Roster news hasn’t been unusual for the Utah basketball program over the last 10 years, but with all the different circumstances surrounding the program and college basketball in general we may be having a record amount of news with the roster. We have another departure, more arrivals, and news on a previous transfer portal Ute.
First, we’ll start with the new guys. Two more former Aggies are following Craig Smith to SLC from Logan. Rollie Worster and Marco Anthony have both made the move south and are now calling Utah home. Worster played 26 games during his freshman campaign last season, and he started in 25 of those games. He averaged 9.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game for USU. Anthony spent two seasons at Virginia and won the national championship in 2019 before transferring to Utah State. This past season Anthony averaged 10 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game.
Worster and Anthony are joining former Cincinnati guard Gabe Madsen and former UNLV guard David Jenkins Jr on Utah’s evolving roster for this coming season.
The departure is no surprise as Mikael Jantunen has decided to go home and play pro basketball. It has been rumored for some time that this was going to happen, and I’m sure the coaching staff has been acting with this in mind. Jantunen was a nice player for the Utes last season in his only season at Utah, averaging 8.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists.
Arguably the most painful loss to the portal this spring was Ian Martinez who decided to transfer after the coaching staff shakeup. He will be making his way to the ACC and to Maryland. That is one I really wish they could have pulled back in, but with his dad not being retained on the new staff he was a long shot, at best.
I think the roster volatility is pretty much at an end, and now we’ll see Smith’s recruiting chops and how we can build the program for the future.