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Utah State To Hire South Dakota’s Craig Smith
Smith spent his first D-I head coaching seasons at South Dakota
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One MWC vacancy remains after Smith, Niko Medved land head coaching gigs
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Utah State is expected to hire South Dakota head coach Craig Smith to the same position, per reports.
Smith was an assistant under Tim Miles from 2007 to 2012 at Colorado State along with Niko Medved, who landed the Colorado State head coaching job earlier this week. After CSU, Smith went with Miles to Nebraska for a pair of seasons before taking the South Dakota head coaching job, his first as a D-I coach.
Smith helped jumpstart South Dakota’s transition to D-I basketball, notching the program’s first 20-win seasons in the past two years. South Dakota won its first Summit League regular season title in 2017 and was just one win shy of punching an NCAA Tournament auto bid earlier this month. Smith has a 79-55 career win-loss record as head coach.
The Utah State head coaching position became vacant after the university chose to fire Tim Duryea after three seasons on March 11. Duryea spent three years as USU’s head coach, going 48-49.
A formal announcement date of Smith’s hiring is yet to be determined.
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