Q&A with men’s head coach Craig Smith

Max Tushla: How are you looking to cope with losing some of that strong senior leadership on the court next year?

Craig Smith: We’ll be an entirely different team next year. As of today we have eight new players, we lose 80 percent of our scoring and a lot of that were those seniors. When you look at our team this year, we have a lot of new guys and a lot of guys that haven’t played for a couple years in terms of our D-I transfers and then a lot of young guys. We’ll only have one senior and three juniors. So that’s only 30 percent of our roster that are upperclassmen. We’re going to find out, it’s a great question and I’m confident we’ll have guys that step up to the plate.

M: After the loss in the Summit League Tournament Casey (Kasperbauer) said he really thought the team had improved more than a lot of people might’ve noticed. Did you see that mentality during the season in some of the younger guys and the transfers?

C: Yeah, I thought some of the seniors were really rock solid for us. Certainly we played some young guys and then Tyler Flack coming off of the injury. He hadn’t played in essentially two years. We certainly had some ups and downs last year. There’s no doubt that our guys were much more consistent in terms of our mentality and attitude and effort in practice on a daily basis and in our games.

M: One of the team’s stronger defenders in D.J. Davis left the team. How does that effect what’s going on and what’s going to happen next year?

C: D.J. had a pretty good year last year, but it’s next man up. Carlton Hurst, who’s a transfer from Colorado State, is an excellent defender and a guy that really knows how to play. We’re going to have at least eight new guys. We couldn’t be more thrilled with those guys coming in and we’re going to find out who those guys are.

M: There’s been a lot of hype around campus and Vermillion about these three D-I transfers coming in. What have you seen from them in practice? Are you worried about the hype and the pressure on them coming into next season?

C: First of all they are all good people. I think that all in all they’re pretty well grounded. They are very talented, no question about it, but they’ve just got to focus on the process and the day-to-day grind of skill development. Getting better that way and controlling their attitude and effort. Those are two things you can control every single day. They’ve got to go out and prove it. Hype is hype. You’ve got to go out and earn it, you’ve got to go earn respect and you’ve got to prove yourselves that way. So it’s their turn.

M: The new arena is opening, which is definitely a big deal, how do you look to make it into something your team can really feed off in terms of energy?

C: First off it’s a state of the art arena. It is a world class venue. I just took a tour of it two weeks ago and I think people are going to find there’s not a bad seat in the arena. The pomp and circumstance is there with the video boards and the ribbon boards and it’s just very intimate. You are right on top of the court. It’s a basketball, volleyball venue. The worst seat in this place is probably as good as the best seat in the Dome. It’s pretty close. I think people will be really thrilled with the feel it will have, certainly we have to put a great product on the floor. Then hopefully we can gain momentum with the WNIT Championship and our student body coming out in support of them. I think that was a great experience and our student body can make a humongous impact on winning. The energy and enthusiasm that they bring to the table, all student athletes feel that in a major way. It just shows where we’re going when you have a brand new $70 million venue at the University of South Dakota, clearly we are an athletic department on the rise.

M: Do you have any idea on what an early starting five might look like next year?

C: We have no idea. It’s wide open. We return Dan Jech, Tyler Hagedorn, Austin Sparks, Tyler Flack and Logan Power. We only have five returners coming back. Certainly we have a great feel for those guys. Then you add the redshirts in who we have a good feel for, but we haven’t coached them in a game. How are they going to handle pressure, how are they going to handle scouting reports, how are they going to handle themselves and what are they going to bring to the table? Then you add our five incoming guys. Our three freshmen that we signed earlier in Brandon Armstrong, Tristan Simpson and Tyler Petersen and the two commitments we have late. There are a lot of things to be determined yet.

M: Are there any goals you’ve set for the team or something you want them to reach for?

C: The showing up on a daily basis being ready to go. The championship culture. Never getting too high, never getting too low, but always keeping your eyes on the prize. Certainly every year we expect to get to the NCAA Tournament. We’re going to work our hands to the bone to get there.