His first year couldn't have gone much better — 29 victories, a Mountain West Conference championship, a trip to the Sweet 16, capped off by all those tours around the country with the national player of the year.
This year, it's been a different story for Utah basketball coach Ray Giacoletti. He takes no solace in forging a respectable 7-4 record with a young, inexperienced team.
"We don't feel that way," he said. "The games we lost were so decisive. Maybe we'd feel better if we'd been more competitive."
The Utes suffered through three embarrassing defeats during a two-week span, including two on national television. Losing to Washington State by 27 is a long ways from knocking off a ranked Oklahoma team in the NCAA Tournament.
"I need to keep telling myself and my staff that we're looking at the big picture, three or four years down the road," Giacoletti said. "We may take our lumps to get to where we're going."
Giacoletti is quick to emphasize that he not writing this year off, "by any means." He's just saying that each year from here on out should get better for Utah and that by his fourth year, the Utes should be pretty darn good.
Most coaches use their first year to start building for the future, but last year Giacoletti wanted to take advantage of sure-fire NBA player Andrew Bogut, whom he knew would be moving on after the season.
"You only get to coach a player like Andrew once in your career so we wanted to make the most of it," Giacoletti said. "It was a different experience."
Giacoletti was able to recruit just one player when he was first hired, Luke Nevill, and inherited Rick Majerus' recruits, Jermaine Calvin and Jake Schmidt, neither of whom was Division I material in Giacoletti's opinion.
At the end of the season, both players were nudged out the door along with forward Justin Hawkins, who wasn't happy with his role on the team. Later in the summer, part-time starter Richard Chaney decided to transfer, then reconsidered, but the Utes decided they could do without him.
All the moves left the Utes with some holes and it got worse when Serbian transfer Misha Radojevic suffered a knee injury that will keep him out all season.
For this year's recruiting class, Giacoletti brought in two JC transfers in Ricky Johns and Johnnie Bryant, in part to fill out classes that are low in numbers. Bryant is the only sophomore on the team besides Chris Grant, a walk-on a year ago, while Johns joins Jonas Langvad as the only junior along with Radojevic.
Next year's group of recruits, includes five players who will be freshmen, including a 7-1 center from California, David Foster, who is likely to go on an LDS mission before starting his playing career. Ute coaches are excited about the recruits and feel the other four, forwards Daniel Deane and Kim Tillie and guards Stephen Weigh and Curtis Eatmon, can each step in and play right away.
"We want to bring in high school players and build a foundation in each class," Giacoletti said.
For now, Giacoletti is trying to keep his young team on the right track as he builds for the future. With no outstanding teams in the Mountain West Conference, the Utes feel they can still contend for a championship and at least win enough games to make the NIT, if they don't earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.
"I'm not making excuses, I know it's on us," Giacoletti says about his team's slow start. "It's not necessarily about wins and losses. Our good play needs to be better. But we want some stability. We're trying to look down the road and get the right pieces to sustain something for a long time."
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