New York was right when he said that the Judkins thing is over. Judkins is now a zoobie. He owes his allegence to the zoobies. He is no longer a Ute. Having said that, the question of what impact his leaving will have on the Utes remains to be seen.

The first indication was given when Whiting signed with the Utes after speculation that he would not because of his friendhip with Jud.

The second was given when Jeff Johnsen confirmed that he liked Jud very much but that his leaving would not influence his plans to stay at the U for his career.

I anticipated that Meads would be the third indicator, but Meads has apparently decided to wait until he completes his mission. IMHO Meads is doing what every highly recruited LDS athlete who intends to go on a mission should do. Why should he commit to a program that may be totally different when he returns?

What are the next indicators? Carlisle? Caton? Carlisle, is not an indicator. He originally wanted to go to byu. Rumors circulating have his family talking with byu after the Final Four, well before the Judkins issue came up. If Carlisle leaves, he leaves. It will not be an indicator of Judkins. Caton? Maybe. Prior to the past few days there had not been any posts suggesting that Caton was not happy with Utah.

The fact is, we can worry and fret about the Judkins impact all we want. There will be an impact. Will it be significant, probably not. Will Judkins leaving reduce the utes to a mid-MWC team? Probably not. Will Judkins arrival at byu raise them to the national level. Probably not.

What we really need to worry about is whether Nate will become a force, can Colbert and Whiting find a way to replace the best pg to ever play at Utah, can Hanno play great every game, every minute he is in the game. IMHO next year is going to be a great year for Utah basketball. 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 might be the best ever, regardless of the Judkins issue. Lets sit back and enjoy the next 3 or 4 years. They are going to be great.

Lets not forget Burgess, who commited after Judkins announced he was leaving Utah. The signifance of burgess is that he did not commit WHEN judkins was here to act as a "buffer" for a crass majerus. Majerus is still here, and crass as ever, and the buffer is gone. Didnt seem to matter to Burgess, and it shouldnt matter to any top rated LDS athlete who wants to play for a coach with a track record of molding NBA talent, on a team that gets national exposure, as opposed to playing for a unproven but genuinely nice coach.

Thus far, Judkins as a zoobie is 0-3 against Utah. He better start getting used to losing to Utah.

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