Utah Basketball- Chris Burgess Joins The Staff

Yesterday it was announced that Coach Larry had hired another former Ute, this time Chris Burgess, to join the staff as an undergraduate assistant, whatever the hell that is.  First let me get the compliment out of the way.  This is a solid hire for a position like that.  I always liked Chris, even when he airballed back to back free throws and his Ute team probably was about to do something when his back went bad.  So welcome Chris (See I have to put this up front or the little brains among us will think I’m attacking this hire.

For those of you who are young, Chris was the center of a recruiting battle that became one of the reasons Roger Reid was run out of Provo.  BYU went after Burgess hard (think Jabari Parker) and when he decided on Duke (think Jabari Parker) Reid called Burgess and told him he disappointed 10 million Mormons. (Note to Mormons, me using this number is not an invitation to you to tell me how many Mormons there are right now).

And for those with really old school knowledge, the Daily Utah Chronicle (aka the Chrony) in its April Fools Edition after Burgess went to Duke, wrote a piece about him transferring to Utah.

Plus as I said, Chris looked about ready to explode, when he developed back trouble.

This hire comes among interesting times for Utah Hoops.  BYU just offered Ryan Andrus, whom Utah has been targeting for a long time.  Plus Utah and every other school in the nation is recruiting Brekkott Chapman.

Whatever your opinions on what Larry inherited and what he did or didn’t do, and lord knows we’ve had those debates, it’s time for a couple of things to happen.  It’s time that we win battles like the two outlined above and it’s time that we start winning basketball games.  I don’t think anyone can really debate that.

So again, welcome to Chris