Boylen needs to energize Ute fan base

Now that the University of Utah has hired a new basketball coach, I have a few words of advice for Jim Boylen and the U. athletic department to get the program going again.

Covering Ute basketball for much of the past 25 years, I've witnessed up close the mediocrity of the Lynn Archibald years, the lofty heights of the Rick Majerus years and the highs and lows of the recent three-year Ray Giacoletti reign.

Besides getting back to annual 20-game winning seasons and regular trips to the NCAA tournament that became the norm for more than a decade, the program needs some extra spark to get fans back in the stands and more excitement in the community.

Majerus won ball games but was a pain in the rear for everyone from athletic director Chris Hill to the local media to the fans in the stands. Giacoletti couldn't get Ute fans excited even when his team won 29 games and had the nation's player of the year in 2004-05, as attendance actually declined from the previous season.

After seeing Boylen work the crowd at Tuesday's press conference and spending an hour interviewing him later in the week, I think he's the type of person who can bring excitement to the basketball program. Of course, winning 75 percent of his overall games and 95 percent of his home games will certainly go a long way to winning fans over. But there's more to it than that.

Boylen needs to take a page out of Urban Meyer's book and work hard to get the students and community energized about Ute basketball. The fact that he said his theme was "We, Us and the Muss" shows he's anxious to get student support, although I think it would be smarter to change the theme to "You, Us and the Muss."

The new coach needs to visit dorms and fraternities and the LDS Institute on a regular basis and encourage students to come to basketball games.

It's remarkable what 20-year-olds will do if they get a little encouragement. In just five years, the MUSS group has grown from zero to 5,000 students for football games. However, at some of this year's basketball games, there were 100 or fewer students present. Even 2,500 MUSS members at basketball games would make a huge difference.

Boylen should also go out and visit civic groups or women's clubs or whatever luncheons he can around the valley.

There are a lot of Ute fans in Salt Lake who have stopped coming to games in recent years, either turned off by some of Majerus' antics or the poor play and loses of the past couple of years.