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Show . * " „ • " » Friday, March 2,2007 ""DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Game Guide 4 I p Giac-ing up a storied program Unfortunately, he's a guy who's gotten in over his head In 2004, Giacoletti showed up in Salt Lake City, raring to go. He was handed the reins of a storied program backed by knowledgeable fans that expect to win 20 games every season—no excuses—and at least make a showing in the NCAA tournament. No other team Giacoletti had coached—North Dakota State or Eastern Washington—had ever tasted success even remotely comparable to that enjoyed by Utah. In Giacoletti's three years at North Dakota State, he finished with records of 18-9,14-13 and 16-11. In 2000, he took over at Eastern Washington, guiding the Eagles to their best four-year stretch in program history. He finished up with a 69-50 record. In 2004, Eastern Washington won the Big Sky Conference Championship and received its first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament, in which the team was promptly eliminated by Oklahoma in the opening round. Enter Utah. In need of a new coach after Majerus went AWOL in the middle of the 2003-2004 season, Utah was on a hunt for someone capable of keeping the Runnin' Utes runnin' in the right direction. Utah had recently experienced success in hiring Urban Meyer, a young coach from a smaller school. Could lightning strike twice? Was there another diamond in the rough just waiting to be harvested by the Utes? Utah thought it had its man and signed Giacoletti to a seven-year contract. Right off the bat, Giacoletti was a go-getter. He traveled to Australia and brought back blue chip Andrew Bogut, who was not planning to return to the U for his sophomore season. Undoubtedly, Giacoletti used his charm and "player's coach" mentality to successfully bring the future No. 1 NBA draft pick back to Salt Lake City. With Bogut in the lineup, the Utes compiled a 29-5 season. But since then, Giacoletti's coaching has skewed Utah into a Bizarro World where up is down, black is white and BYU dominates Utah in men's basketball (basketball, of all things!). Which brings me to the issue on everyone's mind: Should Giacoletti be fired? For some, it is discussed in hushed tones (after all, Giacoletti is so nice—what if he hears?). Others are more vocal and are even gathering signatures on a petition asking that Giacoletti be sent on his way. Tomorrow, Utah will face BYU. The Utes (would you have believed this was possible five years ago?) don't realistically stand a chance in the Marriott Center, where the Cougars have won 30 straight. Whatever your opinion on the matter—be you a hater or an apologist—the fact that Utah is most likely going to get smoked by BYU is unacceptable. Now if only there were a nice way of telling Giacoletti that his services are no longer needed. n.dicou@chronkle.utah.edu ersonable, polite and soft-spoken when interviewed. The media has observed these traits of Ute basketball coach Ray Giacoletti during these past few NATALIE seasons. Giacoletti DlCOU seems like the kind of guy who'd make a great neighbor. Not quite a Ned Flanders, but at least a stop-andchat-in-the-driveway kind of guy. What I'm getting at is this: Giacoletti is nice—a favorable designation for kindergarten teachers and milkmen, but not necessarily for coaches. There's a reason Bobby Knight is the winningest coach in NCAA history and, as we all know, it has nothing to do with his manners. Knight doesn't pat his players on the butt and issue them gold stars when they play tough, tireless defense. He demands that they give it their all. That doesn't mean that the next time the Utes let an opponent shoot a wide-open three that Giacoletti should heave a chair across the court in disgust. The Utes already had a bully of Knight proportions in Rick Majerus. But there has got to be a middle ground between strangling players and letting them sit back on defense while opponents shoot 50 percent from beyond the arc. There's a difference between being nice and being respected. Back in the day, there were players who hated Majerus' guts and who will probably shudder with fear every time they see the silhouette of a morbidly obese man until the day they die. These players knew that if they didn't play the Majerus way, they didn't play. It's not a stretch to think that some of these players considered Majerus to be a loathsome wretch on a personal level, but in the realm of coaching, many players respected him and tried like hell to please him. In stark contrast, there's the Giacoletti way. Aside from being a softie rather than a "my-way-or-the-highway" dictator, Giacoletti fails to make vital halftime adjustments—evidence that he's not an Xs and Os guy. And he can't get his guys to play defense—evidence that he's not a strong motivator. So, if he doesn't fit into either category, what exactly is Giacoletti? P I.KNNIfc MAHLER/TV).