This is almost as bad as the dreaded vote of confidence a coach gets prior to being let go.
In today's Deseret News, Dr. Chris Hill was asked about the future of Utah basketball. His response was pretty obvious and damn near career ending for Giacoletti, who has failed ever since Bogut bolted for the NBA after the '05 season.
"I have to acknowledge all of us are disappointed in where the program is right now," Hill said. "It's been tough for all of us -- the players, coaches -- all of us in the program."
Clearly Utah is underperforming here and even Hill ain't sugarcoating the dismal play. Which I guess is a plus, since it probably means Hill is not too confident in Giacoletti's leadership. But even as bad as these comments seem for Giacoletti and his future, they can't compare to the near bombshell Hill dropped next.
"I don't want to spend any time commenting on that," he said. "It's not fair to the team right now."
Now maybe I'm reading too much into his comments, but this can't be a positive for Giacoletti. Typically an athletic director will not leave the future of a coach in doubt, mostly settling for the politically correct and acceptable answer of no real chance of a coaching change. This is done as a polite gesture to the team and coaching staff as well as it leaves an out for the athletic department if things abruptly change. However that does not appear to be case, as Hill almost hints that something will go down at the end of the season. But then again, as I said, maybe I'm reading too much into this.
Of course maybe I'm not. I think the telling part about Hill's comment is that it wouldn't be fair to the team right now if he were to discuss the future of Utah basketball. Of course it's only unfair if the future does not include Giacoletti, who recruited most of the players on this Utah team. If Hill expected Giacoletti to be around for another year, I do believe he would have come out and said so, at the behest of the players. Because like it or not, many of these kids probably still like Giacoletti, so it's difficult to see how discussing a future that consists of Giacoletti would be unfair.
I guess in the end we'll just wait and see. I hate seeing Giacoletti fail because I really like him, but sadly the personality of a coach does not win games. If this were the case, Giacoletti would be a pretty damn good coach, because from what I can tell he's a great guy.