens mid season (pelle larsson anyone? Looked great early, now is afraid to shoot). Jones, battin, Carlson, Johnson, gach, Chapman, kuzma… all examples of this in one way or another). He can’t teach his players to break the press and/or play from ahead. Should I keep going?

[Ute Dub]

For the record, I’m not a Coach K supporter other than wanting the Utes to win, I just don’t think Utah will pull the trigger and so I’m not getting my hopes up only to be let down when no change is made.

If you make a change this year, it would be nice to do it and still be able to bring every player back because this is a good group that’s starting to get seasoned with experience. 

Also, I much prefer the much bigger and more athletic guards starting and bring Rylan Jones off the bench. It’s weird to me that Rylan Jones dad is a coach and that may be weird for personnel decisions. Bring in a new coach who brings in his own staff, without rehiring Jones dad, does Rylan stay or go?

[Charlie]

Same for Martinez.  Same for the two lined up to join next year.  Change does have impact on the status quo.  Another question may be does Plummer and Allen come back next year.  Would they have more confidence in the status quo or the unknown?  I think Plummer is likely, I think Allen still needs to work on his outside jumper.

Our next coach will want to build their own staff, and that will be a negative for more than Jones and Martinez.  I also think a new coach is likely to cause a temporary lost window in recruiting that may impact the off season portal and the incoming class.  If you were to release our #13 guy and try to pick up a center on the portal, like Lee from Arizona, you would need to be on that now and down the road.  I think he may want to stay in the Pac and Utah may just provide a good case for him.  He would be an awsome addition.

[GameForAnyFuss]

In a vacuum, I don’t think there are many people who think we should keep him based on results/merit. Personally, I would not.

However, these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. Money and contracts have to be considered. So when I post things like “Larry isn’t going anywhere, so deal with it”, that’s a statement of fact, not a statement of support. And I feel like some people interpret that as a statement of support, which it isn’t.

[ironman1315]

Right? If this was NCAA basketball 2021 he’d be gone. But this is real life. We’re cooked. 

[EagleMountainUte]

I am not a LK supporter. I do think his buyout is high enough to prevent him from being fired. So unless he leaves or unless you get the money(post COVID and murky economic future doesn’t make it seem likely) to make a better hire you give it one more year.
Even if the money is right and Harlan finds a good enough hire things probably get worst.

[Utah5410]

Another year of mediocrity will just cripple the program further. The issue is people just don’t care anymore. When fans stop caring then they’re not invested. And it doesn’t matter who the coach is or the players are. The only thing that cures that is a new winning. Real winning. LK will not do that next year. I don’t care who comes back or doesn’t. It will be the same story as this year. That’s why he needs to go now.

[CincyUte]

I would absolutely frickin’ love to see Utah basketball be successful with these coaches and the players that are in this program now.  It would be fabulous.  It may happen or it may not happen . . but either way, I’m 100% cheering for them to be successful.  I guess that makes me a fan.  I shouldn’t have to explain myself more than that.

As for all the critics of the current coaching staff: you are entitled to your opinions and you’ve made many good points that I don’t necessarily disagree with.  But your incessant, repetitive whining about our own people seriously brings this message board down. 

And to those posters who have suggested at points during the season that it would be better for Utah to LOSE in order to hasten the replacement of the current coaches: I say shame on you.

[HoosierUte]

For me it has a lot to do with his contract. The guy is getting paid a top-20 coaching salary and we arent even sniffing the tourney. He seems like a good dude and Id love to have a beer with him, or take in a Pearl Jam show.  He simply isn’t delivering the only real metric that counts. At that pay level, the expectation should be putting a team in the NCAAs more often than not. 

[FountainofUte]

I guess I’d put myself in the “supporter” camp — only because I know I’m not in the “100% fire” camp. Here’s what my ledger looks like:

The Good:
– I do think he’s a good, honest guy with a strong work ethic
– He runs a clean program, gets kids to class and graduates the ones who stay
– I think he’s a long term guy if things make sense for both sides (long-term is great if things are going well) I don’t think he’s eyeing the greener grass
– I think he has (not quite sure what the right adjective is here) good, adequate, above average basketball knowledge. He’s put in his time as a player and coach at all levels. I don’t think he’s a bad coach/chopped liver. THat was not the case with our prior two coaches.
– He does have good players in the program today that have a higher ceiling than they’ve currently reached. I genuinely think that this team should make the NCAA tourney the next two years and should probably go no worse than 2-2 in that span.

