Official Utah basketball coach candidates thread.

[TripletDaddy]

I think Bennett would be a very good hire for Utah. In my opinion the hiring of Bennett would be a much better acquisition than either Giac or Boylen was at the time of their hiring.

I agree that it is a good hire. Utah did pretty well given its inherent limitations. I dont think they could have hoped for a better hire, literally.

[Top Ute]

Sometimes I think small school coaches are also small minded coaches. A guy like Randy Bennett is probably 100% convinced that he can win the Pac-10 with the team he currently has. This is obviously not true but he believes it. So when he lands a Pac-10 job he sticks to the same game plan maybe trying to expand a bit but still not thinking large enough. He gets in what I will call WCC+ talent and in his mind he will be able to win the in the Pac-10 with that type of talent.

He will obviously be wrong and his teams will finish at the bottom of the conference. The flip side is when a coach comes in to a bigger name school and all they go after are top tier talent. They start throwing out offers to anyone and everyone all the top 100 kids get offers and sometimes this works and a few stick (see Harbaugh at Stanford) but most of the time they end up with leftovers.

You really need a coach that can think big but is also realistic.

Exhibit A in football: Joe Freakin' Glenn.

The difference in football and hoops, however, is that you see that top tier talent more often, either in the non-conference, NCAAs or even the AAU circuit. Your FCS coaches are a lot more insulated and aren't exposed to it nearly as much. In hoops, I doubt there's a coach in the country that on Oct. 15 couldn't honestly tell you within five games of W-L what their season record would be. It's clear what you need to do in hoops to improve, lest you get eaten by the sharks.

Part of Glenn's problem, IMO, is what you mention -- not that he didn't think he could win at Wyoming with Montana-FCS players, but that he couldn't differentiate between FCS talent vs. middling FBS talent. You do the right things, you can win 7-9 games with middling FBS talent to keep your job for a long time at a place like Wyoming.

[cougjunkie]

Exhibit A in football: Joe Freakin' Glenn.

The difference in football and hoops, however, is that you see that top tier talent more often, either in the non-conference, NCAAs or even the AAU circuit. Your FCS coaches are a lot more insulated and aren't exposed to it nearly as much. In hoops, I doubt there's a coach in the country that on Oct. 15 couldn't honestly tell you within five games of W-L what their season record would be. It's clear what you need to do in hoops to improve, lest you get eaten by the sharks.

Part of Glenn's problem, IMO, is what you mention -- not that he didn't think he could win at Wyoming with Montana-FCS players, but that he couldn't differentiate between FCS talent vs. middling FBS talent. You do the right things, you can win 7-9 games with middling FBS talent to keep your job for a long time at a place like Wyoming.

This is another good point, differentiating between talent.

[Flystripper]

Tieing BCS to basketball is stupid. MWC is not considered mid major. Look at the mid major reports on ESPN, mwc is never there.

yep

[DrumNFeather]

Tieing BCS to basketball is stupid. MWC is not considered mid major. Look at the mid major reports on ESPN, mwc is never there.

If the MWC had a deal with ESPN, I bet it'd be part of 'bracket busters' weekend...isn't that at least partially how they differentiate mid-majors? Do you think BYU will be hosting a 'bracket buster' game next year as part of the WCC? I do.

[Top Ute]

Utah's hit list:

1. Rose

2. R. Bennett

3. Krystko

4. Gottfried

The beauty in this list is that Bennett knows why Utah would go after Rose first, and isn't insulted if he isn't offered first. It's a win-win for him either way -- his job at St. Mary's becomes easier short-term, knowing BYU is in transition with Rose and Fredette out of the way -- or he ends up getting the Utah job.

Obviously, I'm scared about Krystko. He turned us down once already, is halfway between the NCAA and NBA doorway, and people who would recommend this hire have a piece of Hill's ear. If we go NBA, he's the odds-on favorite to get the job. If the top two turn us down, it's between Krystko and Gottfried, IMO.

[MartyFunkhouser]

and just another reason I hate Utah. Once again, and I know I said this before, but this conference was on the verge of greatness. Positive press from every direction. One step away from Big 7 and I believe that would have come when the MWC deal with it's current tv partners ended, and they went with ESPN.

Stupid Utes.

If my choices were same money in the MWC and BCS auto-qualifier status or the Pac-12, I would take the MWC. That was far too big of a risk though to take. The Pac-12 was the sure thing, money and tv deal wise, and the MWC was still a risk. We took the sure thing.

