Jeff Smith, an assistant at Oakland University, has accepted an offer to become an assistant under Jim Boylen at Utah. Smith joins Chris Jones and Marty Wilson to fill out Utah's coaching staff. Jones and Wilson were assistants under Ray Giacoletti, while Smith comes over from Oakland, a small university in Michigan.
Also brought aboard were Derek Deprey as the director of player development, Jon Dykema as the director of basketball operations and Jason Larson as the video coordinator. Deprey was a video coordinator for the Bucks in the NBA, as well as Marquette the past two years.
Also announced this week was the departure of junior college transfer Nemanja Calasan. Calasan had signed a letter of intent, however both he and Boylen decided to part ways after a meeting last week. Though Boylen hasn't gone into too much detail about the split, he did say that the decision was made based on the future, rather than the present.
I think this is a good staff, though Boylen pulled a lot from the midwest. I don't know if this means he'd decided to recruit the midwest, but if he does I don't think I would be opposed to such a thought. It appears the midwest offers up a lot of talent and while I doubt Utah could go head-to-head with many Big East and Big 12 schools, it wouldn't hurt to try and get their leftovers.