Utah's long national nightmare continues - Rams destroy Utes in SLC 65-50.

by JazzyUte on Feb 3, 2010 8:30 PM MST in Basketball

I'll say it - the most embarrassing loss of the Jim Boylen era. Utah got manhandled by by the freakin' CSU Rams. Colorado State! Remember when they were the butt of so many jokes? Well that's our Utes now, folks. In fact, Tim Miles seems to have turned that program around rather quickly (they're 4-4 in Mountain West play).

But what this loss means more than anything is that Utah isn't getting any better. It's now February and they're every bit as bad as they were in November. Absolutely zero improvement suggests this whole rebuilding effort is going to be longer and deeper than any of us had ever imagined (how's a seven year plan sound?).

Ugh. Inexcusable loss by a team that should be showing some improvement. Instead, I fear they're regressing. By late-February, we might not even field a team.

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ugh..

at least the jazz are playing well so they can take up all my basketball time and so don’t have to watch the utes

by utahmanami on Feb 4, 2010 12:46 AM MST reply actions

What is the problem?

Is it the lack of talent?, bad chemistry? bad coaching? what are your thoughts Jazzy?

by GambitUte on Feb 4, 2010 11:17 AM MST reply actions

I'm stumped as to what the problem is.

I don’t think Boylen is a bad coach. What he did last year convinced me he’s okay. But is he a good coach? That’s the question. I think utahmanami mentioned a few games back Boylen was a lot like McBride and I’ve said as much before. He might be. Unfortunately, Utah basketball isn’t Utah football circa 1990. McBride got a way with a lot because he was the first coach in the modern era to be consistently okay.

Well we expect more from basketball. Lynn Archibald wasn’t bad at Utah. He finished with a winning record. Yet he was fired because the program just wasn’t at the level we expect as fans. Gardner, Pimm and Majerus were constantly getting Utah to the to tournament and producing deep runs. Archibald couldn’t and Giacoletti only did it once.

So that’s where I’m stumped. Is Boylen just an average coach? Maybe. If that’s the case, he won’t cut it at a program like Utah. We need good coaches capable of producing very good teams. Th Mountain West, in my opinion, has three such coaches right now: Steve Alford (who has a far younger team than Utah and is ranked in the top-25), Dave Rose (who is the best coach in the conference) and Lon Kruger. Just barely missing the cut would be Steve Fisher.

Boylen isn’t in that class. Maybe he still can be. I hope he can be. But I don’t know. If it’s talent, we’ll find out more next year. But I fear since there is no progression with this team, it goes beyond talent.

Basically, I think we’ll have our answer either way next season.

by JazzyUte on Feb 4, 2010 12:58 PM MST up reply actions