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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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 — At the end of each week, Craig Smith brings his coaching staff together to evaluate his team.
Among other matters of business, Smith asks them a simple question, nothing wavering, as the staff prepares its roster for the upcoming season: "If we were playing a game tomorrow to get to the NCAA Tournament, who would you start? Who would be your next four guys and then rank the rest."
That question has sparked different responses each week from the coaching staff. In two weeks of practice, each member of the team has showcased something that makes them worthy of being in that conversation.
It remains a fluid situation and is one that Smith calls "far from determined" and "wide open."
For Smith, the weekly query is an exercise meant to get his starting unit established early and create a sort of pecking order to ensure continuity throughout the season. The sooner the better.
In his practices, it's a continued shift of personnel to see the various matchups and groupings that work best with each other. There's no preferential treatment to veteran players or a hesitancy to consider freshman players. It's a clean slate and one that will go a long way in Smith's team improving upon a squad that finished 11th in the Pac-12 last season.
"Generally speaking, veteran guys, obviously, have been down that road before," Smith said. "But, listen, as a head coach, I mean, I've started a lot of freshmen over the course of the last 11 years and have played a lot of freshmen. We are not afraid to play inexperienced guys if they impact winning the most. When we look at things, you're always looking for synergy and continuity, but more than anything, you're looking for a competitive spirit and who impacts winning."
That could mean selecting a player that doesn't always show up on the box score but adds to the continuity and consistency of the team in another way. The starting roster can't be full of those players, but it's striking a fine balance to get the best five players on the court at any given time — and that includes those who will replace the starters in backup minutes.
"Maybe some guy in the box score doesn't always show all these things, but, man, that guy impacts winning because he makes one more pass, or because he takes charges, or because he's always in the right place at the right time, or because you know exactly what you're gonna get out of that guy every day and he can help you win in the Pac 12," Smith said. "So I think that's a lot to be determined. We're deep."
In Smith's second season at Utah, he believes his team is already further along, or a "little ahead of pace compared to most years," in its development as opposed to last year's team (or some of the teams he's coached in the past). The team's intelligence and physicality, he said, have been apparent and are key assets to his current roster.
Smith said he has made a "conscious decision" to do more "team stuff" this year to help a roster that has eight new faces to the team's makeup. It will all lead to a different look on the court — at least he hopes so when the games tipoff officially in November.
"I do think — I don't think there's any doubt — we're farther ahead than where we were a year ago and farther ahead than a lot of teams I've coached at this point," he said.
"I think we're in a lot deeper stage compared to last year," sophomore Lazar Stefanovic added. "I feel like we were ready two weeks ago to play a game, with how much stuff we put in, how much live stuff we did. So I think we're more than ready to play a game, but we just can't wait for it."
Last year, Smith said the margin for error for his team was extremely thin — it was — but he feels like the size and the physicality he's added to the roster this season will give the team more leeway to recover from mistakes made on the court. It won't be a cure-all by any means, but should help the team be more consistently competitive.
"We can maybe make a few more mistakes and recover just because we're a little quicker and we're bigger," Smith said. "All of our new guys, even though their height might not be crazy, we're very long. We're a lot longer, we're a lot more athletic, a lot more physical, a lot quicker to the ball. And so those gaps that maybe were a little bigger gaps last year closed down a lot quicker with this year's team."
"We're much bigger, a lot stronger, a lot faster," senior forward Marco Anthony added. "If you look at the games last year, the ones that we lost, it was because we were kind of getting bullied throughout the game, and I don't feel like that'll be a factor this year."
The season doesn't officially tipoff until Nov. 7 against Long Island University at the Huntsman Center, but the team will get its first true test in a "secret scrimmage" game against Santa Clara on Oct. 22, though Smith could not officially confirm the opponent due to NCAA rules.
"They were very good last year," Smith said, speaking in generalities about his team's scrimmage opponent. "They've been good the last couple of years. ... But we're excited that we have a very good opponent coming in to the Huntsman and I think it'd be a great test for us.
"It'll be a good litmus test for us."
