Why We Should Do Better in Football and Why Basketball Has Peaked

[Anonymous]

The local football talent here in Utah really is amazing. Alternatively, the basketball talent is very poor.

NFL:

Penei Sewell – 2021 Top 5 Pick
Zach Wilson – 2021 Top 5 Pick

Cody Barton
Jackson Barton
Julian Blackmon
Garett Bolles
Leki Fotu
Chase Hansen
Nate Orchard
John Penisini

Jamaal Williams
Harvey Langi

Tyler Larsen
Patrick Scales
Nick Vigil

Kaden Ellis
Alohi Gilman
Porter Gustin
Andre James
Marcus Kemp
Bryan Mone
Dalton Shultz
Xavier Sua-Filo
N0ah T0g1a1

NBA:

Frank Jackson

??? Anyone else? David Stockton? Does he count?

I understand that NFL rosters have 5x more openings, but that means there should be at least 5 or 6 NBA players from local high schools given there are at least 25 NFL players from local high schools. I’m probably missing several.

A lot of high NFL draft picks from local high schools, this year two in the top 5, maybe even top 3. Good grief.

Looking at it another way:

Utah’s population is about 1% of the US population. There are 450 roster spots in the NBA, if Utah high schools had average basketball talent we’d see 4-5 players from Utah high schools in the NBA at any given time.

Is that the case? Not even close. Frank Jackson is barely on a roster. Anyone else? Anyone else in the last 10 years?? Collinsworth for a few games?

There are 1700 roster spots in the NFL. If Utah high schools had average football talent we’d see about 17 players in the NFL at any given time. There are 25 in the NFL.

Utah high school basketball talent is 20% of average. Utah high school football is 150% of average.

Utah Mr Basketball Award Winners:

Each year the Utah Mr. Basketball award is given to the person chosen as the best high school boys basketball player in the U.S. state of Utah, in the United States. Class 5A was introduced in 1994. The award has been given since 1987 by the Deseret Morning News. Winners are chosen by the Utah Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (UAPSSA).

The award dates back to 1988, there’s only ONE player who was a routine starter in the NBA. Shawn Bradley. Not exactly a stud. Most of the list is players who were below average college players.

I can’t find a list of Utah Mr Football Award winners, it would be interesting to look at, I’d bet we see a lot of NFL players.

Majerus’ run was made possible by some solid local players he didn’t have to work to get. When he took over, he walked right into Josh Grant, who was better than any local high school prospect since then. Johnsen brothers and many other local talents were also a huge part of Majerus’ success.

Jerry Pimm had Tom Chambers and Danny Vranes. Two local players who were both NBA starters.

It’s not that Giac, Boylen, and Larry have ignored local talent in favor of elsewhere, it just isn’t here anymore, it ran dry a long time ago.

Some names in the Top 25 scoring leaders in Utah high school bball:

Jaxon
Talon
Rad
Mason
Collin
Kelby
Lander
Ryder
Trei
Krue
Britton
Brash
Race
Nico
Treven
Treyton
Ridge
Jaxton
Rexton

Just for comparison, here are the names of Gonzaga’s local high school players from Washington and Oregon, the low hanging fruit Mark Few is picking:

Matthew
Corey
Evan
Ben
Dominick
Will

Just sayin.

Local talent during our glory years:

Tom
Jeff
Danny
Ben
Mark
Drew

Just sayin.

Folks expecting ncaa tourney invites when our local recruiting pool is full of Talon, Rad, Cutter, and a million spellings of Jaxon, get real, let’s be real here.

[AlohaUte]

Meh, there’s tons of all kinds of talent for football and basketball in the Bay Area and Cal sucks at both. I think it’s far less local talent pool (which certainly is a minor factor) and far more coaching and program culture. It’s not like Utah was any more packed with local BBall talent in the 1990’s than they are today, yet the Utes were amazing then.

[Anonymous]

You made two statements, the first supports my argument, the second is wrong. 

Cal has terrible coaches, they suck at basketball and football despite all kinds of local talent. All the teams in the Top 25 have at least 20% of their roster filled out by kids who grew up within a 200 mile radius of the school. 

Utah’s basketball roster in the 90s is a good example of this. There was five players that grew up within 200 miles of SLC on the 1997-1998 team. The state of Utah did have a lot better high school basketball players back then. 

Larry K does not have a single P5 player to choose from locally, the local talent is absolute garbage. I’m sorry if folks have boys playing high school ball now, but the top high school girls teams in the country would slay our boys teams. 

[alcesute]

Majerus worked much of his magic with out-of-town talent, what are you talking about!?!?!

He did have some local recruits, particularly early on, that were key, Soto, Grant, et al, but his key players were usually west coast or foreign recruits, all of whom he was able to land when he was recruiting into the WAC or the MWC.

There were some great local players who played dominant roles in the 80’s under Pimm, but even Pimm and Gardner before him got many critical players for their programs from out of state.

No one expects Coach K to live and die off local basketball talent, that would be insane.  

But, nice try Mrs. Krystkowiak!

[MDUte]

So true! Majerus’s best teams were led by:

Keith Van Horn (So. California)

Andre Miller (So. California)

Mike Doleac (Oregon)

[Anonymous]

You conveniently left out Alex Jensen and Britton Johnsen, both local talent which doesn’t exist anymore. 

[NarfUte]

Jamaal Williams is from California, so not sure why he’d count as a Utah product.. 

[MDUte]

No I didn’t. I said Majerus’s best teams were “led” by those 3 players. Alex and Britton were role players on those teams. In 1999 Alex was the guy. And Britton became the guy after that.

[Anonymous]

Wow, so you’re saying some of Majerus’ teams had role players from in-state and some even were led by in-state players….thanks for helping me prove my point. Larry has zero talented in-state players to benefit from. 

[MDUte]

All you proved was that you’re wrong. Our very best teams when Majerus was coaching featured Keith Van Horn and Andre Miller/Mike Doleac. All of which came from out of state. His teams that featured local players were not his best teams. And you’re stupid to compare football recruiting to basketball recruiting. 1 or 2 superstar recruits in basketball as referenced above can put you into the NCAA tournament. Not the case in football, not even close. It takes a much larger team effort to compete at the highest levels of football with many more highly talented recruits.

[MDUte]

Sorry for calling you stupid Mrs. Krystkowiak, I’m sure you’re a nice person. But your husband is an awful coach and should be s*%# canned immediately.

[Anonymous]

You’re saying some of Majerus’ teams had role players from in-state and some even were led by in-state players….thanks for helping me prove my point. Larry has zero talented in-state players to benefit from. 

[ironman1315]

Weren’t you banned moose?