Blaine Taylor, not a candidate, gushes over Utah job

You’re right. He’s not been contacted by Utah. Has been interviewed by Wyoming and had some brief discussion with North Carolina State. But the team he focuses on is the team that hasn’t even shown any interest in him.

Don’t you find that a bit odd? When was the last time you’ve heard a current head coach speak so highly of the Utah basketball program. I’m serious. Give me a quote from Randy Bennett, Trent Johnson, Lon Kruger and other potential candidates that, to a local paper, said anything about the Utah job, let alone how much respect they have for them.

Here’s a hint: You won’t find any of that. No coach, during this search or the last, has been this consistently high on the Utah job.

Has had two teams make the final four in the past decade, so they must being something right.

Because right now, it appears Larry Krystkowiak, who won some games in the Big Sky, appears to be the front-runner…

You seem to be pushing Krystkowiak at every chance. I’m not sold on him. Nothing you say is going to sell me on a guy who’s been a head coach only two years at the college level.

It has nothing to do with Montana and everything to do with Krystkowiak. I am not sold on a guy who’s only coached five years in college. It just does not excite me. It just does not make me feel confident in that hire.

If you disagree and think Krystkowiak will not only win here, but win big – great! I wish I had the same feeling as you. But I don’t. I see too many red flags that turn me off of this hire. And for a program that has, the last six years, produced some awful seasons, I don’t know if we can take another whiff here.

Let me tell you something: two years ago, the Utes were coming off a fantastic two-year stretch. If any fan had popped on over to Block U or Utefans and asked whether we liked Jim Boylen or if we were enthused about Boylen, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t.

You would have heard that he took a team that won 14 and 11 games the two years prior to his arrival and upped that winning to 18 and then 24 in his first two seasons. You would have heard that he took a team that had finished with back-to-back losing conference records and managed to win the Mountain West title in his second year.

Every Ute fan was high on Boylen because he came into a losing situation and saw instant success.

Where are we now? Exactly where we were four years ago. Boylen couldn’t sustain that success. Boylen turned around and went 14-17 and 13-18 the last two seasons.

Just because Krystkowiak has two good seasons to his name at Montana does not do anything for me. Because we were there two years ago and it turned out badly for us. That is not to say Krystkowiak is a Boylen Clone. Or would fail.

But there is no evidence, beyond your wishful thinking, that he can see success beyond a two-year stretch.

I wrote some articles on Taylor in 2007 where he said similar things.

But I also found it interesting he doesn’t mention Wyoming, North Carolina State or any other open gig and does, you know, single out Utah. That’s exactly what he is doing in this article. We know he’s not a candidate here. He knows he’s not a candidate and yet, he still brings up the program.

Of course, no coach is going to come out and say, “damn, I want that job soooo much…”

They’ve got to be pretty coy about it. Maybe I am reading between the lines here – but I think Taylor would take the job in a heartbeat.

Look no further than Majerus’ stint at St. Louis.

I don’t think Majerus has forgotten how to coach. He’s still one of the greatest basketball minds in college basketball history. Yet he doesn’t have the horses at St. Louis and because of it, they had a 19-loss season this year (Majerus’ worst of his career).

To put that into context: Majerus’ Utes, from 1996-1999, four seasons, only managed 20 losses total.

But we had talent. Those were some of the most talented teams in Utah basketball history.

Is Krystkowiak a good coach? I don’t doubt that. But can recruit? Can he bring the talent to Utah needed to win big here?

I’m not sure. And there is no evidence, with his short stint at Montana, that he can.

With LDS General Conference being held this weekend, it’s possible those who would sign off on Rose’s extension are tied up with that.

That could explain the no-news since it was reported he had an extension to sign

He was an assistant coach under Jerry Pimm and a head coach at Granger High back in the 70s.

But maybe that’s what has hurt him. He believes he knows what is right and maybe, in some way, he does. But he’s not soliciting outside opinion when it comes to the basketball hires. I think it would do the program good to hire a sports agency to vet and pick the right candidate. Then shorten the list to two or three candidates and have Hill go from there.

He can’t help it.