Craig Smith: Runnin’ Utes looking to finish strong in the NIT tournament
H Olson Scott Gerard 975 the KL Sports Zone it has been way too long since we’ve chatted with this guy one of our favorite dudes on the planet and he’s on his way to Hinkle Fieldhouse not Madison Square Garden but going back to Indianapolis it’s the hle as Utah will
Square off against Indiana State in the NIT semifinals the head coach of the youths Craig Smith joining us coach how are you hey coach hey guys thanks for having me on it’s been way too long I do got to tell you I love that Nirvana song that you
Had is kind of the the lead in and it got me thinking I love music any kind of music and you talked about Hinkle field house and and uh Brandon hadock one of our players um has been saying highway to Hinkle um uh and so a little play on
Words there but uh it’s been a fun ride here and we practiced at 8 AM this morning local time so I don’t have to tell you what time it is your time uh uh right now so the guys are up and at him early and you know it’s fun I’ve uh been
Doing this for a long long time and I remember uh at Mayville State when I was a head coach there uh 32 teams make the National Tournament and the first round of the tournament everybody’s at one site and the first round of the tournament’s two full days so the first
Game is at 8:30 in the morning and the last game is like scheduled to start at 9:30 but we all know how that goes it’s usually 10:30 10:45 and one of my years my second year there we played the 8:30 game uh the very first day of the
Tournament and so we started practicing at 500 am you know and we had a bunch of night owls on that team and I was like this could be interesting but they were fired up woke up early no sleep in the eye they’re ready to go and we had that
Same look this morning so that was a uh that was a great sign how’s Indianapolis treating your coach well we got in we practiced uh in at Utah yesterday and hoed on the plane and we got into the hotel about 8:30 um last night so I had some foods for the
Guys the scout team met with one of our uh coaches trell Barnes to go over some things and um uh we got a good night sleep and up and atam so like I said had a good practice uh earlier today and now I’ve been just kind of uh hanging out a
Little bit with my family but more so just getting ready I watch some Georgia film you know if we if we comp beete Indiana State and believe me that’s going to be a very difficult game on the other side of the bracket we have Sean Hall in Georgia as well so I’ve already
Watched Sean Hall and preparing for Georgia and and then on a personal note my son Carson um uh my son Carson Smith we have four kids Darcy and I he committed to North Coast State to play basketball nice yeah so that was that was a pretty
Cool deal for him to be able to do it in Hinkle and and just everything that goes with that and just the whole leadup to it he’s passionate about basketball he loves it and so it’s fun to see um his dedication and and uh work ethic and all
That kind of stuff pay off I was an assistant at North coost State for three years uh so Dave Richmond and I have known each other for a long time and uh it’s a perfect fit oh man I can’t imagine cool that is as a dad when you
See that come across and the opportunities that are going to come from it that’s really cool congratulations to you and Darcy and him thank you I appreciate it it’s been a uh it’s been an amazing journey that’s for sure yeah all right so um all right so from a selfish standpoint I’m not
Gonna lie coach uh we’re gonna go back we’re GNA backtrack a little bit when when I see you and Ryan odm and barow and schulga all competing against each other that that threw me for a loop that that was a weird one for me well I think it was for everybody you
Know uh that’s close to the program you know close to the Utah State program um you know when the brackets came out my son Brady who actually plays at Salt Lake Community College he had medical hardship with a fractured orbital not to get to but Brady’s gonna be a big part of this
Question um you know being the head coach at Utah State and and I did not know Ryan obviously I left you know to to be the head coach at Utah and Ryan becomes the next head coach so immediately you have a bond right I me I’ll always remember my first
Year at Utah State we go play uh at the Marriott Center right play at BYU and and we lose and we were just coming off some big wins and St moral sent me a text coach don’t get too down everybody’s been in those shoot anybody that’s coached at the University of Utah
Or excuse me at Utah State you know has felt you’re going through right now you got a good team stay with it don’t be discouraged stay positive keep going I always remember that for him to reach out and say something like that so there’s always there’s a Brotherhood
There and then my son Brady was in between his Junior and Senior year uh of high school and he wanted to stay Logan Browns is the new coach at Green Canyon and so Brady stayed with my oldest son Landon who’s about to graduate from Utah State he’s student teaching right now
