Real Show Character in Loss

Deseret New Article

A good effort from a team put behind the 8-ball a little. Many of the starters had played 120 min on Wed and the roster was thin due to injuries. Add in playing their 4th game in 5 on the road.

Given all that they played well and showed lots of spirit, especially after going down a goal so early. To pull one back and then have some opportunities at the end showed character that wasn't there in the past.

The results aren't reflecting how good this team is. The real test should be next month when they have 4 of 5 at home and should hopefully have Morales back.

PS Nelson Gonzalez is a stud!

Boylen Says U Will Improve

I think Boylen has done a decent job so far in his time here. In my opinion, he's been hit with a perfect storm of bad circumstances this year.

He lost nearly all major contributors from an above average team last year, and the one major holdover had an attitude problem (C.Brown).

Like Majerus, he lost 2 more due to playing time, which as the article states isn't that uncommon.

What really has pushed people over the edge is Henderson leaving, being a bright spot for the future, leaving so quickly, and pushing the total number to 4.

Any of these incidents individually wouldn't be a big deal, but all together and I think it looks worse that it actually is.

My opinion: this program needed to clean house, but Boylen still must prove himself. Circumstances aside, he still had a team that struggled to improve offensively this year. Unfortunately, he's learning on the job, but so did coach Whit and look where football is now. I remember being frustrated with Whittingham early on too, so lets keep the faith that Boylen can turn it around.

Go Utes!

We're We Good Coaches?

Kristi and I were at the NCAA basketball elite eight game last week, watching Butler advance to the Final Four. Kristi was preoccupied by the fact that the Bulter coach looked so young. Not knowing much about him, she assumed he was 'our age', meaning early 30's.

This lead her to ask if I thought our friend Chad was a good coach. This was an obvious comparison, as Chad is also in his early 30's and trying to make it in the world of high school and college coaching. He's hit some rough patches along the way, and is currently in rural Kentucky running the high school varsity team.

The reason she asked me, and the reason I might have some insight to answer was that while he was here in SLC for a few years he and I coached what was essentially a junior varsity recreation team.

My first response to her question was that I didn't know. This is the crux of this whole story. Chad was a disciplinarian, and he had played DIII college ball. I didn't have the experience, but also had a disciplinarian attitude. The problem was that that attitude didn't fly with these kids. We treated them as if they'd just made the varsity squad after rigorous tryouts. The reality was that these kids liked basketball, but there were reasons (skill or attitude) that they didn't make the high school team. We were glorified babysitters.

We tried to break those kids down, drilling them in the finer points of fundamental basketball, thinking they'd soak it all up and allow us to build them back up into solid players.

The answer to the question is now obvious: our approach would probably work at higher levels, but give what we had it was the absolute wrong approach, and we all suffered for it. We as coached got frustrated, I think the kids only really enjoyed the actual games and dreaded practices, and we hardly ever won, if at all.

Chad is proving that it works though, having rebuilt a Wisconsin varsity program before doing the same at his current position. But looking back at it, a much softer hand was required.

Coaching Isn't What It Seems

Quote from an article in today's Salt Lake Tribune, about the highly successful soccer coach at Waterford:

"It's not that he knows more soccer than everyone else, although his soccer knowledge is vast. It's not just in his ability to manage and motivate people, although he's very good at that. He has a clear vision of what we're going after, and he gets everyone on the same page and he teaches them their role".

Pretty clear that paramount to success (in any field i'd argue) is organization. Over what you'd otherwise think is important, in this example the coaching skills of knowledge or managing/motivation.

It goes on:

"For all the on-the-field success that he's enjoyed, however, Capener says he looks back on three primary things: No. 1, he's tried to instill a love of the game in his players because of how much he's loved the game. No. 2, he's tried to instill in his kids the idea that the sum is greater than its parts. No. 3, he's loved the associations he's had with his assistant coaches — Hercules, Tim Dolbin and Scott Stewart — and with his players and with his opponents.

"According to Capener, some of his proudest moments as a coach have come in years when his teams haven't won state titles. But when everything comes together, it's been especially sweet".

If that isn't coaching 101, I don't know what is.