[Cracked Sidewalks] Utah Preview

[brewcity77]

Marquette could end up facing Utah in Fort Myers, which would bring together the program where Rick Majerus won a title as an assistant coach and the one where he made it to a title game as a head coach. Cracked Sidewalks digs in to new head coach Craig Smith's follow-up season to what was a disappointing year one.

https://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2022/10/utah-preview-2022-23.html

[tower912]

Did you say 'Utes? '

[Dr. Blackheart]

Did you say 'Utes? '

Imagine. Their nickname is the Utes but their mascot is a red tailed hawk.

[brewcity77]

Seeing Utah at 72 in kenpom has me wondering if Pomeroy built something into his model for coaches that tend to outperform it. Before last year, Smith had never failed to improve his rating from preseason to the end of the season. But he basically returns the same roster as last year and the replacements he did bring in were rotational players at best. There's nothing about this roster that screams "50 spots better than last year." However, Smith averaged an improvement of 72.9 spots better than preseason in his 7 seasons at South Dakota State and Utah State. Have to think that's somehow factoring into the model.