Larry Krystkowiak and the 2011-12 Utah Utes

[Hsaru]

Devil's advocate is a fancy name for troll. All you do is bellyache, in this infuriatingly pompous long winded way. At least mpfunk is kind of a sweetheart.

This is the best SU post hands down. Major kudos if it was made with self-awareness.

[Top Ute]

Devil's advocate is a fancy name for troll. All you do is bellyache, in this infuriatingly pompous long winded way. At least mpfunk is kind of a sweetheart.

That's the Seattle Ute way. Ignore the topic at hand and pull the "You're a troll!" card.

[Top Ute]

Yeah, we would have lost Bogut, just like Utah secretly settled an ADA claim by the Allreds. Talk about utter fabrications. Even as you admit that no good player Ajerus recruited left before his eligibility was up (except Bogut).

"Coach Jack is real positive, and the guys have really taken a liking to
him. He just keeps building confidence and trust between every player on
the team, and his even-handed temperament is a definite plus says standout
sophomore center Andrew Bogut. "It was hard to understand why Coach
Majerus would be so tough on the guys".

Bogut, a 7-foot native of Australia, has emerged as the nation's most
dominant post player, and was not happy with Majerus.

Giacoletti convinced Bogut to stay, despite his not being a "name" coach.

http://www.italystl.com/ra/1952.htm

[LA Ute]

Just an interesting L.A. Times piece on Ben Howland and UCLA. Looks like Howland is having trouble controlling his players too.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-...6403830.column

Oddly comforting.

[U-Ute]

#miserylovescompany

[Art Vandelay]

I know BYU was equally bad, if not worse, in their 1fer year. But were they as noncompetitive against terrible competition, as this Ute team? I honestly don't remember. I seem to recall them playing a lot of teams though then fading down the stretch. Are these kids this overmatched or have they given up already?

[LiveCoug]

I know BYU was equally bad, if not worse, in their 1fer year. But were they as noncompetitive against terrible competition, as this Ute team? I honestly don't remember. I seem to recall them playing a lot of teams though then fading down the stretch. Are these kids this overmatched or have they given up already?

BYU was probably just as awful... Looks like BYU had 5 games all year when they lost by single digits. Utah has one game so far this year with a single digit loss.

[Clark Addison]

I hope this post does not come across as gloating, as that is not my intent.

I think everyone expected the Utes to be pretty bad this year. Also, I know several of you were never sold on Krysto. For those of you who weren't down on him from the start, does the awfulness of the play so far shake your faith? I ask because of my own experience during a year like this. Back after the dark season of 1-25, I talked to a few fans who wanted to keep Tony Ingle as the coach, saying that they liked the way the team played during his tenure as the interim guy, and that he couldn't be blamed for having such a horrid team.

While I thought Tony was a great guy, and I felt bad for him, I also felt that we had given him 18 games, and he hadn't won a single one of them. As many problems as Roger Reid had, I am pretty sure he wouldn't have lost 21 games in a row. He would have found a way to beat Rice or SDSU or one of those stiffs. It's kind of the way I felt about Majerus. I wasn't a big Majerus fan, but I have always thought that if you told all the coaches in the WAC in the mid-1990s to give the worst player on their team to Majerus, he could coach them to a 10 win season.

So does the fact that Krysto hasn't really been able to get anything out of the team yet concern you? Or are the players just so terrible that there is no way to judge?

[Cutty]

So does the fact that Krysto hasn't really been able to get anything out of the team yeat concern you? Or are the players just so terrible that there is no way to judge?

The roster is as bad as I've ever seen at the D1 level. Tom Izzo couldn't win with this group. That said, the roster being depleted was partially Krystkowiak's choice. Coaches get fired all the time. You don't see this type of mass exodus ever.

The thing that concerns me is how often does a coach win 1 or 2 games in his first year and turn out to be successful? Is there any precedent for this in either football or basketball? I honestly don't know, but I kinda doubt it. Crean won 6 games and only 1 conference game his first year at Indiana, but that was off the Kelvin Sampson debacle.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

The roster is as bad as I've ever seen at the D1 level. Tom Izzo couldn't win with this group. That said, the roster being depleted was partially Krystkowiak's choice. Coaches get fired all the time. You don't see this type of mass exodus ever.

The thing that concerns me is how often does a coach win 1 or 2 games in his first year and turn out to be successful? Is there any precedent for this in either football or basketball? I honestly don't know, but I kinda doubt it. Crean won 6 games and only 1 conference game his first year at Indiana, but that was off the Kelvin Sampson debacle.

Dallas Cowboys, 1-15 in year one under Jimmy Johnson.

So now just go recruit your Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, and a handful of other hall of famers and you're good to go.

[LA Ute]

I hope this post does not come across as gloating, as that is not my intent.

