Let’s see how the boys respond for Eilert tonight:

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Let’s see how the boys respond for Eilert tonight:

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What are the chances Jensen doesn’t want to work for Harlan after getting disrespected by him last time?

What kind of working relationship would they have with Jensen knowing Harlan was forced to hire him this time.

Harlan has no say in this hire. It will be Randle and the boosters that pick the next coach

Harlan has been completely emasculated when it comes to the basketball program.

Well, wow. I knew it was coming, but wow.

Last offseason, I got a call from someone with ties to the Crimson Collective and they told me that they were asked to make marketing material on Andre Miller coming home. This was as a member of Utah’s staff. From there, some of the boosters had a realization that they had their guy in the program and why not buy Craig out at that time last offseason. There was some internal back-and-forth on figuring out how that would go, and there were also boosters that pledged NIL money contingent on Andre being on staff.

As all of that stuff was going on behind the scenes, things were dragging, and I was told that Andre basically said that he already had a good job and that he would see everybody next year. The dragging on had nothing to do with Harlan, he was fully on board and ecstatic.

The timing of this leads me and a few of my sources with close ties to the scene, believing that there has already been back-channel communication, and a form of an agreement made. Again, I’m not saying that something is already in place, just piecing the puzzle together, and that makes a lot of sense to me with the timing of this. Whether that is Andre Miller or Alex Jensen, time will tell. There’s always the outside chance of Johnnie Bryant, although I don’t see it as likely this year.

At this rate, if it’s anybody other than those three and especially Andre or Alex, I’d be shocked. Everything that I have heard behind the scenes over this last year, makes me lean heavily towards Andre at the moment. There has also been times in the past two years, where the belief is that if Alex Jensen came as the head coach, Andre would be willing to come along with him. I’ve also been told recently, that people close to Andre have been saying that he’s just waiting for the call.

I feel bad for Craig Smith and all of this. He’s a great coach and a great person, but minds have been made up for a while and they’re really was unfortunately no way of him escaping this.

The best news in all of this is that if it’s one of the guys I’ve mentioned, the Huntsman family will be heavily involved in Utah basketball again.

I’ve obviously been hinting at this, but I am surprised that it happened during the season. I caught wind this morning that a change was coming, so it’s definitely anticipated. Again just not immediate. I’ll have more soon, but the attention immediately turns to Andre Miller or Alex Jensen. Johnny Bryant could be an outside shot, but with him just moving to Cleveland this year, I don’t see that as likely.

Miller and Jensen are the guys at the boosters want. And now I’m gonna be able to fill you guys in a little bit more on everything that went down last off-season.

Stay tuned…

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This is interesting, after I was absolutely trashed for my BYU NIL comments:

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50/50 right now.

Andre is just waiting for the call. Alex may take a little wooing.

Alex has the most NBA Coaching experience but Andre has the most NBA clout.

#17 Kansas (17-7, 8-5) comes into the Huntsman Center as a 5.5 point favorite over the (13-11, 5-8) Runnin' Utes. Vegas seems to think this one will be close one

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It got really interesting towards the end, but the Utes pulled off a great and entertaining win against a top team:

Beats Kansas at home or BYU on the road plus a big12 tournament game and Utah gets a NIT bid after being picked last in big12 preseason poll.

Harlan doesn’t want egg on his face having to fire his pick?

Utah can’t afford the buyout?

I have sort of assumed that after the collapse of both main revenue sports that Harlan would get canned, but now I sort of think the big money donors will keep him around for another year while they essentially run the athletic department.

I fully believe that the donors are picking the next MBB coach as we speak and that Harlan won’t be much more than a speed bump when replacing KW after next football season.

Also, I would definitely put money on the field over Scalley being the next HC. I think there’s a really narrow range of results for 2025 that position Scalley to take over- basically an 8-9 win season with continued offensive struggles gets him the job. Any fewer wins, and I bet we clean house. Any more wins and Beck is going to look like a genius who is better fit to be HC.

My sanity needs spring ball to get going. I’m sure it’s the same for everybody else.

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Of course not at NFL combine, spring ball schedule out, but not sure if is enrolled in school. I thought it was very unlikely he got a fourth year myself. I'd be happy to be wrong though.

We held on for a three point win at home a couple of weeks ago.

We were +18 on the boards but had 19 turnovers to their 6.

If we're going to get a road win, this is about as good a chance as remains.

Go Utes!

I’m just getting out of work, so my apologies. Let see if the Utes can sweep Cincinnati at get a needed road win.

Spring game date and time? Anyone?

Thoughts coming, but Utah should be 5-0 or 4-1 heading into the Arizona State game. It makes no sense to me why the conference doesn’t highlight the Utah/BYU at the end of the season.

Any surprises?

I need to get the signing article put together again because I deleted it a week ago after seeing a post announcing he was going on his mission first. He’s up to 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, so his future will be on the defensive line.

Additionally, I was already told there’d be no surprises today, so just another boring February late signing day. I still miss the old setup.

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