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No more transfer questions, please.
There's less than two months until the Utes begin fall practices in earnest. While he acknowledges a lot of guys have left Utah basketball in the last year, coach Larry Krystkowiak is ready to move on with the guys he has.
You'll hear no more dissecting from him.
"We talked about transfers for a month or two, but I don't care what we don't have anymore," he said in a sit-down with The Tribune. "I know I love the guys we have in our program, and that's what I'm concerned about now."
The offseason has been unusually fraught with departures — of graduations, transfers and Jakob Poeltl's departure to the NBA. But Krystkowiak says summer conditioning, which ended last week, has been business as usual. While many of the players who will suit up this fall haven't yet played for the Utes, he feels confident about what he has.
Utah will return starters Kyle Kuzma and Lorenzo Bonam next season, both of whom averaged around 10 points per game. Of his two top returners, Krystkowiak has one chief expectation: They play harder.
"I told other guys who have been in this program before — Delon [Wright], Jakob — if you want to be perceived as the best player, the only way you can lead is by being the hardest worker," he said. "Not just when things are going your way, but when things hit you. … You can't take any days off."
Both spent some time working outside of Utah's summer sessions, which are chiefly run by the program's strength coach and trainer. Kuzma went to Charlotte for an Under Armour camp, serving as a counselor and getting run against 19 other college players. Bonam joined the Pac-12 All Stars for a trip to Australia, where he was the team's second-highest scorer in three games (including two against the Aussie national team).
But the mystery lies in the new faces, and Krystkowiak said the two hours per week the coaching staff is allowed to work with the players have been steeped in culture building. While the staff does work on one or two concepts per session, developing relationships between teammates and coaches is the most critical thing.
"We're in that phase where we aren't going to get a whole lot better as a team in practice because our time is limited," Krystkowiak said. "But we can be building a lot of the relationships, the trust, and learning how to work hard."
It helps that several players were already in the program, including Jayce Johnson, David Collette and Sedrick Barefield. Krystkowiak said he's heard positive feedback on the newcomers, even as he gets to know them a little bit himself.
He acknowledged that Utah's schedule, criticized by some fans for having too few top-tier opponents, was a little softer than the last two years to help the team to develop early on. But not everything was up to the Utes.
"When you return four starters from a pretty successful team, you get calls from ESPN asking if you want to play Duke in Madison Square Garden," he said. "The outside expectations are different this year, so those calls weren't coming in."
Going forward, there still could be roster adjustments: The Utes are "engaged" in conversations with potential players who could take the open scholarship (formerly Kenneth Ogbe's) this fall, although the closer the season approaches, the less likely it is. The Utes are also holding out hope that the NCAA clears Barefield, a potential starter at guard, to be able to play right away — although Krystkowiak said it was "likely" that the team will be without him and Collette until the end of the fall semester.
Utah should know sooner who will replace Phil Cullen as director of operations after the Ute alum accepted a job with the San Antonio Spurs this week. Krystkowiak hopes to hire someone within two weeks, and at minimum before school starts next month.
What qualities will he look for in Cullen's replacement? "Somebody familiar with the program, experience dealing with academics, compliance, travel," he said, "a long list."
One thing the next director of ops won't have to deal with is building a new basketball facility. In the construction of Utah's facility, Krystkowiak said Cullen protected the coaching staff's needs. It very well might be what got him his job with the Spurs, who could be looking into building a facility themselves.
"He's a great people person, and he's going to have that attention to detail wherever he goes," Krystkowiak said. "As I told [Spurs GM] R.C. Buford, 'As good as you guys are at finding college players and diamonds in the rough, you're pretty good at plucking personnel people, too.' Phil's going to be hard to replace."
If there's a bright side to finding replacements to key pieces, it may be this: The Utes are getting plenty of experience in that challenge this offseason.
Twitter: @kylegoon