The wait is over.
The University of Utah has announced the hiring of Craig Smith. The Former Utah State head coach takes over for Larry Krystkowiak who was fired after a 10-year tenure.
Smith compiled a record of 74-24 at Utah State and has a career record of 225-108 (.676) in 10 years as a collegiate head coach. He led the Aggies to the 2021 NCAA tournament as the Mountain West’s second-place finisher with a 20-9 record, posting a 20-win season for the third year in a row. In his first year with the Aggies, Smith led the program to a 28-7 record, the most wins by a first-year head coach in USU history and the third-most wins overall in school history. USU advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed, the highest in program history.
Welcome to Salt Lake City, Coach Smith!
📰 >> https://t.co/27b2NcRo7t #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/VG1jpYMRG8
— Utah Basketball🏀 (@UtahMBB) March 27, 2021
The Aggies played in the past two NCAA Tournaments and were projected to make the 2020 NCAA Tournament that was never held. Utah State lost in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament to No. 6 Texas Tech.
“Craig Smith brings incredible energy and passion, and a proven record of success,” said Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan. “I’m thrilled to have him lead our men’s basketball program, and look forward to our student-athletes experiencing his incredible work ethic, dedication to being a teacher of the game, and his ability to relate with his players and help them achieve their greatest potential.”
Smith now becomes the 16th head coach in program history and will be tasked with getting the program back to its glory years and a higher standard of play.
In regards to player development, Smith has done a great job wherever he has coached. At Utah State, Smith and his staff developed 2020 NBA draftee Sam Merrill, and 2021 NBA prospect Neemius Queta. With the move up to the Pac-12, experts believe Smith will have even more success and turn out many NBA players at Utah.
Here’s how fans and the media reacted:
Utah confirms officially the hiring of @USUBasketball coach Craig Smith from earlier reports. Smith has done a marvelous job building up the Aggies. The @UtahMBB when from one quality coach to another. Great to see Smith get this opportunity.
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) March 27, 2021
Craig Smith has been a Head Coach for 10 seasons at various levels..
His teams have reached the Postseason 8x. He has 2 regular season league titles and 2 conference tourney titles in the last 4 years. He's been to 3 straight NCAA Tourneys.#Utes— Bill Riley (@espn700bill) March 27, 2021
Craig Smith is a winner. He’s won 68 percent of his games in 10 years as a head coach. He won 76 percent of his games at Utah State and made the NCAA Tournament all 3 years he was there. Then you add the winning with the gregarious personality and energy. He’s great.
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) March 27, 2021
Utah has raided Utah State for its next basketball coach. School announced the hiring of Craig Smith.
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) March 27, 2021
Good move. Smith can really coach. https://t.co/unj8W923jR
— Tony Patelis (@CollegeHoopNews) March 27, 2021
Craig Smith was given nothing and worked through the ranks the hard way. You'll soon hear all the stories of the sacrifices he and his family made to get here. They deserve this windfall.
I'm incredibly happy for him but selfishly I'm really going to miss working with him.
— Scott Garrard (@ScottyGZone) March 27, 2021
Head coach experience ✅
Proven winner ✅
High energy ✅Those are the 3 main boxes I wanted checked. Not an assistant who’s never coached so doesn’t know the grind.
— Salt Lake Jake (@SaltLakeJake) March 27, 2021
Craig Smith comes to Utah with the best postseason resume of the last 5 Utah Head Coaching hires prior to Utah..
Majerus-1 NCAA apprarance
Giacoletti-1 NCAA appearance
Boylen-Zero HC experience
Krystkowiak-2 NCAA appearances
Smith-3 NCAA appearances#Utes— Bill Riley (@espn700bill) March 27, 2021
🎶 Craig Smith is coming to town🎶
— beehiveute (@beehiveute) March 27, 2021
Sam Merrill finally gets a dunk last night then Craig Smith dunks on us this morning
— brittany (@brittany_33) March 27, 2021
So the Utah coach is a Smith and the BYU coach is a Pope. Sounds right.
— Brett Borg (@BBorgUteZone) March 27, 2021
Apparently it’s also a great day to be a Ute
— AC SlaYter (@kiwicanuck76) March 27, 2021
Craig Smith’s first job is to re-recruit Timmy Allen IMO
— Masked couch coach (@Brandt_Anderson) March 27, 2021
Let’s hope Carlson, Pelle, Martinez, Mike stay 🤞🏼
— Oaky Afterbirth (@DearOldCrimson) March 27, 2021
Here is the Utah Roster (at the moment). Utah has 5 spots to fill, if it wants to. I don't have Plummer listed here because his scholarship doesn't count against the 13 limit if he returns pic.twitter.com/iRjwRpok2y
— Utebuntu (@Utebuntu) March 27, 2021
Utah fans say that basketball needs to find its Urban Meyer. Is it too crazy to think that we might have just done that? He has won at every level he’s coached at.
— Oaky Afterbirth (@DearOldCrimson) March 27, 2021
Not gonna lie, this one hurts a little. But as I told Mark Harlan this morning, I couldn’t be happier for Craig and that we get to keep him in state. Ute fans, I promise he’s even better than you think. Congratulations—you’re going to win a lot of games. (Oh, and #GoAggies) https://t.co/AvCafs6ecp
— Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) March 27, 2021
Low-key subplot of this Craig Smith-to-Utah this morning.
Utah State is a GOOD mid-major job. Aggies AD John Hartwell is going to be busy.
— Josh Newman (@Joshua_Newman) March 27, 2021
Do the math: Utah will pay rival Utah State coach Craig Smith $18 million over 6 years to leave USU. His new 5-year deal with USU was worth $3.8 million. So much for be-true-to-your-school.
— Greg Hansen (@ghansen711) March 27, 2021
With the hiring of Smith, that’s now 4 UofU hoops coaches in a row with a losing record head to head vs BYU.
— Vakaviti (@vakaviti) March 27, 2021
Craig Smith is a great hire for Utah.
He's never beaten BYU before, so I fully support their decision. 😂
— Steve Pierce (@PostJimmer) March 27, 2021
Good hire for @UtahMBB …
Can’t imagine Aggie fans are happy about this…#UteNation pic.twitter.com/KLl1WSuN9J— Dave Fox (@Davefox2) March 27, 2021
