Ray Giacoletti's first year at Utah was an
astounding success, as the Utes went 29-6. Then again, he had
Andrew Bogut to work with. Last year, Giacoletti came back to
Earth with a middling 14-15 record. While the Utes would be
hard-pressed to repeat the 04-05 success, fans would gladly take
something in between.
Shawn Siegel (CHN): What
should we expect to be the strengths and weaknesses of next
year’s team?
Ray
Giacoletti (RG):
I think Luke Nevill is going to be one of the major strength of
this year’s team, based upon the freshman year he had and the progress he’s
made since then. He’s up to 260, has a great mindset, and I think he’s as
ready as he will be at any time to really take the next step in his growth
as a basketball player. There probably aren’t five guys like him in the
country who are a true low-post player and can score the ball.
Johnnie Bryant and Shaun Green got great
experience last year and started almost every game. They’ve made
good strides during the off-season, but we’re going to get good
help right away from our freshman class. The two that have
probably stood out the most are Stephen Weigh and Kim Tille.
Stephen has the chance to be a very good college basketball
player. Kim has a great upside to him. He’s 6-9, athletic and
extremely coachable. We’ve got some good pieces to the puzzle.
Daniel Deane is a tough, hard-nosed guy who is going to be able
to play right away just because of his body. Curtis Eatmon is
someone who, because of his athleticism and ability to defend,
will be able to play right away in the backcourt.
I think we’re going to have good depth. That will allow us to
get out and push the ball more so than we were able to the first
two years. I think that’s a point of emphasis going into this
year. But in order for us to do that, we’re going to have to be
a good defensive team and a good rebounding team. We should have
the capability of doing that.
CHN: Discuss the
incoming newcomers. Who do you think will make the biggest
impact?
RG:
We have four guys who can make an impact right away—and
that’s not taking anything away from the other two. But there’s
four who we’ve been very excited about during individual work
and conditioning. Kim Tillie and Stephen Weigh would be at the
top of the list. Daniel (Deane) and Curtis (Eatmon) are also
guys who are going to be able to play right away as freshmen.”
We
only have one senior, but we have a great foundation now in our
freshman and sophomore classes. That’s how you build something
to sustain success. Our objective when we started two years ago
was to bring in freshman who would be here for four or five
years, and watch them grow and mature. We’ve been pretty
fortunate, I think, with the guys we’ve gotten in those classes.
CHN: Talk about
a player or two that stand out as being an unsung leader and
contributor?
RG:
There are a number of different players on our team who could
surprise some people. I think you have to start with Luke (Nevill)
because I don’t know how many people across the country have
heard of him or know who he is. But I think we have a number of
different people who can step up in that role. Ricky Johns
finished the season off strong last year—particularly in the
last month—and had a great summer playing with the Jamaican
National team. He’s someone whose confidence is at an all-time
high. He’s a guy that can really help us because he does a
couple of things really well. He plays extremely hard, he really
buys into the defensive end of the floor, and he can shoot the
ball when he’s open. I think he’s someone who may surprise some
people this year.
CHN: How does
this year's schedule compare to recent seasons in terms of its
difficulty?
RG:
I think we have a good schedule. We have home games with
Colorado, Rice and Washington State. We have to go to Utah
State, which is probably one of the toughest places to play in
the country that nobody knows about. Very few teams have won up
there in the last five years. Going to Rhode Island will be a
challenge for us, and the San Juan Shootout field is pretty good
with Vanderbilt, Northwestern and Virginia there. I think it’s a
very good nonconference schedule for where we are in our growth
as a team. And we need to take care of business at home.
I’ve only been in the Mountain West Conference for going on
three years now, but what everyone is telling me is that this is
the best the league has been from top to bottom since the league
has been in existence. The feeling around the league is that
nine of top 10 returning players in the conference are seniors.
San Diego State returns darn near everybody from the conference
championship team last year. Air Force has all seniors. BYU
returns everyone. New Mexico had two kids sitting out last year
who transferred from Kansas and Penn State who I think can make
a big difference. UNLV has great experience coming back with a
great recruiting class. Colorado State has everybody back. So
you can see, it’s a very strong league.
CHN: Are you
pretty well settled with your starting lineup? If not, what
should we expect to be the biggest battles for a starting
position?
RG:
We’re going to have competition for the first time at a lot of
positions, and that’s how people get better. When you look at
our team, I think you really have two guys who are a little bit
ahead of the other guys at those spots. Luke Nevill would be one
of those, and Johnnie Bryant would be the other. After that,
there’s going to be heavy competition at every spot. And I’m not
saying Luke and Johnnie won’t have any competition at all.
Luke’s going to have Misha (Radojevic), Daniel (Deane) and David
(Foster). Johnnie’s going to have Curtis Eatman pushing him at
the point every day, and at the two Ricky (Johns) and LB
(Lawrence Borha) and Luka (Drca). But those two guys definitely
stand out above everyone else heading into the season. Shaun
Green is a returning starter at the four spot, and Stephen Weigh
looks like he will be the starter at small forward. Kim Tillie
will also push for considerable playing time at forward.
More 2006 College Preview:
Head Coach Interviews
