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[Trailgoat]

College basketball continues on the decline. Personally, the college BB game overall is hard to watch. As for Utah, poor free throw shooting, missed lay-ups, ball watching defense, long stretches of overall bad basketball is not fun to watch. As for talent, half the team is made up of mid to lower level D1 players.

Purely a pot stirring opinion adding to the conversation, I wondered if Krystkowiak did some behind the scenes program sabotage after getting canned from Utah. Found it odd at the time, no known coaches showed interest in the Utah coaching job. Coach K received a lot of media mileage as a national BB celebrity. Coach K did nothing more than collect a pay check his last two years at Utah while the local and national media were very defensive of the guy. His kid while at UoA took media shots at Utah’s basketball program. Harlan with a shady coaching hire past does not help the matter. Grasping at straws here considering Utah’s storied BB past, excellent facilities, and at one time a very robust fan base. Problem could be as simple as the continued decline in college BB viewership combined with Utah BB being down for so many years. B12 is not going to make it easier. Hopefully the program turns it around.

[Trailgoat]

Utah at the moment has a worse/almost equal record going into the last four conference games than last season in a league overall down (USC, UCLA, UO) compared to last year. If Utah goes 3-1, they are 10-10 in conference, same as last year to end the season. Utah is not beating UO in Eugene. Cal could be a tough out for Utah even at home. Utah should beat Stanford and OSU. 3-1 going into the P12 tourney is good momentum. That said, not a good look when the fate of your head BB coach likely depends on the outcome of the last two weeks of the season. Considering his HC hiring history at Utah and USF, I have zero confidence in Harlan hiring any coach at this point. Let’s see if the Utes can step up and get it done!

[Trailgoat]

Agree, non-playoff bowl games are a holiday money grab for the networks and coaches. Most schools lose money or barely break even on the non-impact bowl games. If Utah does not make the play-off I doubt there’s much interest from fans and players to play in some meaningless bowl game especially after the NU bowl game. No way a healthy Rising, Kuithe, and many others are going to play in a bowl game outside the play-offs. NIL will also be in play. KW gets a nice bonus check for going to a bowl game, why not the players as well? No pay = no play. Transfer portal Barnes at QB tells the story; 8-13 for 55 yards, 2 INTs, 5 sacks. Barnes head was out the door-no different than the employee showing up for work during the last two weeks after putting in notice for a new job. After watching the NU game, no way would I go to another bowl game. If the players don’t show-up, why should the fans? I know this sounds very Eeyoreish, its where college football is headed.

[Trailgoat]

IMO, Harlan won’t stick around long enough to fire Smith next year. Tough situation for the BB team moving to the B12 next season. Harlan’s years of riding the Chris Hill bandwagon are fading. Chris Hill was not perfect, I get it. Harlan’s had to make two big hires so far in his time at Utah, Farden and Smith. Harlan jumped ship when things got dicey at USF taking heat for not backing his head football coach and academic fraud with the BB team under Orlando Antiqua, Harlan hired and then fired. Harlan hired football HC Charlie Strong who also got fired after Harlan left with a poor record and NCAA compliance issues under Harlan’s watch. In general, fans at USF were not sad to see him leave and it was perceived he was a short timer from the day he started. Harlan was not well liked by UCLA fans either for allegedly lying about surveying students on plans for a Pauley Pavilion renovation. The guy sounds too slippery to me with all of his name dropping and self promotion. Somewhat odd him going to social media announcing he’s not interested in the UofA AD job? Seems weird to me coming from an AD. I’m sure there’s a lot of good he’s done, his record of hiring coaches is not impressive.

[Trailgoat]

Agree MD, KW making one last run this year. Ride off in his truck with Rising, Ludwig, Kuithe, and Bernard. All of the above and others I am missing have given their all for the UofU program. Good time to call it a career considering the volatility ahead facing college sports. Hopefully KW stays visible in the Ute football consulting role supporting Scalley as noted in his contract.

Not sure why a QB good enough to start some where else would come to Utah. Ride with Rose and Wilson. QBs coming in now will be off the back playing catch up learning Ludwigs system while taking reps from Rose and Wilson. Rose won’t stick around if Utah grabs a QB in the portal. I get game experience is important, but at this point is a worthy QB looking for a team to be a back up knowing Wilson is the future really out there? Utah has created it’s own problem to an extent allowing your back-up last year to get hurt in a live scrimmage which I don’t know of one college team outside of Utah that lets their QBs go full contact live in Spring or Fall camp. Add in Utahs history of poor QB recruiting and development, here we are. Give Wilson and Rose all the back up reps and for god sakes protect your QB similar to what Oregon and UW did with their QBs. GO Utes!

[Trailgoat]

Agree, Not excited. The NIT is a side show for ESPN to make some cash filling air time during off days of the NCAA tourney. Add in at least 2-3 missed lay-ups and countless missed uncontested shots within 10 feet of the basket. Season likely ends Wednesday for Utah against Indian St basically a home game for the Sycamores at Hinkle Fieldhouse. No surprise if Devion Smith and maybe Gabe Madsen (if eligibile?) jump in the transfer portal by the weekend to test the waters. They would be dumb not to see what worth they have on the open market, Utah’s not going to bail on them during the process due to the lack of program stability.

[Trailgoat]

Good point. UNLV is the perfect investment for big money entities to dump cash for players and coaches. The location, facilities, and entertainment are all there in LV. Surprised it hasn’t happened yet, or in the works. UNLV could be the Bishop Gorman of college football. Like it or not, this is where it’s headed. In terms of fans wanting to check out of college football, Sankey, Fox, ESPN, and Pettite all know damn well they can do whatever they want and people will still tune in to the college football addiction. The booming gambling business alone has college football viewership locked in. My guess is college football is hot right now for some years to come with a generational downturn ahead. Time will tell.

[Trailgoat]

Keep Rising healthy with a game plan like UO did for Nix last season. Oline gets back on track. Can’t overlook Utah coached teams struggle playing well in big games when the target is on their back and the 1-2 games every year, usually on the road, Utah forgets to show up and play. Three losses is not going to get it done, two losses likely won’t either. Big expectations in 2024 for Utah in the CFP. Can Utah handle the spotlight pressure? Could this be another 2004 or 2008 season? Utah is overdue, the last two or less loss season was the undefeated 2008 season (excluding 2021). A lot of wildcards going into next season makes it fun!

[Trailgoat]

Painful to watch. This team struggles to play fundamental basketball. Can’t make free throws, leave a ton of easy baskets on the floor, a lot of ball watching, missed lay ups. When things start going South, the team checks out. Could not get to half time fast enough. Utes need a huge turn around if they have any chance of getting back in this thing.

[Trailgoat]

I’m sure there’s plenty of ignorance here on my part. Have seen this posted in other forums. Why in the hell are the ACC, B12, P2, sitting on their hands letting the SEC, B10 call all the shots. Gottta think there are some smart attorneys collaborating with the conferences to come up with some move or variation to shut out the SEC and B10 from all other sports including BB, especially UO, USC, UCLA, and UW out West. Let the West coast Olympic sports, basketball, baseball cook traveling East for all their games. Isolate the B10 and SEC forcing them to play each other in all sports.

I know there’s a ton of holes in this proposal, but sitting back like a bunch of gutless turds waiting for the SEC and B10 to dictate all the rules and the future of your conference and program is weak. A lot of rich, smart people in the B12, ACC, etc need start making some waves. Point is, B12, ACC and others need to get aggressive and quit waiting around for the next shoe to drop. Rant over :)!