SALT LAKE CITY - Utah basketball coach Ray Giacoletti will leave at the end of the season, the school announced Friday. The Utes (11-17) are mired in their worst season in decades and are just 6-9 in the Mountain West Conference before Saturday's game at rival Brigham Young.

Utah head coach Ray Giacoletti yells at a referee during the first half of the San Diego State college basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007, in Salt Lake City. Giacoletti resigned Friday, March 2, 2007. Giacoletti announced his resignation Friday, March 1, 2007 at the end of the season. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

"No one wanted our team to succeed this year more than my staff and I, but that just wasn't the case," Giacoletti said in a statement.

His tenure, which started with a 29-win season in 2004-05, will likely end at next week's Mountain West Conference tournament unless the Utes somehow rally to win it. That's the only way Utah can make the postseason.

Giacoletti is 54-38 in three seasons at Utah, but just 25-32 since he took the Utes to the NCAA tournament's round of 16 in 2005. Andrew Bogut, the NBA's No. 1 draft pick that year, was his star player.

Utah said it will honor the four remaining years on his contract and pay him $175,000 a year.

"We're all disappointed things didn't work out the way we wanted," athletic director Chris Hill said in announcing the resignation.

Gicaoletti was hired in 2004 to replace Rick Majerus, who stepped down for health reasons midway through the season.

Giacoletti had gone 69-50 in four seasons at Eastern Washington and led the Eagles to their first NCAA tournament berth in 2004.

One of Giacoletti's first moves was to ensure Bogut, a 7-foot center, would return for his sophomore season. Giacoletti visited him in Australia and persuaded him to play another year in college.

That was the easy part. Once Bogut left, four others followed, either voluntarily or after a nudge from Giacoletti, who waited a season before cleaning out players who didn't fit his program.

Utah ended up going 14-15, but given what the Utes lost — namely Bogut — the dropoff was widely overlooked by fans.

This season, however, the Utes were expected to improve. Instead, they are having their worst year since going 11-19 in 1983-84.

Despite the team's youth — the Utes have only one senior — fans weren't nearly as forgiving during Giacoletti's third season and started calling for his job.