[Trailgoat]

This late in the portal game, Utah BB has little choice to fill a roster. AJ’s going to take some risk with bad attitude talent. He’s dealt with plenty of mental hopscotch with players in the G league and NBA. He will set expectations with players and not tolerate toxic behavior. Probably a last chance for this kid. Alex and his staff have deep connections to the NBA. Howard screws this stent up he won’t have a chance in the NBA. Next couple seasons are full rebuild. AJ may have a bigger challenge dealing with the dysfunctional athletic and school leadership getting in the way. Hopefully the new BB GM tells Harlan to keep his mouth shut and focus his time on going to tennis matches, and having lunch with the golf team.

[Trailgoat]

Alex must have a solid euro connection after all the years he played pro over seas.

[Trailgoat]

Man, GM did everything asked of him and more on a crappy team with very little help. Madsen on a team with better talent would have been fun to watch. Ball handling and driving to the basket is not his game. When no other player can handle the ball, drive to the basket or make lay ups someone has to step in. Watched the BYU game and spots of other games during the season, nothing really changed with or without Smith. Asst coach did a good job coaching up the players to close out the season strong. Ausar, Dawes, and Wahlin had incentive to play hard if they want to build NIL value to get picked up by other teams. Not sure why they wouldn’t shop around for a stable team with a decent NIL deal.

[Trailgoat]

Agree he’s a loss if it’s your 3rd or maybe 2nd talented player in the WR rotation. I have a hard time endorsing ZW as a top level play maker loss based on a breakout game against UCF and 15 days of Spring football. I was somewhat surprised ZW, per KW, emerged as the #1 WR considering WR was a top portal priority.

[Trailgoat]

Good point RU. If Utah’s #1 WR going into next season compiles a whopping 10 catches for 101 yards in two games last season, 70% of the production against an unmotivated 4-8 UCF team. WR recruiting and utilization is an inherent program problem that has not changed and never will under KW’s leadership. This is really nothing new.

[Trailgoat]

Maybe a dumb question. What is the ROI bucking up $1M for a kid to play 1 maybe 2 years? Hopes of a championship? Pride seeing the FB or BB make it to the playoff and March Tourney? Seems to me this is all fun money.

[Trailgoat]

Man, cleaning house might be the right move for AJ, coaches included. Plenty of players in the portal as good and better than what’s left over. The entire program needs a reset.

[Trailgoat]

Every Utah player should test their market value. Utah is a huge risk going into next season. Smart move jumping into the portal before Mondays game to get more PR on Fox Sports. If Dawes finds a program with established NIL, a stable culture, and in the mix for NCAA postseason play next season, it will be hard to keep him. Worked out well for Smith and Keita.

[Trailgoat]

Solid post MU. Seems some schools are already on it or at least out in front of everyone else. Houston from a BB perspective is doing something right. Kelvin Sampson with solid NIL support has turned Houston into a power house. UH’s been making deep runs into the NCAA tourney the last 6 years straight.

Agree on expectations. Looked back to see when Jensen and Miller overlapped. Holy sh$%, looking at the rosters of Majerus teams from the early-mid 90s to 2000 at Utah. If I counted correctly, which is a stretch :), 2-3 of the late 90s teams had 5-6 NBA level players. RM played the rag tag player coach speak game in the media, but he recruited and developed a lot of very talented basketball players.

[Trailgoat]

Agree MU. The JG interviews seem calculated right after the announcement. Josh was no BS. Solid interview. Football needs a stand up player to call out what’s been going on with football instead of all the lay down local media and ex players afraid to call out the BS like JG did for BB. Harlan needs a win hire or he’s next. All the AJ noise flying over the SLC airwaves indicates to me AJ is already locked in as the new head coach. Guessing Alex’s first question was, what’s in the NIL bank for BB? Wasn’t Burgess supposed to be part of the BB legacy connection, then he bails? Wonder how the previous Ute BB players think about him jumping ship, although hard not to blame him.

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