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The pros and cons of potential Utah basketball coaching candidates

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The pros and cons of potential Utah basketball coaching candidates


The Craig Smith era at Utah is over.

Mark Harlan, the program’s athletic director, announced the decision to part ways with Smith on Monday afternoon following the Runnin’ Utes loss to UCF last weekend.

Smith was closing in on his fourth year as the program’s head coach. He had led Utah to a 15-12 overall record and a 7-9 record in the Big 12 this season. Before losing to the Knights, Utah was coming off back-to-back wins over Kansas and Kansas State in Salt Lake City.

“After evaluating our program under Craig’s leadership, I believe a change is needed to get us to where we want to go,” Harlan said in a statement. “The time is now to begin that process, and we will surround Coach [Josh] Eilert, the staff and our student-athletes with support as they continue with their season.

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“We have greater aspirations for our men’s basketball program, both within the Big 12 Conference and nationally, and our expectation is to regularly compete in the NCAA Tournament.”

A national search for Utah’s next head coach has begun, as the Utes look to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.

Here’s a look at some potential candidates — and their strengths and weaknesses:

Alex Jensen, Dallas Mavericks assistant coach

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Alex Jensen, Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) as the Utah Jazz host the Sacramento Kings, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 12, 2022.

Pro: He’s a former Ute player, and he has a plethora of coaching experiences. He’s been the G League Coach of the Year, turned Rudy Gobert into a multiple Defensive Player of the Year winner, and helped lead the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2024. He’s coached and played at the collegiate and professional level both overseas and in the United States. Jensen also understands the pride associated with Utah’s men’s basketball program. There’s a good chance his hire would invigorate boosters and, in turn, lead to more NIL money for the basketball program.

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Con: In the pros, Jensen can focus exclusively on basketball. Making the move to the college ranks would mean juggling recruiting, fundraising and a host of other asks. Is he interested in that lifestyle change?

Andre Miller, Grand Rapids Gold head coach

(Steve Griffin | Tribune file photo) Utah’s Andre Miller walks up the court dejected as Kentucky takes control of the 1998 championship game in San Antonio, Texas. Kentucky players Saul Smith (11) and Steve Masiello (4)

Pro: Like Jensen, Andre Miller understands the fan base’s nostalgia for the Runnin’ Utes and the love that it takes to compete at a high level. The former Utah guard was an integral piece of Utah’s 1998 Final Four run with Rick Majerus. He’d be a perfect candidate to add a spark of energy to Utah’s basketball program.

Con: Like Jensen, Miller lacks collegiate head coaching experience and would have to adapt to the new business model of college athletics. Players want to get paid and building a culture is nearly impossible with the advent of the transfer portal.

Richard Pitino, New Mexico head coach

FILE – Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino watches from the bench during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa, in Iowa City, Iowa in this Monday, Dec. 9, 2019, file photo. As coach Richard Pitino starts a pivotal eighth year at Minnesota, the Gophers will again try to bounce back from a bad season after finishing in 12th place in the Big Ten in 2019-20. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

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Pro: Richard Pitino has helped rebuild New Mexico’s basketball program this season. The Lobos are currently atop the Mountain West and are vying for their second consecutive berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Con: Hiring another Mountain West head coach might be a hard sell for Utah’s boosters, especially since Smith came from Utah State four seasons ago.

Johnnie Bryant, associate head coach Cleveland Cavaliers

(Chris Detrick | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz assistant coach Johnnie Bryant watches during the game at Vivint Smart Home Arena Friday, January 19, 2018.

Pro: Like Jensen and Miller, Johnnie Bryant is a former Ute and would add a bit of nostalgia to the program. Bryant is also a tenured NBA assistant with stops with the Utah Jazz (2014-20), New York Knicks (2020-24) and Cleveland Cavaliers (2024-now). If it isn’t with Utah, Bryant seems bound to be a head coach somewhere soon.

Con: Outside of his time with the Runnin’ Utes, Bryant doesn’t have any college coaching experience. With the changing landscape of NIL, the transfer portal and more, it would be an adjustment for Bryant to make as a first-time college coach.

