Losing three scholarship players in a single offseason, each with significant amounts of eligibility remaining, normally would not be cause for alarm for the U men’s basketball team.
After all, one need only remember the yearly exodus of throwaway athletes named Jordie McTavish, Ben Heusser, David Jackson, Tyler Johnston, Trent Whiting, Gary Colbert, Jon Carlisle, Kevin Bradley, Jon Godfread and Mike Puzey to recognize that esteemed coach Rick Majerus has a long and storied history of discarding those he belatedly realizes are not of the quality level he had anticipated.
Majerus has made rampant use of the NCAA rule stipulating that athletic scholarships are not awarded on a four-year basis, as is commonly believed, but on a yearly one, with the onus on the coach to renew the deal each season.
If he so desires, that is.
Majerus has clearly demonstrated that, if you do not achieve what he wants you to, if you are not of the caliber he had anticipated, he has absolutely zero qualms about pulling the plug on your ever-so-brief U basketball career.
He has developed an impressive collection of justifications, rationalizations and flat-out excuses meant to cover his equally sizeable backside, ranging from poor academic performance to conduct detrimental to the team.
Never mind if those “poor grades” were good enough to meet NCAA standards, or if the “bad behavior” was merely a euphemism for poor shot selection and excessive turnovers?
Simply enough, Majerus has utterly no problems with abandoning loyalty if it means he can get more athleticism and clutch second-half performances.
The cases of Lance Allred, Cameron Goettsche and Eric Osmundson, however, are a little different.
Surprisingly, none of the trio has admitted to being shown the door and apprised to not letting it hit them in the butt on their way out.
Not that the coach necessarily minded seeing some of them go, though.
Allred had a prime opportunity to crack the rotation this year when ex-Dukie Chris Burgess went out in December with a foot injury, but the sophomore from East High School could not beat out teammate Cameron Koford, who is gifted enough athletically to make Greg Ostertag resemble Shaquille O’Neal.
Osmundson may have been a mere frosh, but he averaged less than a bucket a game and figured to see little time behind sharpshooter Nick Jacobson.
As for Goettsche, he claims he was promised the team’s sixth-man role, and that Maji’s assertions that he left to pursue more playing time elsewhere were only an attempt to save face.
So, then?why did they leave?
While Osmundson has declined to comment, Goettsche came right out and said that between the “yelling [and] verbal abuse?[and] no respect at all,” he simply “didn’t feel comfortable playing for coach Majerus,” adding that basketball played under the coach “wasn’t fun.”
Allred, meanwhile, was a little more subtle, making vague references to “things [not] working out”?softened doublespeak insinuating he wasn’t enamored of the environment either.
This represents a bit of a departure from the way the Ute roster is customarily purged. In the past, it was Majerus cutting what he perceived to be the fat from his gourmet, 14-course meal; these days, the appetizers are causing some severe indigestion that no amount of Rolaids can hope to fix.
The coach best beware before the lustrous armor afforded him with yearly trips to the NCAAs loses some of its sheen under the withering storm of a few too many disgruntled ex-players.
He’d do well to realize that a winning tradition can only drown out so many dissenting voices before some intrepid outside source recognizes a pattern and begins to question just what the hell is going on.
And Majerus would do well to realize that when players start leaving of their own volition before getting a chance to be unceremoniously dumped, perhaps he ought to re-evaluate exactly what he’s doing.
Eric welcomes feedback at: [email protected].