Craig Francis Smith (born December 14, 1972) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach who is the head coach for the Utah Utes men's team of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. A member of

Tim Miles Timothy Sean Miles (born August 20, 1966) is an American college basketball coach who is the current head coach of the San Jose State Spartans men's basketball team. Miles previously served as the head coach of North Dakota State University, Colo ...

coaching tree A coaching tree is similar to a family tree except it shows the relationships of coaches instead of family members. There are several ways to define a relationship between two coaches. The most common way to make the distinction is if a coach work ...

, Smith served as an assistant for Miles at four schools – Mayville State,

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

, and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. Smith was also the head coach at Mayville State from 2004 to 2007, at

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

from 2014 to 2018, and at

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

from 2018 to 2021.

Early life and education

Born in Stephen, Minnesota, Smith graduated from the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in secondary education and

Northern State University Northern State University (NSU) is a public university in Aberdeen, South Dakota. NSU is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents and offers 45 bachelor's degrees, 53 minors, six associate degrees, 16 pre-professional programs, 23 certif ...

in South Dakota with a master's degree in education in 1999.

Coaching career

Beginnings as assistant coach (1996–2004)

Smith began his coaching career in 1996 as an assistant coach for one season at

Mayville State University Mayville State University (MSU or MaSU) is a public university in Mayville, North Dakota. It is part of the North Dakota University System. History Founded as a normal school by provision of the North Dakota Constitution in 1889, Mayville Stat ...

, an NAIA school in North Dakota. This was the first of several coaching roles under

. Originally published in the ''

Grand Forks Herald The ''Grand Forks Herald'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, established in 1879, published in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States. It is the primary daily paper for northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Its average daily circulat ...

'' on April 29, 2012 as
From Mayville to the Big Ten
" In 1997, Smith enrolled in graduate school at Northern State, an

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

school in South Dakota, and became a graduate assistant with its men's basketball team. Returning to North Dakota, Smith was an assistant coach at Minot State from 1998 to 2001. In 2001, Smith reunited with Miles at then-NCAA Division II

, where he was an assistant coach and director of operations for three seasons.

Mayville State (2004–2007)

After three seasons at North Dakota State, Smith returned to Mayville State, this time as head coach in 2004. Inheriting a team that had one win in the previous season, Smith led the Comets to 17 wins and a berth in the NAIA Division II Tournament in his first season of 2004–05. Smith's second season as Mayville State head coach in 2005–06 had a 28–6 record, good enough to break the record for most wins in program history. Mayville won the

Dakota Athletic Conference The Dakota Athletic Conference (DAC) was a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). As the name implies, member teams were located in the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. T ...

(DAC) regular season and conference titles and qualified for the NAIA Tournament for the second straight season, this time making the quarterfinals. With a 27–9 record in Smith's final season 2006–07, Mayville State won both DAC titles again and made the championship round of the NAIA tournament as a no. 13 seed. Smith won NAIA Division II Coach of the Year honors in 2007 and DAC Coach of the Year Honors in 2006 and 2007.

Assistant coach at Colorado State and Nebraska (2007–2014)

Smith got his first

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

job on April 10, 2007 as director of operations at

, his third association with Tim Miles. Miles promoted Smith to a full assistant coach in 2008. During his time at Colorado State, Smith helped the team qualify for the 2010 CBI, 2011 NIT, and 2012 NCAA tournament. On April 25, 2012, Smith followed Miles to

after Miles took the head coaching job there. Smith helped Nebraska make the 2014 NCAA tournament.

South Dakota (2014–2018)

Smith became a head coach again on March 24, 2014, when

athletic director David Herbster named Smith men's basketball head coach. Following a 12–18 season in 2013–14, South Dakota went 17–16 (10–8 in

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

play) in Smith's first season of 2014–15. In 2016–17, Smith won

Coach of the Year honors after South Dakota won the Summit League regular season title and qualified for the 2017 NIT. Smith's last season in 2017 with the Coyotes ended 26–9, with a 2nd-place finish in the Summit League both in the regular season and conference tournament, the Coyotes would later fall to North Texas in the 2018 College Basketball Invitational first round 77-90.

Utah State (2018–2021)

On March 26, 2018, Smith was announced as Utah State's new head coach after the firing of Tim Duryea. In just his first season at the school, he led the Aggies to a share of the

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

regular-season title, as well as the tournament title. This performance earned them their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2011. The team repeated as Mountain West tournament champions in 2020, though the NCAA tournament was cancelled amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Smith earned his third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance with the Aggies with an at-large bid.

Utah (2021–present)

Smith was hired to be the new head coach of the

Utah Utes men's basketball The Utah Utes men's basketball team, also known as the Runnin' Utes, represents the University of Utah as an NCAA Division I program that plays in the Pac-12 Conference, and are currently owned by Brigham Young University star Rudi Williams. They ...

team on March 27, 2021.

Head coaching record

* 2020 NCAA Tournament cancelled

References

External links