Ute Hoops: A Decade or So of Futility
People have accused me of being a Larry hater, and in the beginning I suppose I was. But there are reasons beyond that I like Jim Boylen. Even near the end and when Jim was fired I said I’d be happy as long as it was a clear upgrade. And, I’m sorry despite what some eff-tards kept screaming “ANYONE WOULD BE BETTER.”
(BTW if you’d like to meet some eff-tards in person visit CougarUteforum.com and find anyone using the term ‘Boylen Apologist.’ They keep using this term despite of no one really defending Jim anymore. Its mostly because they can’t defend the Larry hire)
And really lets look at the hire. Larry has one year as a college assistant at Old Dominion under Blaine Taylor. Two years as Head Coach at Montana where he never won the regular season title, but did beat Nevada in the NCAA’s. He then spend 25-30 seconds as Milwaukee Bucks coach. No other college or pro program ever pursued him to be their head coach.
Now I don’t say that to bash Larry but to say, how is that a clear upgrade? Now maybe Larry works out, but no one knows for sure. If he does, its because we got lucky pure and simple, and what I was really angry about was, Ute Hoops was way past the lets just roll the dice one more time point.
But all that being said, we desperately need Larry to work out. If nothing more than this program needs some stability. And to demonstrate that, I’ll give a brief timeline and history of our decade or so of futility plus some opinion thrown in.
2000-01 Rick Majerus takes most of the year off to care for his mother. Dick Hunsaker leads us to the NIT where I saw the team quit versus Memphis.
2001-02 Rick loses his first first roung NCAA game versus Indiana who goes on to the national title game.
2002-03 Rick wins his final MWC title and takes us to a first round upset of Oregon and Luke Ridnour (a Majerus recruit)
2003-04 Kerry Rupp takes over after Majerus fakes heart attack to avoid dealing with Lance Allred “embarrassment to cripple people” scandal. I’m not a fan of some things Rick did but to be brought down by a total taint stain like Allred is a shame.
2004-05 Ray Giacolletti is hired after every other coach in American turns down the job. Ray makes sure Andrew Bogut is returning and we go to the Sweet 16.
2005-06 The wheels start to come off. Justin Hawkins is forced out or quits because his dad threatens to kick Giac’s ass over shots and style of play. Kerry Rupp, now at Indiana, tampers with Richard Cheney. Cheney says he’s going to Indiana. When tampering comes to light, Indiana says no thanks. Cheney begs to come back, Ray says no. Tim Drisdom comes back super fat. Utes have losing season.
Now I’ve always wanted to say a couple of things about this. Ray was killed for letting Hawkins and Cheney go. But if those two had acted that way with Majerus, Rick would have ran both their asses with the use of far more swearing. And Ute fans would have patted him on the back for it. Also since graduating Drisdom has made no secret of his dislike for Ray, but why the hell couldn’t he be bothered to come back in shape.
2006-07 Things go from bad to worse for Ray. He handles none of it well and essentially gives up. He is fired (err resigns at years end)
One other thing I’d like to say. I’m not going to run a huge defense of Ray Giacolletti but there are two things. First, he never had any support, in fact the awful treatment by serious boosters was really a problem for him. Second, if he makes three different recruiting decisions, he’s probably still our coach. They are…
- Take Patty Mills
- Take the Aussie Center who went to Vandy
- Sign Nathan Jawal who ended up with the T-Wolves
2007-09 Jim Boylen comes. Because of the APR situation, Jim must make due with Ray’s guys. He does so by making them into league and tourney champions by his second year. A poor shooting night costs us in NCAA tourney versus Arizona.
2009-10 What is essentially Jim’s first year. For some reason Ute fans can’t handle idea that we might have to rebuild after losing all of our offense and rebounding. Recruiting missteps hurt more.
One note to make, Boylen took a shot at Henderson because Henderson sat with his parents and promised he’d shape up. When he didn’t Marshall parents apologized to Jim and didn’t welcome Marshall back home. Marshall is now on felony drug charges.
2010-11 Jim overturns the roster to fix his mistakes. Ute fans fault him for this as well. He put together a nice nucleus but a massive rash of injuries plus a family tragedy midseason put a damper on things. Jim doesn’t get another year.
Now I’m sure some will argue with my interpretations but my point remains the same. We’ve had no stability for a decade. Larry is the sixth person to hold the title of head coach in the last 10 years. No one could succeed with that kind of chaos.
It’s why I was upset we took someone with Larry’s resume to do the rebuild. If you look at him, is there any reason to suspect he’d be the right guy for the job? I sure don’t think so and I sure hope I’m wrong.