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[GameForAnyFuss]

Sorry, it’s 100% portal for me. The benefits of upperclassmen are amplified in basketball. The increased maturity, ability to cope with pressure, and the adult body are critical.

Unless we’ve got a sure-fire prospect, I don’t care if we land another high school kid ever again. Pretty much nobody plays all 4 at the same school any more, so just get upperclassmen out of the portal and plan on replacing 7-8 players every year.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Update on the awful officiating from last night: Turns out the ref who was missing all the calls and T’d up Craig after he told the guy he’d missed two in a row, was former BYU-Provo Campus baseball player and baseball coach Mike Littlewood. There’s no way someone should ever be assigned to ref a rival school.

[GameForAnyFuss]

That was the funnest game of the year. The team played pretty well and the crowd was really into it – shades of the good old days at the Hunty. Everyone was giving it to VCU and giving it to the refs (when they deserved it, which was often). Such a blast last night.

The only negative is I’m certain Keita is going to transfer. His body language is terrible right now – did anyone see his response when he got subbed out for the last time?

[GameForAnyFuss]

This seems like a good time to repeat what I said the other day: Football success has ruined Utah fans. Now we will only spend our time and money on winners.

I see sold-out basketball arenas in Logan and Provo and I wonder how much of it is because of their garbage football programs. They see basketball season on the horizon and say “finally…something we’re good at”. We see basketball season on the horizon and say “I’m not suffering through that.”

And this is not a “chicken and egg” problem. We need fans before we’ll be successful. The top talent (which we aren’t getting today) will only come when there’s fans in the stands and money in the bag. We need people in the arena for either of those to happen.

[GameForAnyFuss]

It’s not the fact that BYU-Provo Campus lost that makes them smack-worthy. It’s the fact that they always set these sky-high expectations and always fall flat. I mean, they were seriously talking about winning the natty this year.

Look, the NCAAs are hard. These are the 64 best basketball teams in the country (in theory) and half of them go home on the first day. I will never dog on a team for losing in the first round. But I will dog on them for losing in the first round when they’ve been talking about how they’re world beaters.

[GameForAnyFuss]

6’9″ 215 lb forward. Averaged 6.6/4.1 in 21 minutes. AAC all-freshman team. He was a big target for Utah in 2023 but we missed him for Rice (???). He was born in Utah and moved when he was 9. Former ESPN Top 150 recruit. He also had offers from Houston, Texas, K State, and BYU-Provo Campus, among others.

[GameForAnyFuss]

The elephant in the room is the terrible recruiting of HS players.

The good news is, high school recruiting doesn’t matter any more. Like, not in the slightest. Every team not named UCONN will be living off transfers.

What matters now is how you recruit the portal and Smith has been OK at that. I just saw that Great Osobor (the behemoth center that led USU all year) is in the portal. Go get him, Craig!

[GameForAnyFuss]

You just described the problem with Utah fans: We don’t support a team unless it’s already a winner.

Problem is, it’s hard to create a winner without already having support. Without the cash flow and full stands, you won’t get high quality players. Did you see what the arenas at USU and BYU-Provo Campus looked like when they really stunk? They looked exactly like they looked this year.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Hmmmm…longtime U basketball fans know that we never say or write their name under any circumstances. And I’m not talking about BYU-Provo Campus.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I am not sure what needs to be done other than getting a better team.

Maybe it would help if fans started showing up.

For the record, I don’t think you’ll get a better team until after fans come. Good players will go to where there’s full arenas and good NIL deals. You don’t get those things until you have fans.