Smith Post Game Interviews and Thougths

[Ravenute]

I have made it a point to listen to Craig Smiths post game interviews lately to try and glean from him what he is trying to do and what the team’s deficiencies are etc…

Here is what I can conclude:
1. He is very concerned about Points Per Possession both in how we do and how well we defend our opponent. He stated that when Lawson was in the game our Pts/Poss was better than Iowa State for example. BUt then Lawson got into foul trouble.

2. He keeps calling the Big 12 “This League.” “This league is no joke.” “This league is tough.” etc…

3. He used the fact that Cincinnati was 0-3 to prove his point at how hard this league was. As if to say even good teams are losing in this league. Also as if to make an excuse that being 0-3 is OK.

4. He thought the team took a step forward against Iowa State.

5. No hard questions are asked by Bill or Mooney. Its just puppy dogs and ice cream.

6. Post Baylor he said: “Ezra was 1-8, Miro 0-9, I mean Miro didn’t miss a shot in practice the last two days. I mean he was making everything.” “Gabe was 1-7 and Mike was 1-7, 3-31 for those 4 guys.”

7. So post Baylor he said after the team lost by 30 points he says: “As a whole I really thought we made some strides defensively tonight” Then we lost to Texas Tech by 30 at home. So we must not have made as many strides as he thought. Then we lost by 23 at Iowa State and he says He thought the team took some strides forward defensively. I can’t figure out Craig. Are we getting better? Do you really believe that?

8. Post Baylor he also said: “I know what the score said but it just doesn’t feel like….It just feels like we’re much closer than what the score indicated if that makes any sense.” AHHHH No it makes no sense to me Craig.

9. Obviously it seems to me that Craig wants his team to be good at defense and probably makes a good effort to coach them up on defense but it is very obvious to everyone that the team does not play great consistent, tough defense. This is either due to coaching (90% of the problem in my opinion) and personnel/talent (10% of the problem) in my opinion.

My conclusions:
I have a watched a ton of basketball over the years. I watch Rick Pitino’s teams. They play hard and intense and tough for 40 minutes. Devon Smith starts there and thrives. Great decision for him. Craig really isn’t a great defensive coach. That much is painfully obvious. He just isn’t. He needs more support from the AD and boosters to get the right players. The team does not value the basketball. We turn the ball over way too much and when we do turn it over it usually leads to points going the other way (so we’re not good at recovery either).

Would love to hear yall thoughts

[Tony (admin)]

I remember when we hired Craig. The initial vibe I got was that he seemed like a phony. He’s real, perhaps overly positive and is trying I guess, but seems like he’s not very good at many facets of his job.

[loyter]

It’s simply bad basketball.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not a talented basketball team, but some teams overachieve with a weaker roster by playing sound, fundamental basketball. Smith’s teams do just the opposite. They play at their level or below.

Why? Because they don’t do basketball well. The stats show it. Over the last 3 games they have put up some very telling numbers:
Scoring defense – 85.3 ppg
Scoring offense – 60 ppg
Turnovers – 14.6 per game
Free throws – 58%
FG% – 36.7% (vs 47.8% for opponents)

It’s really hard to watch. Especially knowing as an old timer what good basketball looks like.

PS I think we’ll see Iowa State fall out of the top ten as the season progresses. They appear to be a bit of a paper tiger.

[EagleMountainUte]

Number 7 is why I can’t stand him. It isn’t positive vibes. He is either a liar or myopic.

Not much you can say after beat downs I get it. Don’t say strides though. Maybe point the finer details in why you think defensively the strides are being made.

I think he is looking at the shots not falling and saying Utah loss because ball didn’t go in hoop. It is Boylen but he actually is self aware.

[AlohaUte]

It’s tough, because it seems in all three of the last big losses, the team kept it competitive for a half. So I can see where he’s coming from with some of the positivity comments. But the team simply isn’t good enough to compete in the Big-12 or even the Pac-12. He’s not able to attract the talent necessary. It’s likely both him not having the ability and cachet to get their interest and Utah not having the NIL pockets to attract talent.

[EagleMountainUte]

Competitive at half? It took Utah 6 minutes or something to even score against Baylor. They only had 17 at half trailed by 20. Texas Tech, Utah trailed by 11. Gave up 47 and then another 46.
Iowa state you trailed by 13 giving up 38.

Turnovers that they commit combined with their bad defense. Once a team gets past that 6-8 margin no way Utah could compete.

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