The Bad:
– His recruiting is suspect. For some reason he has a hard time bringing P5 talent to SLC, particularly when it comes to AA young men. I don’t know if that’s an LK problem, a UU problem, or a Utah/SLC problem. But it’s worrisome to me that he’s pushed his chips all in on Euro players. To me, that’s his “surrender flag” for recruiting to the U and why I think we might be screwed long term.
– Obviously his lack of NCAA tourney invites. This is a sum of his mediocre recruiting, his roster turnover, and an odd struggle to put together schedules that balance winning with respectable difficulty. Why is this so hard?
– I can’t tell if players like him. Why don’t they come? Why do they leave? I know that’s some of the culture for all teams, but many of our transfers are strange. Guys bailing well into their tenure like Jace Johnson. Guys bailing after they signed but before they played like Lohner. I get that his situation was weird, but the right coach will keep the right guys most of the time. I don’t have confidence that he has the kind of gravity that brings guys here and keeps them here. I feel bad saying that, because I like the guy. But IF that’s a problem, that’s an unfixable problem.
– I’ve not seen any evidence that we can bring in a sure-fire winner of a coach. If we fire LK, I think it’s WAY harder than the critics think to bring in an automatic upgrade. Look how hard it was even for UCLA to land their last coach. I think we have a similar disconnect between who we think we are and who we really are, the same as UCLA. Some fans are willing to roll the dice. But the way I see it, we’re going on 15 years and three coaches of mediocrity now. I want off this train but I sure as heck don’t want to see it get worse.
– I think Johnny Bryant is our answer. The problem? It’s too soon for him. I don’t think he’s ready. I think he’s still 5 or so years away from being given the keys to a program like Utah IF he even wants it (same for Alex Jensen).

[noneyadb]

LK should have been fired after losing to Brigham by 18pts.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

No he shouldn’t. BYU is an NCAA Tournament team this year. They’re projected to be a single-digit seed. Just because you hate them and think you’re superior doesn’t mean that BYU is not an NCAA Tournament team. The same can be said for Oregon State, who Utah also lost to on the road by 18 points. What I cannot stand is the disrespect some of you cast towards Utah’s opponents. Utah’s going to end up playing SIX teams who are going to make the NCAA Tournament this season. WithOUT one of those teams being Arizona, who had a good enough resume to make it but are not going because of their self-imposed post season ban. That’s a damn difficult schedule. My fear in letting Krystkowiak go is that it will lead to massive transfers out of the program, which would lead the next coach to have to start from nothing. Like he had to. How can you say his recruiting is suspect? Did he not recruit Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl, and Kyle Kuzma, who are all currently on NBA rosters? Did he not recruit Timmy Allen, Ian Martinez, Pelle Larsson, Brandon Carlsen, Mikael Jantunen, and others? All of those players were high level recruits. Frankly, I’m sick to death of people complaining. This year has shown that the best teams are the ones who have veteran players. Look at Oregon State and Colorado, who just played for the championship. Both teams are made up of veteran players, most of which are SENIORS. Well, if Utah fires their coach, Utah will likely lose most of their current roster to transfers, and they’ll have to start over once again from nothing. People need to realize that they’re playing in an extremely difficult league filled with a lot of good teams. If they keep their current roster together, they’ve got a great chance to be an excellent team next year. If Oregon State can go on a run and make the tournament, so can Utah if they keep their team together.

[MDUte]

Thanks Mrs. Krystkowiak for your passionate plea to save your husband’s job. But no, it’s already past time to put an end to the Larry K gravy train. Funny you should mention your concern about all the kids transferring out of the program if we fire him. Because we’ve already seen that happen every year since he signed his ridiculous contract extension. Thanks to Larry the fan base is already conditioned to expect a “rebuilding” year each and every season…rinse, repeat. It’s also funny you should mention NBA talent he’s recruited to the program like Kyle Kuzma. That’s even more proof of how inept Larry is at coaching and developing talent. Who would’ve known those years we had Kuz that he was a future NBA starter and challenger for rookie of the year? And thanks for pointing out that we’re not expected to beat BYU because they’re a projected low seed in the NCAA tournament. Therein lies the problem. Our rival is showing us what happens when you hire a good coach. It’s way past time that Larry should go. Fan support is at an all-time low and the only national attention given to the program is embarrassing reports about how overpaid Larry is given the results he produces. The right thing would be for Larry to just step down.