Is Craig Smith the PJ Fleck of basketball coaches?

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EG#9 said:
Looking at Smith's roster at Utah State, it doesn't appear that he recruited any of the significant contributors. The most impactful "Smith guy" appears to be Junior College transfer C Kuba Karowski who is 7th on the team in minutes per game (15.3) and 8th in scoring (3.1).
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The premise here is correct in that most of the guys playing big minutes were there when he got there. But I would point out that the most impactful "Smith guy" is probably Alphonso Anderson who is second on the team in ppg and rpg though he is not a starter.
 

bizzle22 said:
The premise here is correct in that most of the guys playing big minutes were there when he got there. But I would point out that the most impactful "Smith guy" is probably Alphonso Anderson who is second on the team in ppg and rpg though he is not a starter.
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May be even more impressive because he wins with guys the the previous guy could not win with !
 

Bump for @EG#9 , just curious if you have a response to my post #57.
 

MnplsGopher said:
OK.

But, the guy who was the HC at Utah State the three seasons before Craig Smith, finished 8th, 8th, and 7th in the conf standings and was fired. He's an assistant at Boise this season.

So ... wouldn't you agree that CM is getting more out of those players, somehow?
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Absolutely, that's the encouraging part. Utah State also lost a key contributor to a transfer to Marquette, Koby McEwen, after the previous coach was fired/Smith was hired, so the turnaround was even more impressive than it looks from a simple win-loss record. They improved significantly while losing a guy that gave them 15.6 ppg as a Sophomore.

There will be questions about any coach who is hired who hasn't done it before at this level, for Smith the first thing that jumps out to me is recruiting/roster building.
 


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