He’s got three weeks left uh so he’s GNA grad he’s stayed with lon’s best friend’s parents uh uh in Logan and so but he really got to know Owen uh odm coach Odum Lucia the whole family Connor and and he stayed overnight so many times there they just nicknamed the
Spare bedroom Brady’s room I think they actually put a sign up that said Brady’s room in the house and so you know I’m forever Darcy and are forever indebted to them for taking him in during a hard time and um welcom him with open arms he
Always says Brady you can walk on a VCU if you want and uh uh so anyway it was super cool and Brady and Owen spoke it into existence when the brackets came out they’re like oh man this is gonna happen and uh sure enough it did so it’s
Always you know hard when you play against friends and uh of course he wanted to beat our butt and we wanted to beat theirs you know and and and and earn ictory um but it’s always can be difficult and then you throw in the layer you know that we recruited sha
Baro and coached him for two years and recruited Max shuga and coached him for a year and I did an official V or not an official v a home visit in Brisbane Australia with with Sean and his entire family except for the one brother and I forget his name cam maybe played Mexico
Yeah cam was the only sibling that was not there and Sean’s mom Penny you know as a coach and and um I I told this story I don’t know if you heard it I had never liked salmon I just had never liked it so you
Fly it all the way there and I went right to the house to do the visit you know you’re a little groggy and a little little jet lag and um and we do the whole deal I do the present then it’s time to serve dinner and here comes
Salmon and I’m like okay here we go you know you can’t not right you gota I mean so I it was it was incredible like ever since that point now I loves salmon so I got to thank penny for that because it’s one of the go-tos uh in in the uh in the
Diet so it was cool it was great to catch up with him after uh the game uh I follow them very closely I look at every box score think the world of both those guys they’re great players but even better people so coach when you guys get this
Nit opportunity you accept the bid and you move into competition I’m just curious how important was this level of success for you in that moment and and what you guys are currently going through well I think it’s been great for our program you know we had uh um uh we
Had some real highs and we had some really tough times as most teams go through most teams not all um you know I feel like we had to kind of reinvent our te reinvent our team a few different times um for a multitude of reasons um
You know a lot of the year we played with nine scholarships 10 scholarship guys and that’s just how it goes sometimes in athletics and and uh I thought we were playing pretty good basketball to end the year although we had a couple tough losses on the road
Late you know Brandon Carlson gets hurt when we’re up eight on Oregon with about 17 to go um but you know and we were still on the bubble almost all year right until the very end and I thought that said something about our team and so you know when we got the invitation
There was really no doubt in my mind that we’re gonna play basketball like the opportunity to play games and to compete you know when I ironic we were talking about North Dakota State and I was an assistant there for three years I always remember this and I’m going to
Put this up but we’re we’re kind of rebranding our office area and in the weight room at North Dakota State and I think Hans you would really appreciate this in the weight room and we’re big into the weight room as a program but it had this big you know bison logo and it
Said bring on the competition and it’s never too late and we always try to recruit real competitors guys that love to compete love to compete not just play right there’s some guys that love to play but then other guys love to compete and you got to get guys that love to
Play and compete is the key and and so I asked a lot of the guys and they were almost to man like yes we want to keep playing and it wasn’t you know there was some it was hard you know in that when you lose to Colorado in that conference
Tournament and you know you’re not going to make the NCA tournament and and to almost to a man they wanted to keep playing because they were like this is the closest knit team I’ve ever been a part of and all these guys come from different experiences right and
Different backgrounds and so I thought that kind of galvanized us and you know obviously we’re able to play three games at home and you start gaining a little bit of momentum and confidence and and we got a couple guys that I would say are playing their best basketball of the