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Josh Eilert, current Utah interim head coach

FILE – West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker, left, and interim NCAA college basketball coach Josh Eilert answer questions during a news conference, June 26, 2023, in Morgantown, W.Va. Eilert took over for the 2023-24 season after coach Bob Huggins was arrested on a drunken driving charge and the university says he subsequently resigned. (AP Photo/Kathleen Batten, File)

Pro: Josh Eilert has a plethora of Big 12 experience and will now have served as an interim head coach at two spots. It’s only a matter of time before he becomes a head coach somewhere in college basketball.

Con: Eilert is a holdover from Smith’s latest staff. If the Runnin’ Utes are looking for a completely fresh start, that means he and the rest of the remaining assistants are likely gone after the 2025 season.

Other names to watch

Steve Wojciechowski — Currently the coach of the Salt Lake City Stars, Wojciechowski spent seven seasons as the head coach of Marquette, compiling a 128-95 record and making the NCAA tournament twice.

Bryce Drew — He has 13 seasons of head coaching experience at the college level. At Grand Canyon, he’s put together four straight 20-win seasons. “There is a benefit to hiring someone who’s been a high-major coach before, and who has recruited at that level; don’t forget that Drew brought Darius Garland and Aaron Nesmith to Nashville,” The Athletic wrote of Drew’s potential fit at Utah.

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Eric Olsen — UC San Diego already has 24 wins this season, including an impressive victory on the road at Utah State. As The Athletic said, “The 44-year-old is the rare coach young enough to still make multiple moves but experienced enough to be patient about the best fit. Is this it? Olsen is an Alabama native whose entire coaching career has come in San Diego, and the lack of Utah ties is notable compared with other candidates.”



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Utah Jazz Reacts: Who should the Jazz draft?

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Utah Jazz Reacts: Who should the Jazz draft?


The NBA Draft is less than a week away, and the Utah Jazz have a big decision to make. What’s difficult for the Jazz is that there isn’t an obvious choice between some incredible prospects at the top of the draft: AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer. Obviously, everything depends on what the Washington Wizards decide to do with their pick. But with all the smoke screens we’ve seen, it’s not clear who will be available to the Jazz.

That’s where you come in. If you were the Utah Jazz and you had the chance to choose between AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer, who would you choose?

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Jazz fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.



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Utah first lady Abby Cox optimistic about legislative moves to strengthen child literacy

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Utah first lady Abby Cox optimistic about legislative moves to strengthen child literacy


SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is no stranger to discourse surrounding early child literacy.

While the Beehive State generally performs higher than other states in terms of proficiency measures, its leaders still recognize — especially post-COVID — that it’s a real issue that demands serious solutions.

A legislative audit released Tuesday said Utah school teachers and administrators should focus enhanced attention not only on third-graders, the traditional benchmark for early literacy, but also on first-graders, where data starts spotting early literacy challenges in young students.

Then, Utah first lady Abby Cox on Wednesday added to that discussion, speaking with Utah education and policy leaders about the need to meet the literacy crisis head-on and ways Utah has worked to do just that.

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“We’re not in the best place that we can be, and we’re a little ahead of the national average; we always have been, but that still isn’t great. We’re in a moment where everybody’s starting to realize this … business community, educators, all of us coming together to realize there’s an issue here,” Cox said.

She mentioned the passage of SB241 during the 2026 legislative session, which committed $25.6 million to literacy coaching, increased the statewide goal to have 80% of third-graders reading at grade-level by 2030 and includes an intervention measure requiring struggling third-graders to repeat the grade — “except in cases of certain good cause exemption.”

“I know we can get 97-plus percent of our kiddos reading on grade level by third grade. We can do this,” Cox said.

She also emphasized the need to get “attention-sucking machines,” AKA cellphones, out of classrooms — something top lawmakers in the state have made strides to emphasize.

July 1 will mark the start of a new Utah law ushered in with the passage of SB69 that essentially places a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones at Utah’s K-12 public schools, unless a school or district opts for a looser policy.

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The latest piece of legislation was built upon a similar bill passed during the 2025 session that set a default policy barring students from using their phones during class time.

Despite those restrictions, many lawmakers and educators argued they didn’t go far enough, which led to SB69.

