One season-ticket holder of more than 50 years, who can remember watching Ute games at the old Deseret Gym in the 1930s, said, "This is probably the worst-coached Utah team I've ever seen."

He has been frustrated by the inconsistent play and lack of defense the team has shown. On the other hand, he said he would keep attending Ute games and cheering no matter who the coach is next year.

Another disgruntled fan said he held season tickets ever since the Jeff Jonas-Jeff Judkins days of the mid-1970s, before giving up his floor seats two years ago. He came to the first home game of the season, but was so disgusted after the loss to SUU, he didn't return until Saturday's game when the Utes beat New Mexico in double overtime.

He said the Utes must make a change after this year or "it will be trouble if they don't."

Another fan, a former Ute player, was on the fence, saying, "I've been trying to stick in there, but he's losing me," referring to Giacoletti.

The coach still has his supporters out there, however. One said, "Giacoletti doesn't shoot the free throws or miss the open shots or miss the assignments. That's on the players. They're the youngest team in the conference. I think they've got to give him one more year."

Another season-ticket holder in favor of keeping the coach said that if Hill fires Giacoletti, he better already have a pretty darn good coach ready to bring in. Otherwise he believes the Utes could be worse off because several players could leave and the program will be set back even further as a new coach tries to rebuild.

It's no secret that in many ways, Giacoletti has been a welcome relief for Hill after the turbulent times with previous coach Rick Majerus. Hill likes Giacoletti and has been happy with the way he runs the program and with his ability to recruit.

He probably wants Giacoletti to succeed more than anyone because, after all, he is the person who made the hire three years ago and handed him a seven-year contract (two extra years because he was hired with NCAA sanctions against the U. program under Majerus that limited recruiting visits and scholarship numbers).

So the question is whether Giacoletti should be given one more year with his young team, which returns 10 of 12 scholarship players from this year and has three apparent solid recruits coming in, or start over with a new coach and be faced with a buyout reported to be around $700,000.

Hill spoke in generalities when asked specific questions about the future of the program.