CBB Rank 2024: No. 68, Utah Basketball

Utah basketball lost their star guard and big, but believe they have enough talent to compete in their new conference, the Big 12.

The tradition continues! CBB Review is again ranking the top 100 teams heading into the new college basketball season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Utah basketball.

Craig Smith was hired in 2021 after making two tournament appearances in three years with Utah State. Unfortunately, the last three years haven’t led to the same success, as the Utes haven’t reached the big dance since. They made the NIT semifinal last year, but that’s not the standard this program wants to have. Heading into Year 4, the seat might get a little warm if they don’t make a tournament run.

The big loss for this team is Branden Carlson. Carlson has been the team’s leader for the past two seasons and one of the best big men in college basketball. They also lose Deivon Smith, one of the dynamic guards in college basketball and a triple-double threat on any given night.

They do return Gabe Madsen, who is coming off a great year. He is sure to be the team’s leader. He’s joined by his twin brother Mason, who should be a dynamic duo on the court with the chemistry they possess. This team has a lot of transfers from all around the country, but a lot who showed big flashes of potential in previous years, including Miro Little, and “Mongolian Mike”  Sharavjamts.

If Utah couldn’t get it done in the Pac 12, the Big 12 will be impossible unless something changes. Craig Smith is a good coach, but he’s going to need to be better and capitalize on all the Q1 games his team will have in the Big 12 if he wants to make his first NCAA Tournament with Utah basketball.

Madsen is going to shoot a lot of threes. He shot 272 last season, the 23rd most in the country. Now, they’ll need him to shoot more with their other two double-digit scorers gone, so expect him to break 300 this year. He makes them at a respectable rate as well, shooting 38.6%. Most importantly, he played all 37 games last year, which is very encouraging after 25 each in the past two seasons.

Utah Basketball make-or-break player: Miro Little

When Little committed to Baylor, he was ranked as the 41st-best recruit and 9th-best point guard in his class. There was a lot of buzz around the talented guard, but unfortunately, he was buried behind Baylor’s guard room. Now, it’s his time to shine, and if he can play like he did in high school, then they can replicate the success from last year.

Little only played 7 minutes a game last year and averaged 1.7 points a game. We haven’t seen much, and he didn’t really have any opportunities to show any flashes. If he can’t play at a high level, then he can see his starting spot lost to Mason early, and Utah basketball’s ceiling gets significantly worse.

Key analytic: Assists per game

Every team knows the importance of getting assists and overall ball movement, and this Utah basketball team really shined in that. They finished 9th in the country in assists per game with 17.7 a game. For reference, the 8 teams ahead of them were Kansas, UConn, Arizona, BYU, Purdue, Iowa, Auburn, and Indiana State. Seven of the 8 teams won 22+ games, with two of them making the Final. So, passing leads to success. Smith and Rollie Worster were big reasons for their success last year, averaging 7.1 and 5.5, respectively.

So, who will fill that void? Can Little do it? No transfer they brought in averaged more than 2.7 assists a game last year, which could be a big issue. If they aren’t moving the ball and the offense gets stagnant, that can be a real issue and Utah Basketball can find themselves down in the Big 12 rankings quickly. However, if they can find themselves in the upper echelon of teams in assists, then they can make some headlines.