Basketball Recruit

[Trevor]

BREAKING: Craig Smith and staff welcome the commitment of former BYU signee Jake Wahlin #GoUtes https://t.co/TrM6CVgvRf

— Steve Bartle (@SBartle247) May 22, 2023

[CoyoteUte]

Does anyone know how many scholarship spots we have left? I’ll feel a lot better if we can add one more play making guard to the roster.

[UteBacker]

Current 12 scholarships (13 allowed)

Branden Carlson

Deivon Smith

Gabe Madsen

Wilguens Exacte

Hunter Erickson

Cole Bajema

Luka Tarlac

Jake Wahlin

Ben Carlson

Keba Keita

Lawson Lovering

Rollie Worster

[Onlyu]

Marco is gone…one spot left. Dunn/Calmese/Dennis are in play

[Hahnenwk]

You have Branden Carlson twice

[SOWhat]

Brandon and Ben Carlson.

[pics]

Bartle said on the radio today that we have one additional spot remaining. Two if BC doesn’t return. They are holding the spot for the former Boise point guard. Don’t remember his name.

[CoyoteUte]

Great to have some news on roster upgrades for basketball. Seems like everything else at the U is kicking ass right now, so this has been my main area of concern. Here’s the Bartle interview from today:
Bartle Interview 5/22/23

[Rick]

It’s movement but whether or not they are upgrades remains to be seen.

[D T]

Do we even see further progress this next season?

[GameForAnyFuss]

We do for sure if Carlson comes back. We’re bigger and we have better guards.

[Onlyu]

You’ve added 100+ P5 starts to the roster with the transfers already onboard, one of the most athletic guards in the portal (albeit not a huge offensive presence) and an all region JUCO kid in Erickson.

Who knows how it translates but definitely better and deeper than last year. The last piece is key. Dennis is down to Baylor and Utah. MAC player of the year and would be a home run. Calmese was behind Brandon Miller in freshman scoring last year averaging 17+ a game (in a lesser league) and Dunn is a wing from N.C. who played behind Caleb Love last year. Any of the 3 will be great adds to finish the roster. Dennis would be a big time get and a game changer but the other two would fill nice needs.

Smith hasn’t brought in a dominant force but he has added athleticism, size and depth with these additions. They will be improved and versatile next year.

[D T]

I’m an eternal optimist & absolutely believe we’ll continue on our upward trajectory.

I was just wanting to see how others felt about it.

[D T]

Btw, enjoy your posts….Thank you.

Just wanted to correct one thing….P5 doesn’t exist in MBB….Power conferences [P6]/midmajors is accurate, but I understood what you meant.

Thanks again for your superior insight, as always.

[Onlyu]

Good point DT and very true…plenty of mid major teams that are very good as well. Just meant we’ve been able to add a lot of experience from major conference basketball. That’s a positive any way you look at it in my mind. I think we’re better defensively for sure because we won’t have to rely on BC guarding anyone that is physical. He’s a very good player but doesn’t like to bang and doesn’t carry enough weight to keep anyone out of the paint. Lovering and Keita can handle that.

I believe we will be harder to guard this year and if we can add a Dennis or to a lesser degree, Calmese it could be by a significant margin. Add in Erickson and Smith and you should open the floor quite a bit more and guys should benefit from that.

I also think we have a lot more competition vying for playing time this year and that will help with the finished product. We added length, athleticism, experience and depth. Scoring might still be an issue but I don’t think they can just take BC out of the equation like last year. We still don’t have a bunch of great options on offense but we added guys that can add 8-15 points a game on any given night from a number of different spots

I think Smith is smart…he can’t add that high profile kid yet because the program just isn’t on that level so he’s pieced together players that can compliment and push each other.

I think they’ve done a pretty good job so far and the right “final” add could push that to a really good job IMO. I tend to lean to the optimistic viewpoint obviously.

[Rick]

Is it really better?  Have we gotten one player so far that is better than Lazar?  What I am also hearing here is that we will be better if Brandon comes back.  So if he doesn’t, we will be worse?  How then is that a successful offseason?  I am just not seeing it.

[utefansince79]

We showed significant improvement last year up until the last few weeks where some injuries and a back-loaded schedule dereailed us.  Trying to be optimisitc and hope we can add a few more wins to our overall record this upcoming season.

 

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