Why I think we should have kept Boylen one more year…

This article comes out of a twitter discussion I was having after we were crushed by Boise St.   So let me preface it by saying that this isn’t an attack on Larry nor is it bitching about the team.  Someone asked me to clarify my position, and I couldn’t do that in 140 characters, so here it is.

First, I simply don’t buy that this had to happen.  In fact the overhaul had already started the year before.  Ute fans were upset about Kupets and DiMaria,   But those two were nothing more than the Farr, Dawson, Martin group, one year guys unless they played out.  Jim’s staff was actively recruiting guys.

Next, I don’t think anything good comes from a 3 win season and its far more damaging than a 13 win season.  If Jim stays, we keep Clyburn, J.J. O’Brien, Dom Lee, Shawn Glover (who wasn’t great but would be a star compared to what we’re trotting out there now) combined with whatever Jim brought in.  That group isn’t winning the Pac-12, but it’s not going to be the worst team in the history of the State of Utah either.  (The conspiracy part of me says that Hill fired Boylen because he was worried Boylen would win too much this season and he couldn’t justify it.)

I think the difference is that most Ute fans didn’t get how historically awful we were going to be while it was my greatest concern.

After that, if Jim doesn’t work out, we can him go.  We’ve given him five years so we don’t look so awful for firing coaches after three and four years and twice just two years off of a championship.  Next we have some Pac-12 money flowing and only one year of a buyout.  It gives us more options in the coaching hunt.  And if we’re still set on Larry, well he’d have still been available, no one else was looking for him.

Instead here we are.  We’re going to have the worst season in history.  Our hopes are pinned on a talented true freshman, a 7 PPG guy from LSU who every northwest Pac-12 program and Gonzaga passed on, a Big Sky PG, a return missionary center and another big from SUU.

Now it could work and for the sake of the program I hope it does.  But damn, a whole lot of things have to go right to make this work out.

And what if it doesn’t all go just right?  Instead we’re facing more turnover, and firing another coach after 3-4 years.  What no one is gotten is this is why I have been so very loud about what is going on.  Not because I hate Larry, but because unless a miracle occurs, we’re on the same path we’ve been on for 7 years now and five years further away from good basketball.