[Flystripper]

I think the argument could be made (especially this year) for several of the listed conferences being better than the big 6...and RPI states that to be a fact. I'm speaking strictly from that BCS - NON-BCS or Mid Major label that all of those conferences have.

For example, UVA is a BCS school, but right now it probably sits least 5th behind George Mason, ODU, VCU, and Richmond as far as basketball supremecy in the state of Virginia...and maybe 6th with the Hokies in the mix. But UVA's coach won't go to any of those schools. I think that given the opportunity, some of those coaches would go to UVA. (Mason's coach turned down Providence and Seton Hall after its final four run).

I have never seen MWC discussed as a mid major in basketball. That does not mean that there hasn't been an occasional football idiot that attempted to talk basketball who made this mistake, but basketball people (bilas, katz, Dickie V, etc etc) never make this mistake.

[Coach McGuirk]

If the MWC had a deal with ESPN, I bet it'd be part of 'bracket busters' weekend...isn't that at least partially how they differentiate mid-majors? Do you think BYU will be hosting a 'bracket buster' game next year as part of the WCC? I do.

MWC's current standing and that of WCC and BYU next year have nothing to do with the other. And no, if the MWC had a deal with ESPN, it wouldn't have been the weekend before. It wasn't when they were with ESPN.

[Flystripper]

If the MWC had a deal with ESPN, I bet it'd be part of 'bracket busters' weekend...isn't that at least partially how they differentiate mid-majors? Do you think BYU will be hosting a 'bracket buster' game next year as part of the WCC? I do.

I bet you would be wrong on this but there is no way we will know.

[Coach McGuirk]

If my choices were same money in the MWC and BCS auto-qualifier status or the Pac-12, I would take the MWC. That was far too big of a risk though to take. The Pac-12 was the sure thing, money and tv deal wise, and the MWC was still a risk. We took the sure thing.

I know. But it was so close.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Utah's hit list:

1. Rose

2. R. Bennett

3. Krystko

4. Gottfried

The beauty in this list is that Bennett knows why Utah would go after Rose first, and isn't insulted if he isn't offered first. It's a win-win for him either way -- his job at St. Mary's becomes easier short-term, knowing BYU is in transition with Rose and Fredette out of the way -- or he ends up getting the Utah job.

Obviously, I'm scared about Krystko. He turned us down once already, is halfway between the NCAA and NBA doorway, and people who would recommend this hire have a piece of Hill's ear. If we go NBA, he's the odds-on favorite to get the job. If the top two turn us down, it's between Krystko and Gottfried, IMO.

That really is a nice hit list if that is who we are looking at. I don't really have a strong preference among the 4 and can be persuaded that any of the 4 are the best hire.

[Top Ute]

If my choices were same money in the MWC and BCS auto-qualifier status or the Pac-12, I would take the MWC. That was far too big of a risk though to take. The Pac-12 was the sure thing, money and tv deal wise, and the MWC was still a risk. We took the sure thing.

You are a fool. There is no sensible justification for taking the MWC over the Pac-10/12.

[MartyFunkhouser]

You are a fool. There is no sensible justification for taking the MWC over the Pac-10/12.

If the money is the same and we are a BCS auto-qualifier, I take it because I like our traditional rivalries that we have developed over years of playing in this conference and the greater likelihood of being able to dominate the conference.

That being said the money was never going to be the same and if it were the same, it is still likely we make the move for academic purposes and I acknowledge that it would absolutely be the right decision.

[Goatnapper'96]

Exhibit A in football: Joe Freakin' Glenn.

The difference in football and hoops, however, is that you see that top tier talent more often, either in the non-conference, NCAAs or even the AAU circuit. Your FCS coaches are a lot more insulated and aren't exposed to it nearly as much. In hoops, I doubt there's a coach in the country that on Oct. 15 couldn't honestly tell you within five games of W-L what their season record would be. It's clear what you need to do in hoops to improve, lest you get eaten by the sharks.

Part of Glenn's problem, IMO, is what you mention -- not that he didn't think he could win at Wyoming with Montana-FCS players, but that he couldn't differentiate between FCS talent vs. middling FBS talent. You do the right things, you can win 7-9 games with middling FBS talent to keep your job for a long time at a place like Wyoming.

I disagree. I think he could differentiate he just couldn't land enough of them in Laramie. I think it prepostrous that a coach who has been coaching the sport that long is unable to identify legitimate talent. I find in more plausible that the overwhelming majority of the highly talented kids were not interested in him playing them a song the piano man.......