- D.nly Utah Ch Head coach Ray Giacoletti motions to the Utes as they get back on defense near the end of their 74-68 win against San Diego State on Tuesday. Provo, Utah 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 3,2007 TV:CSTV • RiiJ:O 700 the i w c Utah utes \v; ) 0 (11 -17,6-9) Ute notes: The Utes are currently in a three-way tie with Wyoming and Colorado State for fifth in the conference. A win, coupled with losses from the Cowboys and Rams, would make the Utes the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament next week. They would then meet SDSU, whom they beat on Tuesday. their first outright BYU Cougars (22-7,12-3) Cougar notes: The Cougars have already secured a share of the MWC title, leading UNLV by one game heading into the final day of conference play. BYU already has the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament sealed due to a tiebreaker over the Rebels. ^sfcttowi DEANE PLAYS PIVOTAL ROLE FOR UTES continued from Game Guide 3 bounds and had one of Utah's two blocked shots, to go along with 10 points, in a double-overtime win that all but guaranteed the Utes a seed in next week's conference tournament. The thing that box scores don't reveal are those intangibles Deane brings to the Utes. The Utes are in the midst of one of their worst seasons in recent years, and probably not because they lack the talent. It's not because they lack senior leadership, either. Any Ute fan who has Trent Plaisted attempts a one-handed shot over Luke Nevill during the rivalry match on Jan. 31 in the Huntsman Center. YOUNG, PLAISTED ANCHOR BYU OFFENSE . continued from Game Guide 3 leticism—he's a huge match-up problem. And the fact that he is a matchup problem makes the Cougars a match-up problem. Young has taken his game to a new level this season, establishing himself as one of the most dangerous weapons in the league. His scoring average has jumped from a respectable 10.3 a year ago to a team-best 17.1 points per game in 2006-2007. But beating the Cougars isn't as easy as figuring out how to contain Young. Because even if he's slowed down, the problem UTES FACE BYU IN BRUTAL ROAD ENVIRONMENT continued from Game Guide I the Falcons' own home winning streak at 30 games and gave the Cougars sole possession of the nation's longest home streak. Meanwhile, the Utes are coming off one of their more impressive wins of the season last Tuesday against SDSU. Utah jumped watched the Utes play for any considerable portion of time this season would probably agree that the team has lacked a guy that throws his body around the court the way Deane has the past couple of games. On any given moment during the Utes' last three-game stretch, Deane could be seen diving for loose balls, standing his ground with guys two or three inches taller than him in the paint and going after every rebound within a onemile radius. It makes one shudder at the possibilities if Deane were to suddenly trade bodies with a certain 7-foot Aussie center. "In certain situations, we'll put him in for Luke (Nevill) or Shaun (Green) because he's such a versatile big man/' Giacoletti said. "The great thing is, he isn't even close to obtaining his potential and he's starting to understand more and more." As the Utes enter their final game of the regular season Saturday and go into the MWC tournament next week, the performances of Nevill, Green, Johnnie of stopping his frontcourt mate, Plaisted, remains. Remember him? The 6-foot-ii sophomore center got a lot of attention last season on his way to all-MWC honors, as well as the Freshman Player of the Year honors. While his scoring numbers have dipped slightly in his second campaign, that doesn't mean his effectiveness has diminished in any way. On the contrary, his abilities combined with Young's emergence have only made the Cougars more dangerous—which is why they're sitting atop the Mountain West and stand firm on the national scene with a 227 mark. Combined, Young and Plaisted average nearly 30 points and more than 12 boards per game. It's no surprise, then, that the Cougars are the top offensive unit in the conference. They average a league-best 77.6 points per con> test (compared to 70.0 for Utah); and shoot nearly 49 percent rrorn; the field. And it all starts irrjflje; frontcourt. With the team's gp'-Jo; guys, Young and Plaisted, getting the majority of the attention: tfae; Cougars are able to get contriktH tions from a slew of role pla)ter>.: Lee Cummard, Jimmy Battferv son and Austin Ainge can>aH. score when asked to. Ainge,; ini fact, is shooting more thari:5c> percent from the three-rxrihtrange this season and has been' the glue that keeps the offense running. . >; The Cougars have weapons that can come out of nowhere, but they all stem from the men; down low. And for those two rea> sons—Keena Young and Trent Plaisted—it's no secret that the Cougars are the team to beat in theMWC. I'/-: c. beUamy@chronicle.utah.edu out to a 32-19 lead at halftime and never looked back, winning 74-68. Senior guard Ricky Johns was unstoppable against the Aztecs in his final home game, scoring 30 points on n-for-13 shooting. It was a good thing he stepped up, too, because SDSU shut down the usually productive tandem of Shaun Green and Johnnie Bryant. The duo combined for merely 13 points on 6-for-i5 shooting. The Utes had better be firing on all cylinders if they want to knock off the Cougars in Provo, which no team has done since Bryant and Ricky Johns will likely headline the Utes' successes and failures. But it will be the efforts of scrappers like Deane that will likely give the Utes the edge if they are going to find better success than have thus far. "From start to finish, he has made the biggest improvement of any of our freshmen," Giacoletti said. "It's unusual to see that kind of toughness in a freshman," The skinny on Deane: Deane is averaging 12.4 minutes while playing hi 27 games—four as a starter—out of a possible 28 games for the Utes. Deane was named the Gatorade Utah Player of the Year in 2005-2006, and also Utah's Mr. Basketball last year by the Deseret Morning News. tp\zza@ chronicle.utah.edu Daniel Deane, right, puts up a shot driving in against San Diego State defenders Tuesday night. Deane's aggressiveness and physical style of play contribute to the Utes both offensively and through rebounds. Nov. 18, 2005. --. -"; "Everybody's going to be mentally and physically ready to play against them," Johns said. "Knowing how they played against-tis here, I think we're going to be ready to play." "; BYU will host the Utes tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at the Marriott Center. The game will be televised on CSTV. c.brunner@ chronicle.utah.edu |