This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Los Angeles
Larry Krystkowiak flew home from the Pac-12 Tournament on Thursday after a one-and-done showing. But hopefully he took time to watch Oregon State topple top-seeded Washington.
Utah fans should have been paying attention, too.
Oregon State is a current, overachieving model for what Krystkowiak and the Utes are hoping to accomplish over the next few years.
Just four years ago, in the 2008 season, the Beavers went 0-18, the only Pac-10 team to do so. The next year, Craig Robinson took over the program and the Beavers won the CBI.
Yes, it's the CBI, but it had been a long time since Oregon State basketball had won anything, and if the Utes could pull off something like that in two years it would mark a tremendous turnaround.
After three seasons at or below .500, this year Oregon State finished 19-14 and put themselves in position to play in a postseason tournament.
If you listened on Thursday to Robinson — yes, he's President Barack Obama's brother-in-law — he sounded much like Krystkowiak, just from the other end of a long, frustrating road.
"Your hard work always pays off and it may not be the way you want it," Robinson said, "but it pays off at some point. It could have not paid off for us right now. But I saw the hard work and I knew it was going to pay off at some point."
Take Krystkowiak's assessment of his team, which lost 53-41 to Colorado about 14 hours earlier.
"They just kept grinding and grinding," he said. "I've got a lot of respect for guys that can do that, and the one element that you can bring to the table all the time is that approach."
Yeah, it's coachspeak, but these coaches are speaking from shared experience. The Oregon State and Utah programs aren't entirely twin situations. Believe it or not, Robinson didn't step into as bad of a situation as Krystkowiak, but it's close enough.
Robinson also gets credit for recruiting Jared Cunningham, the Pac-12's leading scorer, from Oakland to sleepy Corvallis. Krystkowiak should ask just how he did that, because Salt Lake has its own challenges in recruiting.
Robinson, like Krystkowiak in Utah, had no local ties, but became active in the community. He got to know fans, and brought interest back to a program that had completely lost it.
Sound familiar?
"The first three years were rough because we were trying to get these guys in here and get them going," Robinson said Thursday, "and our fans have really supported us. It is nice to be able to pay them back with a weekend like this."
Yeah, it's coachspeak, but hopefully Krystkowiak was listening. He could be saying it one day soon.