I tried to use humor below to express my frustration with Rick's annual job searching. For all the good he has done for the Utes BB program he does have one major flaw!

"His annual job searching is hampering recruiting."

If the statement he made to Andy Slocum's mom is correct, that Utah is a difficult place to recruit to, then he has been a major contributor to that problem. Recruits don't want to go to Utah then know their coach will leave.

Kapono and Slocum have expressed concerns that Rick will leave Utah. Rick you are at fault for that. He says it doesn't effect recruits but the evidence says otherwise.

Basketball recruits have a short attention span. Utah got great pub by making it to the final four last year. So don't blow it by self generating negative pub for recruits and scare them away! The Utah BB program could be on the verge of losing a great advantage of making it to the final four and then flushing it down the toilet.

You are one of the top X and Os coaches in the country but you sure know how to shoot yourself in the foot when it comes to recruiting. You said that you were 99% sure you were staying at Utah. IF YOU are that confident about staying at Utah then why don't just honor that statement. If staying at Utah isn't your intention then stop making bogus statements about being 99% sure.

We should be reading about the recruiting job that is being done to lure top notch recruits to Utah, not all this negative job garbage!

A very frustrated Ute fan, again.

Utah Rick

At bottom, they're a bunch of losers. ND has been to the Final Four once in its history, and has not even been to the NCAA tournament since the '70's. AZ St. was under cloud of a point shaving scandal, has NEVER been beyond the Sweet 16, and has been there only once. Golden State has been the worst job in the NBA for many years(just ask PJ Carlessimo; he was the fall back choice after Majerus, and Majurus' first year would have been the year that Sprewell popped Carlessimo). Texas is another football school that has never smelled the Final Four, and and only once has gone past the Final 32 (Texas couldn't even lure Bob Bender from WA, with the worst facility in Div. I). As for SDS, give me a break (what kind of pretzel logic makes people think this could be as attractive as the Utah job?). Moreover, none of these programs have been able or willing to top Utah's compensation package!

For whatever reason, Majerus has yet to attract interest from a true blue ribbon basketball tradition, such as NC, KY, UCLA, the Celtics, the Knicks, or the Lakers, all of whom have been in the market for new coaches in the past five years. (He was rumored to be on UCLA's short list before Lavin was hired, but I don't believe this was ever verified, nor that he was ever approached.)

Why is this? In don't know; my guess is that his eccentricity (he himself said that UCLA's coach needs to be able to wear a navy blazer well, and the same is true for NC, etc.), desire for independence, his high pay at Utah, and maybe even health concerns, all are factors. At the same time, for whatever reason he gets a charge out of being enticed by all of the above mentioned wall flowers. So this annual kibuke dance, which really is getting quite tiresome, predictably has turned out to be much ado about nothing, and may cause the collateral damage that Utah Rick describes.

While your points about recruiting are valid, I for one am VERY happy with the kinds of recruits Majerus is bringing in year after year -- despite the annual threat of him leaving (weak as it is). If a player wants to come to Utah, Majerus will commit to him. Not in the media, but personally. If he still has doubts, then what does that say about the confidence he has in Majerus' word? That would not bode well for our program, considering the near-facist approach to basketball Rick employs. He told Nick Jacobsen that he would be here for him, and that was good enough. I'm sure the others will feel the same once they get Rick's personal reasurrance.

-- Just my opinion.

You're assuming this has "scared them away". When it sounds to me like the Slocums are, wisely, waiting for this to blow over before making a commitment. Andy is also pursuing other considerations like the baseball angle (much better programs at A&M and OU). As for Kapono, I had the idea that his ties to his friend at Mizzou and a positive visit were steering him in that direction, anyway. BTW, I've yet to see a confirmation of the Mizzou verbal reorted here.

I won't disagree that it'd be better for Majerus to not look at all, and the person that posted earlier about him causing distractions by keeping the door open too long to non-ideal situations has a great point. Its one thing to avoid sending a closed-door signal, its another to dink around with details of how he would run the show at places he's ultimately going to turn down (assuming these rumors of faxing SDSU back-and-forth are true). The only justification I can see is if he uses it as a mental exercise to say, "How can I run the Utah program better?" and/or uses it as leverage to get the facilities he needs at the U (though Huntsman has already promised to help get him anything he wants).

Like many things, it is not the job rumor business, but rather the frequency with which he involves himself in it. Here a job, there a job, everywhere a job job. As he mentioned himself, he doesn't look like Robert Redford, and since he doesn't get to "play the field" as much as he might wish, maybe he makes up for it by playing the coaching market field.

Everybody has their own personal perception and value of what might constitute a "good" coaching job or "bad". Some person might be happier living and coaching at Pepperdine, San Diego State, St. Mary's, or Notre Dame, when they might have previously held the head job at UNC. Although my Univ. of Utah blood is part of my core makeup, I can see how being a head coach at Pepperdine would seem very enticing to many, even if that schools historical legacy, budget, and facilities are not prime time. A modern but compact campus situated on a bench above the perceived isolation of an ocean crescent that is Malibu. Sealed off from most L.A. smog by mountains and a prevailing sea breeze. This is one thing that does make college hoops great. A coach could in fact roll into a place like this, recruit one or two gems, and shortly thereafter, shake the foundations of a mega school like Michigan. On the other hand, if the Pepperdine Waves had a football team, I doubt they could ever beat Michigan.

Anyhow, the way Majerus plays this coaching position game every third week makes him look insecure and/or egotistical. I wonder when, or if, it will end. This being said, there are many aspects about the man that place him well above most coaches I know of, and makes me able to put up with this particular eccentricity of his, as annoying as it might be at times.

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A Utah Man, sir, and will be 'till I die.

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