When Utah makes its move to the PAC-12 next season, Jim Boylen will not be coming along for the ride.
Boylen was fired as the men's basketball coach on Saturday after leading the Utes to a dismal 13-18 record this season. In four years, he compiled a 69-60 record and helped Utah reach the NCAA Tournament in the 2008-09 season -- his second year at the helm.
Over the past two seasons, however, the Utes struggled to compete under Boylen. They won just 27 games in two years since going to the NCAA Tournament. Recruiting and transfers were a huge issue too. Coming into this season, Marshall Henderson and Carlon Brown -- the top two scorers from a year ago -- left the program, with Henderson going to Texas Tech and Brown joining Colorado.
This move comes after Boylen signed a five year contract extension following the 08-09 season. It will likely be a costly buyout for the Utes to get rid of Boylen, but it needed to be done.
There is an obvious talent drain in the program. With his midwestern roots as a longtime assistant under Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, Boylen did not understand how to recruit out west. He regularly lost recruiting battles to archrival BYU for top players in Utah. An infusion of junior college players this season -- highlighted by leading scorer Will Clyburn, could not offer a quick fix to mask the poor recruiting of previous seasons.
The final nail in the coffin for Boylen came with sagging attendance in the Huntsman Center. Crowds for women's gymnastics meets nearly doubled the amount of fans that showed up for men's basketball games. Such a loss of revenue could not continue going forward.
What are your thoughts on Boylen's firing?
Nice guy. I think he proved he could coach in 2008-09, but I think it takes a special kind of coach to recruit consistently in Salt Lake.
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