I sense a great deal of anger of this board today. There is more anger from people than I have ever seen before on this board. People are disappointed. Everyone had high expectations about this year's team. The expectations were too high and unreasonable. But, we all have an undying belief in our coach. Majerus is a person we respect and love. We always believe he can get it done no matter what happens. To our chagrin, personal problems prevented him from leading our charge. Therefore, we had to accept the disappointments that are common with other programs.

BYU fans are rubbing it in a bit and gloating, because they have suffered disappointment for so long it is nice to finally enjoy some modest success. I cannot blame them. We would do the same. As we all know losing can be painful and when you have a chance to enjoy victory you should do it.

The thing that hurts the most for some is that we praise Majerus as the person who brought competitiveness and character to Utah basketball and rave about him to all our friends. We are extra-ordinarily thankful for coach Majerus and wear the UTAH letters on our chest with great pride. But this year it has been much tougher to wear those same letters on our chest, but the truly faithful fans have and will continue to wear those letters on their chest, because we support the program no matter what happens.

I do suspect that BYU will struggle next year, because they lose five starters and it takes time for new players to get adjusted to one another as we all found out this year. But, I for one will not rub it in if BYU stuggles next year, because it does not accomplish anything, except to intensify the pain of true BYU fans. I would rather enjoy the sweet satisfaction of seeing our team play with more fire and competitiveness. I suspect Majerus is motivated now to see his young men step it up to the next level and he will do everything possible to make it happen.

I anticipate that the role of each player on next year's team is wide-open right now and will remain wide-open until Majerus determines who wants to win the most. I also believe none of the five starting positions are set for next year. Chris Burgess definitely deserves the award for being the toughest guy on our team this year and my respect for him has grown greatly from the start of the season. I suspect he will start for sure next year. The free throw problem is his personal demon that he must conquer to be a truly great player next year.

I have raved about the attitude Martin Osimani will bring to the team next year. If his presence helps Spivey and Bradley to step up their game to keep him out of the line-up, I will be extremely pleased with that result. Quality competition helps everyone and will certainly benefit the team. No one really cares who starts, we just want to see effort, commitment and a huge desire to win.

I am optimistic about next year's team not just because of coach Majerus being back, but because we have quality young men in the program who do want to win. I encourage everyone to wear the UTAH on their chest with pride. We will win many big games next year.

I still remember the statement of coach Majerus in his first year when he said some coaches build a program up to be so big that they cause their own demise by getting the fans so conditioned to winning that once a team begins to lose just a few more games, but still is fairly good, the fans and boosters turn on the coach because their expectations are so high.

I don't want us to fulfill coach Majerus' prophecy based on this year's results. Let us appreciate being co-champions of the MWC, rather than, being critical of receiving only an NIT invitation or losing in the first round of the NIT. Until we can get whomever we want from the high school ranks, there will be some seasons where we lose a few more times than we like.

Finally, coach Hunsaker did deserve the coach of the year award, because he did a phenomenal job being a "substitute coach". The hardest job is to coach players without the authority of being the head coach and with the obligation of using a system (man-to-man defense)that was not his own to maintain continuity for Majerus. Hunsaker did an admirable job even leading the Utes to a co-championship of the conference.

It was Hunsaker's peers, including Steve Cleveland, that voted him coach of the year. Maybe BYU fans should ask Steve Cleveland why Dick Hunsaker deserves to be coach of the year. I bet Cleveland can explain it to them better than I.

Ute Warrior

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