Coach Smith

[SOWhat]

Ok Craig Smith haters, get it out of your system.

[MDUte]

Gave up 100 points…sums up the season. Give everyone a gun and a badge and they still won’t defend anyone.

[The Miami Ute]

This is a big off-season for Smith. If the Utes lay an egg in their inaugural Big XII season, then I see Utah moving on from him.

[Tony (admin)]

Wasn’t this past season supposed to be a big season for him? 

[Yergensen]

100 pts, Big Rick rolling in his grave.

Defense travels, this team doesn’t.

[Tony (admin)]

And that’s quite a load to roll.

[fosternano]

When every team on the road seems to get hot and post season high points on Utah…..you gotta start looking at the coaching at some point.

[ORute]

Nice guy, decent coach, doesn’t prioritize D. I think most are seeing the writing, but with increasing win totals for a program that hasnt been relevant in a while, he gets another year. I just don’t see enough in-game adjustments, bringing in top recruits and focus on fundamentals to build a top tier program.

[admiralute]

What I have seen not only this game, but all season long is the lack of basic fundamental basketball. Have you seen anyone block out the shooter once this season? Poor free throw shooting. Passing lazy and sloppy. Defensively no switching or if they do switch, they don’t know how to get back on their man which causes mismatches everywhere and players out of position to defend. Many other things, but it’s difficult to watch a team that has the fundamentals of a middle school team.

[Rick]

And our guards and forwards consistently going under screens on outside shooters. The defensive rotation on shooters is also horrible and it was on full display all night last night. Other glaring issues like free throw shooting, rebounding, turnovers, poor in-game adjustments, etc. I hope Coach Smith finds a few guru basketball workshops he can attend in the off-season. Maybe see if he can observe some other teams and how they prepare like UCONN or Houston. My biggest issue with Craig’s teams is the overall lack of defensive effort. Some on here say that it due to lack of athleticism but you cannot sit here and tell me that this team is lacking in that area compared to some of Majerus’s teams. Maybe not the 1997 or 1998 teams, but the rest were not juggernauts from an athletic perspective. Recruiting is a whole other issue. Larry K could flat out recruit. We are still seeing his recruits playing crucial roles on teams deep into the tournament. It is depressing to watch! If Craig can keep Daivon here and build around him quickly he may have a shot at keeping his job next season but if he can’t keep Daivon, I would rip off the bandaid right now and get a Big 12 caliber coach in here to start the conference fresh.

[Utah5410]

Ok coach. Great at home. Terrible on the road. His team is weak. Starts with thr coach. He is weak mentally. Needs to fix this over the summer and find some dudes

[CityCreekUte]

I thought it was pretty poor coaching to stay in a zone and play the lineup he did last night.

[Kellso]

I agree. It works as a surprise for a bit but, they were slicing that 1-3-1, badly. Their cutters were unstopped. The man weak side help D was nonexistent. What is the answer? As a season ticket holder I saw a lot of great man D at home. It didn’t travel as expected. Graig’s teams have improve every year under him. I think he is a very good coach. 2025 will be important for his future here mainly because he’s Old Mother Hubbard. Just my observation.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

The zone was not working the second half. They made adjustments we didn’t. They had wide open shots every possession. Why stick with it? I thought our offense was good. It’s obvious we need more athleticism on defense. Keba has disappeared the last several games. If Smith and Madsen stay we need athletes at 2-4-5 positions. Lovering 8-9 th player in rotation.

[AZUTE]

This season was tailor made for a tournament run and it didn’t happen.

Smith has an uphill battle on his hands now.

He had an experienced veteran team and a tournament run would have rejuvenated fan interest increased booster donations and given him a jumpstart into the big12.

The team showed improvement record wise and a post season NIT run but the season goal was not reached and thus it makes this season a failure.

Smith is now almost starting from scratch. Carlson, Wooster, and Bajema gone.

I would expect Tarlac to be let go and labeled a recruiting bust. Keba is interesting as a foreign player he’s not eligible for NIL so he won’t leave for a bag of money but he might do it just for a fresh start. Exacte is in the same boat as Keba. He’s not eligible for NIL but after missing the season with a mystery injury he may want a clean start over somewhere else.

Honestly any combination of these two staying or going wouldn’t surprise me.

Why would Ben Carlson, Erickson, or Whalin leave?

I would expect Madsen to get an NBA evaluation the way Carlson did last year and then return for his last season.

Lovering is a train wreck. He should be a 10-12 minute a game backup not a 20 minute a game starter but I’m sure he’ll be back.

Talk about playing your way into a huge contract. Deivon made a lot of money next season with the way he played this season.

I’ve heard his NIL number could be as high as 600K for next year. I’ve also heard Utah only has about 1.5 mil in NIL to give out. Do you give almost half to one player when Utah needs upgrades at almost every position?

This goes back to my original point. Make the Big Dance and he probably gets an extra little boost from donors to let him afford a better team going forward.

Craig Smith has painted himself into a corner. He’s gonna need a miracle at this point to be Utah’s Bball Coach in 25’-26’

[MDUte]

Great post AZUTE. IMO, PG is the most important position on the court. Majerus certainly expressed this after being spoiled with Andre Miller and afterwards when Miller moved on to the NBA and Utah didn’t have a high quality PG.

