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Facing down the seventh scholarship transfer from his program in 13 months, Larry Krystkowiak didn't reach for what has become a standard answer for basketball coaches across the country.

There were close to 1000 transfers in Division basketball last season, and most programs expect at least one every year. But rather than citing player entitlement, an increasingly popular line, Krystkowiak looked inward.

"I'm not going to stand up here as the one of the leaders of our organization and say, 'This is a cultural issue, and to heck with the players if they're gonna leave,'" he said Tuesday morning. "You take a look at yourself first. What can I do to put your team in a better situation? What can I do to keep some of these transfers from happening?"

It's a question Krystkowiak and his staff are apparently chewing on in the wake of http://bit.ly/2hg8Nhs";>Tim Coleman, a junior college guard, electing to move on after this semester. Coleman only signed with the program in April, but Krystkowiak indicated that the transfer had been in the works for some time, potentially even before the season began.

VerbalCommits.com reported that Coleman will head to https://twitter.com/VerbalCommits/status/808535548168052737";>Division II Arkansas Fort-Smith, confirming it with the coach there. But Krystkowiak said at the same time that he thought Coleman, whose transfer only became public Monday, could draw Division I interest.

Why didn't it work out? Coleman's father, also named Tim Coleman, said it had to do with his son's shoulder injury that has clouded the better part of two seasons.

Coleman played in only 13 games last year at Lee College, which he attributed to a dislocated shoulder. His father said his son committed to Utah with the expectation that he would receive excellent medical care to take care of the injury, which had been problematic for some time.

But Coleman decided to play through his injury and go through rehab rather than get surgery when he arrived. In fall camp, he aggravated the injury enough that he decided to have surgery in October and was planning on redshirting the season. Krystkowiak said he thought Coleman was hoping to tough it out.

"It's not a definitive black-and-white situation — he's not the first guy who has been known to have a shoulder that pops out from time to time," he said. "I think he was trying to fight through it. We were doing some rehab for it, trying to work out some issues."

In the end, Coleman did get the medical care he was promised.

But at that time, Utah's backcourt roles began filling up: Parker Van Dyke and Devon Daniels assumed starting positions, and Sedrick Barefield, who is widely expected to assume a major role, http://bit.ly/2hjNd9q";>is becoming eligible potentially this week. Krystkowiak suggested that Coleman foresaw that he wasn't going to get a lot of time, even when he was healthy.

Coleman's father sent out a string of fiery tweets on Monday afternoon, claiming that his son had been locked out of the gym. Krystkowiak, on his radio show, denied those claims, saying Coleman had simply been absent from practice.

While he had regained some composure Monday evening, Coleman's father still said he was wounded for his son. It was especially painful this weekend, when Utah visited Cincinnati — Coleman's home town — but he didn't travel with the team. The family had been looking forward to the Xavier game since he committed.

"It was really hard for our family," he said. "I know those guys are upset about a few tweets, but it's about my son's future. I care about that."

Krystkowiak said so does he — he wished it hadn't turned out this way. And Utah, which has seen Brandon Miller, Isaiah Wright, Chris Reyes, Makol Mawien, http://bit.ly/28Oq66c";>Brekkott Chapman and http://bit.ly/2gWKhQ2";>Kenneth Ogbe transfer before Coleman, is looking at itself to see what can change.

"I'm going to expect our coaches to dig a little deeper and make sure we're checking a lot more of the boxes, as many as we can," he said. "I don't want kids transferring. Every kid we've recruited, I've talked about how college is one of the best times of their life. I want it to be a great experience. It's disappointing and disheartening when somebody wants to leave. It's not fun."

kgoon@sltrib.com
Twitter: @kylegoon