Year right now so at the end of the day you know I said this postgame radio postgame press conference like whether it’s a team or a season or in life everybody has to run their own race and you don’t know what that race is and you know some people are
Born on third base they think they hit a triple some people we all got to go through our own story and I think it’s important don’t worry about comparisons right comparisons the thief of joy you just got to own your race run your race to the very best that you can and and
The results will take care of themselves so at the end of the day there’s 362 teams in division one and we’re one of eight teams Plus playing and we’re our race is we made it to this final four and we’re excited to compete against a really good Indiana State team we gotta
Get um you need me to overnight you some of the voice spray what what do I got to do to help you out here a little bit I got my my wife always Buys in bulk the problem is she really tries to coach me up sometimes and I’m not always the best
Listener she’s proably she just tried to call in on this interview and she’s probably telling reminding me take the voice spray I have two of them in my backpack but I need to take it out and just put it you know in the hotel room
Right on the corner so I don’t forget so I’m gonna go I’m gonna I’m gonna do that right now while we while we’re speaking I used to I used to be I carry it with me everywhere and she’s always says use the Scotty G voicey spray yep yep works
Like magic absolutely hey uh uh you’re up against uh everybody I mean he I mean I would have loved to seen what this guy had the attention he would have got in the NCAA tournament but uh Indiana State loses to Drake in their Missouri Valley Conference tournament and so they’re in
The NIT but uh Robbie AA Kem Abdul Jabar as everybody has called him uh he’s been you know kind of a novelty but then when you sit back and actually watch him play he is such a phenomenal Talent just kind of talk about what you’ve seen on film
And and the issues that he’s going to cause for your team well that’s the truth I think he has three nicknames um I don’t know of them I think I know two of them um but he’s good he’s really good and their team accentuates him as well um they
Just a complete team but he is a he’s just a very unique player um you know he’s a little bit different than a guy that we have Brandon Carlson but there’s definitely some similarities um you know he’s listed at 610 I think 230 235 can really really
Shoot it he’s an elite passer you know for the BYU fans out there he he’s got some similarities to their starting center uh Khalifa um who is just a magician with the ball um so he’s an elite and we played BYU right in December and so um
He’s just so hard to prepare for because he’s constantly picking and popping so now you got to work on your rotations your stunts your heide they do a great job of what we call burning the stunt guy so they’re always diving you know as
Good a shooter as he is he he he’s a better passer he’s he he sees the floor like a point guard and so when you have that you know he’s got a little yolic in him right and I know that’s like a huge but like that’s kind of how he plays and
So puts a lot of pressure and then the way they’ve built around them you know their Forman who’s a high level guy they were high school teammates uh actually and they both I believe they both transferred in there his last name is Kent but his nickname is cutter he’s an
Elite cutter he kind of you know just Bean was such a great cutter like he’s kind of like that he’s constantly cutting and moving and gets two offensive boards a game and then they have three guards that are all three level scores they get to the rim they
Shoot pull-ups theyve can really shoot it from the three so they just put a ton of pressure on you and they’re they’re Dynamic they’re very very athletic and fast so they they put a lot of pressure on you that way but when you have a five
That can really stretch you all five of their starters have made 35 threes or more 50% of their shots are from the three they make over 11 a game at at 40 at 38% so they’re very good that way and you know it’s neutral at Hinkle right
The home of hoers however the Indiana State campus is 71 miles from Hinkle so we use the term neutral Loosely uh because it’s it’s a it’s a soldout crowd so it’s going to be great uh a great vibe in hle Arena tomorrow night tomorrow night five o’clock tip here on
ESPN you can watch watch that thing and I would suggest you get out there and watch it coach I want to talk just a second about Davon Smith because his eligibility and his whole year has been quite the story to follow talk about what he’s meant to the team will you
Talk a little bit about what the struggle was to get him eligible and then what he’s meant to the team and maybe even the records that he’s putting up with the Pack 12 triple doubles yeah so so first of all um interesting enough you know he he’s a
Two-time transfer so that was the struggle he started out his career I believe he was a top 50 player out of high school and you know I don’t get I don’t get crazy into the rankings the fans do but he went to Mississippi State during the covid year with Ben Howen
