Giacoletti is a long way from Fargo

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As an assistant coach at Washington, Ray Giacoletti reserved Sunday nights during the season for his wife, Kim. She made dinner. They rented a movie and took a brief vacation from the tensions of college basketball.

One Sunday in 1997 they chose the quirky, brilliant Coen Brothers classic, "Fargo," and after the movie, Kim Giacoletti said to her husband, "I'll go any place with you, but we're not going to Fargo."

Six months later, they were living in Fargo, N.D.

Despite the protests of then-Washington coach Bob Bender and Giacoletti's good friend, Gonzaga coach Mark Few, he left Washington to become the head coach at NCAA Division II North Dakota State.

"Nobody encouraged me to go to North Dakota State," Giacoletti said. "It's not the natural progression to go to try to get to where you're going."

But Giacoletti knew, in the crazy geography of college basketball, the highway that led to the realization of his dreams went through Fargo.

"It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do," said Giacoletti, 42, sitting with his wife and parents this week in an Anchorage hotel. "You don't go from being a Pac-10 assistant to take the North Dakota State job. But I wanted to be a head coach. It wasn't the best move to make. We had a Sweet 16 team coming back at Washington, but in the long run it was the best thing for us."

In the relative isolation of Fargo, Giacoletti could make mistakes without the talking heads on ESPN analyzing every move. He could rail at officials without a camera in his face. In Fargo, he had television and radio shows and learned, in a less-heated atmosphere, to listen to criticism and deal with second-guessers.

If it weren't for North Dakota State, Giacoletti wouldn't have landed his dream job, replacing Rick Majerus at Utah.

His career path is classic. His three years at North Dakota State earned him the head coach's job at Eastern Washington. Four successful seasons there, which culminated in an NCAA appearance last season, put him on that national radar.

"I had confidence when I went to Eastern that I could do it, instead of wondering if I could," Giacoletti said. "You never really, truly know how those kids are going to respond until your name is down there on the bottom line as the head coach."

After paying his dues in Fargo and building a winner at Eastern, he got his reward last March 31. Utah, which has the 10th-highest winning percentage in NCAA history, offered him a seven-year, $500,000-a-year deal.

"If you stop and think about it, this job means the world to me," Giacoletti said. "But I can't stop and think about it. I've got a job to do, so it does me no good to think about it. I know what its past, its history is, but I need to put blinders on and just stay focussed.

"Maybe some day down the road, sipping beers on the beach when I'm retired, I can think about some of those things. Right now, the window of opportunity is open, and we have to make the most of it."

His first win at Utah was convincing a 7-foot Australian center, sophomore Andrew Bogut, to return to school this season. Giacoletti even flew to Bogut's home in Melbourne to assure his return. Bogut could be a lottery pick in next year's NBA draft.

But the situation isn't perfect at Utah.

Handicapping Giacoletti are the NCAA sanctions he inherits. Utah has lost a scholarship this season and for two more seasons. The school is allowed only eight recruiting visits instead of 12. Still, Giacoletti was able to sign four of his staff's top five recruits.

"To be able to sign five kids with only eight visits, that's a fine, fine line," he said. "We're over the hump now, but if we would have missed on the four kids we signed that could have screwed things up from the very start. You can't miss on a recruiting class."

He has 11 scholarship players on this year's team. And his first sub off the bench tonight against Washington in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout probably will be walk-on guard Casey Iverson.

"It was the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Utah, no matter what the circumstances were," Giacoletti said. "The key now is to develop trust, to build relationships with the players. They had a different style and a different way of doing things, and it takes time building those relationships. We may not even be there yet."

Giacoletti is replacing a legend. Majerus is bigger than life, literally and figuratively. In his 15 years at Utah, he averaged 25 wins. And during the season he was on television almost as much as ESPN's Dick Vitale. He always drew national attention to Utah basketball.

"I spoke at every lunch and dinner deal for the first two months I was here," Giacoletti said when asked about replacing Majerus. "And that was everybody's first question that was asked. I told them, 'What you see is what you get. I can't be anybody else.' I know what Rick did. I know how successful he was. We're going to try to sustain it.

"I've waited 19 years for this opportunity and, yes, constantly there's anxiety. But you do the best you can. You fight, and I have confidence we'll make it work."

In his seven seasons as a head coach, Giacoletti never has had a losing season. And he expects that what worked in Fargo and in Cheney will work again in the hothouse pressure at Utah.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com