What if Stephen Weigh had made all three free throws at the end of regulation against UNLV instead of two?

What if the officials had called an apparent foul on Rhode Island against Luke Nevill in the final seconds of a one-point overtime loss in December?

What if one of three Ute tries in the final seconds of a tie game had fallen in an overtime loss to New Mexico?

What if Utah State's Chaz Spicer hadn't made a 3-pointer with less than two seconds left at Logan to beat the Utes?

Would it have made a difference for Utah basketball coach Ray Giacoletti if the Utes had won four more games this year? Or five? Or six?

The bottom line was, the Utes didn't win enough games the past two years, and as a result Giacoletti will be looking for a new job next year while the Utes look for his replacement.

"People can say whatever they want, but everything comes down to winning and losing," he said. "You can lie in bed all night and wonder if this or if that, but for whatever reason we didn't get it done."

After Giacoletti posted a 29-6 record with Andrew Bogut and Marc Jackson in his first year, which included a visit to the Sweet 16, it looked like he would be around Utah for a long time.

The first signs of trouble in the program came within a month after the season, when Justin Hawkins, a key player on the Sweet 16 team, decided to transfer to New Mexico State, apparently with Giacoletti's blessing. Then in August, another returning part-time starter, Richard Chaney, decided to transfer and ended up at Troy University.

The Utes had lost two forwards, and the problem was compounded when recruit Misha Radojevic blew out his knee before the season, leaving the Utes even more shorthanded in the frontcourt.

The Utes struggled through a 14-15 season, which included four blowout losses by 20 points or more.

Still, even though the Utes were coming off their first losing season in 17 years, with most of their players back most folks figured the Utes were in for a good season with the chance to win 18 to 20 games and perhaps challenge for the Mountain West Conference title and get an NIT bid at the worst.

Even though the Utes have the youngest and most inexperienced team in the MWC this year, before the season that didn't seem to be an issue. Assistant Ute coaches gushed about how much better this year's team was than last year's and even Giacoletti didn't hold anything back when discussing his team's chances.

"I am as excited as I've been since I've been here," he said in October. "I'm sure we'll have struggles like any team has, but everybody has bought in to what we're doing and is on the same page."