Smith is starting to turn the program around, and doing it almost entirely with player development rather than recruiting. Carlson looks to have added strength for the first time in his career. Stefanovic and Madsen have both taken huge steps forward, and the team as a whole is playing better together. That is a big change from what we saw with LK, which was getting highly regarded recruits that somehow got worse year over year. The only real exception to that was Jakob Poeltl, who improved immensely in his time at the U.
It will be interesting to see what Smith can do with Keita over the next few years.