Will Clyburn transfers to Iowa State

Giacoletti at least left Boylen with talent.

He couldn’t coach worth a lick, but it’s obvious he was a pretty good recruiter.

Now I’m not going to damn the players, because I think there is talent here. However, they haven’t played as a team. Not in the last two years, anyway. Which is why Will Clyburn can so easily leave the program without even getting to know this coaching staff. He was gone no matter who Utah brought in and that speaks volumes for the shape of the program. It speaks volumes for the situation each player has in this program.

The fact O’Brien, Hines and Watkins are all thinking of leaving suggests to me they don’t see Utah as a team. And I don’t fault them for that because it’s the coach who needs to cultivate that type of atmosphere. But when you’re on a team, and you’ve come to look at your teammates as family, the thought of leaving would not enter your mind – even if the coach you loved had just been fired.

Think back to 2002 when McBride was fired. He was beloved by every one of his players. They lifted him up onto their shoulders after beating BYU and pleaded with Dr. Hill to not let him go.

Yet many of those same players got over the firing and returned because I think McBride made Utah football about family more than anything. Those players had a reason to stay, even if they didn’t know squat about Meyer. Sure, retaining Whittingham helped – but that was just on the defensive end. Every offensive coach was new to the program and the players stayed. They stayed because UTAH meant more to them than the coach.

Sure, they loved McBride. But in the end, they stuck around because each teammate had become family to them.

Boylen recruited players and sold himself to them – not the program. And that’s fine to an extent because it gets his foot into their door. But he failed at creating a team. Instead, Utah these past two years was nothing more than five guys running around the court doing their own thing.

Just look at the end of the New Mexico game Utah won down in Albuquerque. It worked out – but was there any structure there? No. Just a prayer shot from Chris Hines that somehow found its way into the hoop.

Again, that isn’t faulting the players. It’s the responsibility of the coaching staff to make each player work as a team.

That never happened this year. Now it’s left to Krystkowiak to convince these players to stay – many of whom who have no reason to stay.