Welcome Back Chris Burgess! (and other Utah Basketball news)

Craig Smith has been a busy man since the Runnin’ Utes season ended on March 9 in the PAC 12 Basketball Tournament. On April 2nd, Utah landed Mike Saunders Jr. who transferred as a guard from Cincinnati. He featured off the bench for the Bearcats last season and averaged 7.3 points in 33 games. He’s a 3-star recruit out of Wasatch Academy and should be in a position to immediately contribute for the Utes next season.

Another key signing came just yesterday when the Runnin’ Utes signed Keba Keita, the 6-foot 8 forward from Wasatch Academy. Keba now fills one of 3 open scholarship positions for the Utes and should be another key addition to the team. Keita now joins Mike Saunders Jr. and Wilguens Exacte Jr. as new additions to the Runnin’ Utes. The Running Utes are in the process of replacing the likes of Riley Battin, Lahat Thioune, and David Jenkins Jr. who opted to enter the transfer portal after having inconsistent roles for the Runnin’ Utes this season.

Craig Smith hasn’t just been busy filling roster spots ahead of the 2022-2023 season, yesterday Craig Smith had a major coup in hiring Chris Burgess (BYU Assistant Coach) to the same position at the University of Utah. Chris Burgess played for the University of Utah from 2000-2002 after transferring from Duke. He then worked as an undergraduate assistant coach at Utah in 2013 before becoming the assistant coach for Utah Valley from 2015-2019. He then followed Mark Pope to BYU to serve as the Assistant Coach and served in that position before joining the Utes yesterday. Chris Burgess has a lot of connections to Utah (his daughter currently attends the U) and is highly respected as a recruiter in the West and as one of the best in the state of Utah.