Utah fired males’s basketball coach Craig Smith on Monday with 4 video games left within the crew’s common season.
The choice comes at an surprising juncture. The Utes are removed from the NCAA Match image however did beat Kansas and Kansas State in back-to-back residence video games final week earlier than falling 76-72 at UCF on Saturday. Utah is 15-12 and performs its subsequent sport Wednesday at Arizona. The Utes are 7-9 in Huge 12 play, sitting tied for ninth the 16-team convention.
Assistant Josh Eilert will function the crew’s interim coach for the rest of the season, per the varsity’s official launch. Smith leaves the Utes with a 65-62 mark in Salt Lake Metropolis. He did not deliver Utah to the NCAA Match throughout his crew there.
“I wish to thank Craig for his work and dedication since he arrived in Salt Lake Metropolis. He has led us to particular moments and memorable victories, and Craig has poured his coronary heart into constructing our present crew,” athletic director Mark Harlan stated in a assertion. “Nonetheless, we’ve larger aspirations for our males’s basketball program, each throughout the Huge 12 Convention and nationally, and our expectation is to commonly compete within the NCAA Match. After evaluating our program beneath Craig’s management, I imagine a change is required to get us to the place we wish to go. The time is now to start that course of, and we’ll encompass Coach Eilert, the employees and our student-athletes with help as they proceed with their season.”
Smith was a logical and well-credentialed candidate upon his hiring in 2021. He went 153-79 in seven seasons prior whereas teaching South Dakota and Utah State, the latter of which he took to the NCAA Match in 2019 and 2021. (USU was additionally an NCAA Match-level crew in 2020, if not for the cancellation of the occasion.)
The most important problem for Smith was Utah’s lack of NIL help. Sources stated this system’s assets rank close to the underside of the Huge 12.
This example turned all of the extra urgent on the native degree. BYU is Utah’s fierce rival, and the Cougars have constructed up one of many largest struggle chests in males’s basketball for participant compensation, most notably touchdown No. 1 prospect AJ Dybantsa for subsequent season. Plus, BYU has been on an upswing as of late, enjoying its method into the NCAA Match image in February.
Utah is the fifth power-conference job emptiness on this 12 months’s cycle, becoming a member of Florida State, Indiana, Miami and Virginia.