That said, Utah already has one of the best PGs in the country in Deivon Smith. IMO, it’s far easier to pay him what he’s worth and build next year’s team around Deivon than let him go to a higher bidder in the transfer portal. Pay him half of the NIL budget and use the other half to find a high quality big/scorer to replace Branden Carlson. Then do everything possible to keep Madsen and surround these 3 with solid role players and quality depth on your bench. IMO, that would give Utah the best opportunity to successfully compete next year.

[chinngiskhaan]

Poor free throws, poor rebounding (relative to our size) and poor defense. Those are the three most fundamental parts of basketball. I don’t know how you don’t beat your players over the head with these concepts.

The good thing is, those 3 things are probably the 3 easiest problems to fix in basketball. All you really have to do for better rebounding and defense is try harder, and be smarter. Free throw improvement is all about repetition.

I will say that the players on the team have improved every year under Smith. Carlson visibly improved offensively over the last three seasons. You could see it in his body, and his confidence. Keita took a huge step forward this year as well (though he regressed).

Madsen has also improved a ton since arriving.

The elephant in the room is the terrible recruiting of HS players. Hopefully he can convince some good transfers to come in, or we are going to get curb stomped in the Big12.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I agree Chin. Better defense and rebounding need better athletes. Smith ( smallest player on the court) was our best rebounder. Athleticism matters. Free throw shooting was horrible considering we built the team around shooters.

[chinngiskhaan]

Yeah, the free throw shooting woes didn’t make sense at all.

[GameForAnyFuss]

The elephant in the room is the terrible recruiting of HS players.

The good news is, high school recruiting doesn’t matter any more. Like, not in the slightest. Every team not named UCONN will be living off transfers.

What matters now is how you recruit the portal and Smith has been OK at that. I just saw that Great Osobor (the behemoth center that led USU all year) is in the portal. Go get him, Craig!

[MDUte]

Summed everything up perfectly IMO, thanks!

The only thing I’m not convinced about is this notion that the B12 is the “best” basketball conference in the country. It sure didn’t appear this way in the Tourney with 8 of their teams getting in with 1, 2, 3, and 4 seeds placed and none of them going beyond the Sweet 16. I definitely see the B12 as a solid MBB conference but it didn’t perform any better than the P12 did IMO. And with Utah beating the Zoobs this year and how TSPP performed in the B12, I don’t see anything that leads me to believe we wouldn’t have done about the same in the B12 this year as they did. I’m not saying Utah had a great season this year because it was absolutely a failed season from not being able to win on the road and make the Tourney. But I think B12 MBB is getting far too much credit right now and is way overrated. The ACC, B1G, SEC and maybe even the Big East were all better leagues this year. All this to say, we shouldn’t be feeling like UTAH isn’t going to be able to win a conference MBB game next year. That’s all I saw from Zoob fans about their expectations heading into their 1st B12 season and they did just fine. I don’t think anyone can convince me that Utah and TSPP aren’t fairly close in terms of MBB programs right now. They get the edge because they performed better on the road and made the Tourney. But they’re not much better than us IMO and I think Utah should not be afraid of the “mighty B12” MBB league.

[RedUte14]

you’re right winning the ship in 2022 and 2021 makes them par with the pac12 in basketball.

[MDUte]

Yea and TSPP winning the ship in 84 is on par with Michigan winning it in 24.

Your posts are so full of idiotic Zoob logic. What from this season (not 3 years ago or 2 years ago or 8 years ago) demonstrates that the B12 MBB conference is the best in the land? Please enlighten us all, I’m waiting…

[Rick]

I’m sorry but your logic about using the NCAA tournament as the measure of how great a conference is has many flaws. Top to bottom the Big 12 is at least in the top 3 of all D1 basketball conferences and it has been for many years. Just using this year’s tournament to support your logic does not make it valid. The NCAA tournament is all about matchups. Houston would not have lost had their best player not blown out his ankle in the first half. That alone would have shot a big hole in your theory. I think we all saw how good Houston was when we played them and we were damn lucky the game with the zoobs didn’t go an extra minute or two. I would suggest having a bit more respect for the conference we are entering because we are going to need it.

[MDUte]

What are you talking about? The NCAA Tournament IS the measuring stick. No longer are you comparing resumes but things get settled on the court. The B12 teams had 8 invites, the most of any conference except the SEC which also had 8. And of these 8 invites, 4 of them had either a 1, 2, 3 or 4 seed. Not getting 1 team past the Sweet 16 proves the B12 was, in fact, overrated this year.

Sure, Houston’s best player got injured and likely would’ve advanced had that not happened. But that’s too bad for Houston. Can’t live in a world of ifs and buts…you have to deal with injuries like all teams do in all sports. I never said the B12 sucked as a MBB conference. To the contrary, I said it’s still a very solid league. But the fact remains, this year has proved it was an overrated league and NOT the best league in college basketball.Lastly, I (and everyone) can fan however I like. That said, I hate the B12 and it sucks we’re stuck in this sh*tty conference. You can feel completely the opposite and that’s your right. How either of us feel as fans about the conference or what we say about the conference doesn’t matter whatsoever…not one bit. My hatred of the B12 is entirely football-related and none of my posts in this thread were meant to disparage the B12’s MBB league. There’s no doubt it’s a solid league. I was only being real that it’s just not the best league in the land, and not even the 2nd best…so clearly, it was overrated this year. But from a football perspective, the B12 is a sh*tty conference. And there’s no denying it. It barely sits above the G5 ranks and that sucks!

[utefansince79]

Crazy that we had a better percentage for treys than from the charity stripe.