“I don’t think we all know enough about how wonderful this is going to be,” Cox said, adding that data has shown library book checkouts have skyrocketed in schools that have instituted daylong cellphone ban policies.

“I talked to a principal who, after the first day of going bell-to-bell, walked into his high school lunch room, thinking there was a fight, because there was all this chaos and noise … and it was just (students) communicating with each other, playing cards, bringing little games,” Cox said. “It was just beautiful to see, and I think we’re going to see an incredible resurgence as we implement this statewide.”

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Here’s why Bosnia-Herzegovina fans in Utah are living a ‘dream’ during the World Cup

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Here’s why Bosnia-Herzegovina fans in Utah are living a ‘dream’ during the World Cup


The nation’s soccer team practiced in front of fans this week at Real Salt Lake’s stadium in Sandy.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans cheer as Bosnia-Herzegovina players practice for the World Cup during an open training session at America First Field in Sandy on Monday.

The majority of the Bosnians living in Utah did not leave for the Wasatch Front under favorable circumstances.

The Bosnian War in the mid-1990s brought more than 100,000 refugees to the United States, with thousands settling in Salt Lake City.

Thirty years later, however, a moment of celebration brought thousands of Bosnian-Americans together with the arrival of their country’s soccer team in Utah.

Blue and white jerseys flooded the plaza and stands of Real Salt Lake’s Sandy stadium on Monday to watch Bosnia-Herzegovina’s soccer team, which has made Utah its home base in between World Cup games.

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(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bosnia-Herzegovina players practice for the World Cup during an open training session at America First Field in Sandy on Monday.

“It was like a dream,” Anel Alagic, who was born in Bosnia but raised in Salt Lake, said. “That we qualified for the World Cup was crazy, but then they told us that the home base would never be here in Salt Lake. It’s surreal.”

The festivities extended beyond the field, as well, with several vendors and volunteers serving Bosnian food and drinks, including its signature coffee from the world’s largest coffee pot, which was made in Bosnia.

The pot is traveling with the national team, heading to Los Angeles on Thursday for a match against Switzerland and then to Seattle for Bosnia’s June 24 match against Qatar.

A dream just to qualify

Bosnia has qualified for the World Cup just twice since declaring its independence in 1992, with the first time coming in Brazil in 2014. This year’s team qualified in dramatic fashion, defeating four-time World Cup champion Italy on penalty kicks.

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The Bosnian fans are not taking their team’s presence in the World Cup for granted, with a viral video showing thousands marching in Toronto before the first game and 40,000 to 50,000 expected to be in attendance in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Two Bosnian restaurants in Salt Lake, Cafe on Main and Old Bridge Cafe, will both be closing their doors on Thursday to make the trek to California in support of their country.

And it’s not just people born in Bosnia jumping on the bandwagon, with Cafe on Main saying several Americans showed up in Bosnia jerseys to watch the opening game at the restaurant last week in a packed house.

“I’ve invited a lot of my co-workers and friends that typically don’t even watch soccer,” Alagic said of Bosnia World Cup fever catching on, thanks to events like the open training session. “I was like, ‘We’re having this event. Show out.’ I’ve seen a lot of people here, so it’s cool.”

Bringing people together

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans cheer as Bosnia-Herzegovina players practice for the World Cup during an open training session at America First Field in Sandy on Monday.

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“Because of the war, our community is all over the world,” said RSL goalkeeper coach Mirza Harambasic, who is Bosnian. “It’s especially strong in the United States, and it’s strong here in Salt Lake City. So obviously everyone is so excited, so happy to be here, so happy to support.”

Harambasic was born in Bosnia and, like many others, came to the U.S. in the ‘90s. He helped coordinate Monday’s event and was confident in Salt Lake’s ability to accommodate the soccer needs of a World Cup team.

“When you talk about an environment to be successful, I don’t think there are many better places in the United States,” Harambasic said. “As far as city, lifestyle, training at elevation, and then obviously the facilities that RSL provides.”

With the first two games in Bosnia’s Group B ending in 1-1 draws, the top two spots are still very much up for the taking, giving fans just enough hope that the country can advance beyond the World Cup group stage for the first time in its history.

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