Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The energy was palpable on the men's court of the Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Basketball Facility.
With the music turned up to 11 and excitement in the air under newly-hired head coach Craig Smith, Utah officially opened up training camp for the 2021-22 season Tuesday.
The team had the practice regiment down to a science and everyone knew their place, even with a roster that was compiled from all over the country over the summer. The stretching, the warm-up drills and everything in between were executed quickly, naturally and with an energy not seen in the program recently.
If a turnover was committed, the offending player immediately dropped to the floor and did pushups — no coach needed to explain the consequences of the turnover.
Even the scrimmage portion was executed flawlessly — the execution, not the actual performance at times. It started in a scrum-like circle until an assistant coach threw a ball to a player as he yelled a jersey color — a red vs. white matchup. The teams then sprinted down court to simulate a real game in transition.
The fast start to the season, which began in summer when the team had a four-week span of practices with coaches, is in large part to the buy-in from all involved in the program, Smith said. At times, he added, the team feels like it's been playing together for years.
"We've seen a lot of good things," Smith said. "If you'd have seen our practice our first two or three weeks, four weeks in the summertime, you'd have been like, 'Oh boy, this could be a long' — but it's been fun to see us jel, and we've really made some great steps. We have a long way to go, but you just never know how things are gonna work. That's the beauty of college basketball.
"But I'm fired up. I love coming to the gym with this group. I can't wait to be here every day. They're energy givers and that's exciting to be a part of it."
But if the first practice open to media is any indication, it's Smith that's the energy giver and the one injecting some life into a program that has struggled to be competitive in the Pac-12 the last few years since back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament in 2015 and 2016.
One moment Smith is jumping up and down celebrating a moment of success for a group of players that did well in a scrimmage setting, the next he's sprinting down the court as he attempts to insert himself into the live action — not as a player, but as one in need of the exact viewpoint his players are seeing at the moment.
And when needed, Smith pulls a player aside for a brief moment to explain something in the situation he sees. It's Smith getting knee deep into the details to transform Utah back into a competitive program where the expectations are to be back in the NCAA Tournament his first season with the program.
"Every year our expectation is to get to the NCAA Tournament and win when we get there," he said. "And that's not a line just to say the line, that's our expectations. Now, is that going to be tough to do? Of course it is; it's going to be very, very difficult to do."
Smith said Utah's path will not be like his path at Utah State, where he took the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Mountain West Conference in his first season with the program. There's certainly a chance for similar success, but he "learned a long time ago: comparison's a thief of joy."
"The truth is, you just never know how things are going to come together," Smith said. "Some people view talent as guys that can really run fast and really jump high, and that's certainly talent — that's hard to teach — but how do you teach what's in somebody's heart? How do you teach what's in their brain and how they carry that forward and what their leadership style is?
"I think people don't always talk enough about those sorts of things that impact winning in a major way — and selflessness and understanding how to play the game. And then how does the chemistry come together?"
Each season is a new challenge.
The increased competition in the Pac-12, alone, will be enough to make it harder for the program to obtain its goals from the onset. But Smith, and the players who have bought into his coaching style with ease, believe Utah can again be a tournament team. Not next year or in two years when Smith's recruiting class takes shape, but this year.
In short, Smith wants to bring the Runnin' Utes back to their winning ways starting on Nov. 9 in the season opener against Abilene Christian at the Huntsman Center.
"I want to bring Runnin' Utes back by sharing the ball, moving the ball, playing together, and then we've got to be tough physically and mentally on both sides of the ball," Smith said.
"We want to be the winning style, so whatever that takes. And in our conference, there's a lot of different styles of play. So one night you might have to win 101-95 and then two days later you might have to win 64-57. So our identity is we want to be sound — and I don't want to be all cliche-ish — but we want to be a tough team; tough minded, tough physically, very sound and disciplined."
Even on Day 1 of training camp, Smith believes he has the right makeup of players to contend in the conference and to match up with the diverse styles of play thrown at his team. And his team will do whatever it has to to win — it's the winning style.
"We're messing around with a lot of different lineups," he said. "I think that's a sign of a good team is you can play a lot of different lineups. So we have some ability to play big, we can play small ball and I think we can play a lot of different things in between. We're constantly getting our guys to get a feel for what we're trying to do. Today we're gonna have a lot of different lineups like we do every day."
Regardless of the lineup, the expectation is to win and to win now.