I think everyone expected the Utes to be pretty bad this year. Also, I know several of you were never sold on Krysto. For those of you who weren't down on him from the start, does the awfulness of the play so far shake your faith? I ask because of my own experience during a year like this. Back after the dark season of 1-25, I talked to a few fans who wanted to keep Tony Ingle as the coach, saying that they liked the way the team played during his tenure as the interim guy, and that he couldn't be blamed for having such a horrid team.

While I thought Tony was a great guy, and I felt bad for him, I also felt that we had given him 18 games, and he hadn't won a single one of them. As many problems as Roger Reid had, I am pretty sure he wouldn't have lost 21 games in a row. He would have found a way to beat Rice or SDSU or one of those stiffs. It's kind of the way I felt about Majerus. I wasn't a big Majerus fan, but I have always thought that if you told all the coaches in the WAC in the mid-1990s to give the worst player on their team to Majerus, he could coach them to a 10 win season.

So does the fact that Krysto hasn't really been able to get anything out of the team yet concern you? Or are the players just so terrible that there is no way to judge?

I think Krysko was hired with a far different expectation than Ingle was. Tony was just an interim coach, promoted from assistant (right?) after the disastrous season had begun. Krysko's charge going in was to rebuild this thing, whatever it takes, and he's doing that. Witness the benching of Jiggly.

As for Art's post just below, I suppose it's inevitable that there will be "your horrible year was worse and more embarrassing than our horrible year" smack, but I don't know how to care about that. The two situations seem very different. I guess that with Foster and Jiggy both playing, we might have won some games, but this is not even a D1 team that's out there, for the most part. Many of this year's team will never be back in a Utah uniform after this season. What we are seeing is a deliberate demolition of a house that was falling down anyway, and its ultimate replacement with a new building, with maybe only the foundation remaining. Krysko's the architect and construction manager.

I understand the schadenfreude, sort of, and I was thinking this morning that after everyone gets used to how bad this team is the fascination here with the level of badness and whether Krysko can coach, will be fired, can ever succeed after a horrible season, whether Chris Hill should be fired, yada yada yada, will subside. For Ute fans who care about the program and the University it's a sad and difficult time but it will end. The best summary I've seen is from ColoUte here. I really do wish we could get him to post here.

[Flystripper]

I think Krysko was hired with a far different expectation than Ingle was. Tony was just an interim coach, promoted from assistant (right?) after the disastrous season had begun. Krysko's charge going in was to rebuild this thing, whatever it takes, and he's doing that. Witness the benching of Jiggly.

As for Art's post just below, I suppose it's inevitable that there will be "your horrible year was worse and more embarrassing than our horrible year" smack, but I don't know how to care about that. The two situations seem very different. I guess that with Foster and Jiggy both playing, we might have won some games, but this is not even a D1 team that's out there, for the most part. Many of this year's team will never be back in a Utah uniform after this season. What we are seeing is a deliberate demolition of a house that was falling down anyway, and its ultimate replacement with a new building, with maybe only the foundation remaining. Krysko's the architect and construction manager.

I understand the schadenfreude, sort of, and I was thinking this morning that after everyone gets used to how bad this team is the fascination here with the level of badness and whether Krysko can coach, will be fired, can ever succeed after a horrible season, whether Chris Hill should be fired, yada yada yada, will subside. For Ute fans who care about the program and the University it's a sad and difficult time but it will end. The best summary I've seen is from ColoUte here. I really do wish we could get him to post here.

I don't care who he has out there he has to get more out of his players than he is currently getting. They ar not even competing for him right now. If I am a Ute I am not worriedabout the losses, I am worried about how they are losing. How a team loses speaks to coaching. This is not a troll and I don't care at all about which teams lowest point is lower. This is a scary time for a Ute fan.

[LA Ute]

I don't care who he has out there he has to get more out of his players than he is currently getting. They ar not even competing for him right now. If I am a Ute I am not worriedabout the losses, I am worried about how they are losing. How a team loses speaks to coaching. This is not a troll and I don't care at all about which teams lowest point is lower. This is a scary time for a Ute fan.

Yes, it is. But we have no choice but to get through it. He's got a 4-year contract and it is comically early to be making judgments about whether or not he can coach, 9 games into his first season with the players he's got. Just my opinion.

[creekster]

Yes, it is. But we have no choice but to get through it. He's got a 4-year contract and it is comically early to be making judgments about whether or not he can coach, 9 games into his first season with the players he's got. Just my opinion.

I agree it is too early to make judgments, but I am surprised you find comedy in the conclusion.

[TripletDaddy]

Arguing over which one win season was better is pointless. They are both shameful awful periods in each program's history.

I think Cutty's question is the most appropriate. The stench of a 1 win season is pungent. Has a coach ever rebounded from that? If the intent really was to burn the mo-fo to the ground, I wonder if a better strategy would have been to hire an interim coach for the season and spend months searching for a proper hire, all while making the changes everyone knew had to be made anyway.

I suppose that the permanent coach would still be taking over a mess in any case. What a wild situation.