Jerry Sloan charged with murder . . .

. . . or at least he should have been after how he flat out killed Morris Almond in this post game interview. (from the 2:22 point onwards) Sure, he's surly in general, especially during post game interviews -- especially pre-season losses . . . but man, it's pretty harsh. For the record, though, he did kill the entire team for the most part . . . but he saved the worst for Mobe: "Well he scored points but I'm disappointed in the way [that Almond] runs the floor. It looks like he's not concerned with running the floor and helping defensively. We can't afford to have that, especially out of the mid-sized people. I mean, everybody likes to score but if that's all you're going to do then it's hard to play. To win: numbers are one thing, but I believe you can win with less numbers [and] more effort on [defense]. He's got to rebound the ball, pass the basketball, learn to do some other things rather than just be a one-dimensional player. If they put a guy on you, and he's determined to stop you, and he makes you take tough shots every time you get it -- which they did tonight -- [Morris] took the tough shots  . . .when you try to take tough shots when they are guarding you, you gotta go somewhere else: pass the ball, and play within what we are trying to do. If you try to do it on your own then I've got four guys watching. He's got to learn to compete. I don't think he's competed hard enough." (Jerry Sloan, 2008, via 1320 KFan Radio)

Ouch. I did not see the game, but his boxscore did not look too bad. Almond played 19 minutes and shot 5-10 and finished the game with those 10 points, 1 turn over and 2 fouls. It's amazing that he didn't really do anything else, so I guess Sloan has a point though.

Then again . . . his role in the offense is to be the guy who gets other people assists, not necessarily be a facilitator on offense. As a finisher if you shoot 50% on jumpers then that's not too bad, right? How many assists does Harpring get in a game? Probably the best (in a very loose meaning of 'best') is Morris Almond's self appraisal of his play in the very same game where Sloan killed him. Basically Almond feels like he's putting himself in a situation "to maximize his time on the floor". If he's maximizing his time by getting ZERO rebounds in 20 minutes of action then that sucks . . .

Almond has to do more with the time he has in the next few games otherwise he's going to be playing in Orem next season, and not in Salt Lake City. The score so far is:

Jerry Sloan 1

Morris Almond 0

Murder or not, Sloan seems right on this one. I've held the idea that if Almond played with better players that he'll actually pass more. Apparently this is not the case, but then again, I haven't seen a minute of pre-season action, so I could be wrong here too. I remember in the Rocky Mountain Review that he WAS passing the ball to open guys, but they were missing open shots. (I watched every game) He's not a big assists guy, but if he plays the right way in the right system I think he can be a solid pro. If he lives that long being coached by Jerry Sloan is entirely a different problem altogether.