Just and he’s from Atlanta Georgia just wasn’t feeling it transferred home to Georgia Tech played there two years we actually played Georgia Tech in uh in our mte uh last year so we prepared for him and we saw on film I mean this guy’s really d hamic uh got hurt missed all of
February at Georgia Tech so he comes at University of Utah two-time transfer so at that time right you you had to sit out I applied for a waiver and then while he was going through the r waiver process right the NCA cleared all two-time transfers and um and so we just
Slowly you know worked him into the lineup uh he played right away but obviously he was a little tenative and you know kind of working the cobwebs out so to speak and um and then you know Raleigh wster uh so he was playing a lot and I thought we were really starting to
Find our Rhythm I think we beat UCLA by 46 or something like that and then wer goes down and so now you know Devon’s our exclusively our point guard and it’s just you know he’s he’s he’s been he’s just really starting to thrive he played some point guard at Georgia Tech but not
Exclusively and and obviously some of the numbers he’s been able to put up uh a been tremendous but I think he has five triple double I think he missed another one by one assist or one rebound uh in the conference tournament and so I set a record for the Pack 12 with most
Triple doubles in a season and like Brandon Carlson said I don’t think that one would get broken um uh and so he’s done some amazing things he’s just super Dynamic 45 inch vertical uh super super fast uh in transition well all the time and so uh it’s been fun to see his
Progression and like I said he’s been playing his best basketball of the year uh specifically the last three weeks well coach I know you’re a history guy uh we would talk about the history of basketball all the time back in the day and and the stuff that you uh enjoy and
Where you’ve been and and and all that stuff um I know Madison Square Garden would have been really cool but this this this this isn’t a bad consolation prize to be playing in the uh the old Hooser gym well it’s awesome to still be playing um certainly you
Know Indiana loves basketball the state of Indiana I mean people love basketball here and I compared it you know this morning at the press conference the state of Utah loves basketball I mean basketball junkies and um so it’s an historic venue when we drove up you know
I’d always heard it and I’ve never seen it you’re just driving through a resident it’d be like driving in the middle of Bountiful and all of a sudden you turn a corner and there’s Hinkle like just in the middle of nowhere it’s kind of like what and uh
Uh and it’s old school I mean it just looks like this huge I don’t know it’s hard to describe it like you would think I mean it’s just kind of like what you think and um and you walk in there and we were the first team to practice and
It was very Serene just very peaceful but yet you can just kind of feel it and the vibe of it when we walked in and it’s kind of a blessing to be able to walk in there and and no other team was on before us they’re not rushing another
Team off and us on we could just kind of take our time do the stretches and we had a great like I said we had a great practice and so it’s really cool obviously the movie who yours which I try to watch once a year and you know I
Asked a couple of the guys hey did you guys bring the tape measure had no clue what I was talking about no clue and then some other guys were like you know like G Matson and Brandon Carlson like guys are you serious you’ve never watched hooers and so anyway um it is
Really cool to be at a historic venue uh in a state that truly loves basketball and and going against the home team you know for all intents and purposes the home team and there’s a connection with the University of Utah Right Larry Bird played in Indiana State and and in all
These games that I’m watching and I’m old school I don’t watch Clips I watch the whole game uh they talk about that team and of course in y State played Michigan State with Magic Johnson in the Huntsman Center so there is kind of a in some ways like a full circle moment that
Way and that’s a really cool thing well coach good luck we appreciate it thanks for hopping on I know you had a busy today but uh means a lot that you do this for us and uh again go get them tomorrow should be a lot of fun oh it’s
Always my pleasure and thanks for having me on and I I I I’m looking forward to a barbecue sometime soon and I know we say this every year say every we gotta make we have to make it happen so I appreciate you guys go youut you got it
There he is Craig Smith thank you head coach at the University of Utah let’s go bring him up let’s go all right let’s go let’s go let me hear it I
• Runnin’ Utes head coach Craig Smith joined the show to discuss the season, NIT run and Devion Smith play.
