the PAC-12 was tough last year. Utah beat elite-8 USC in the second half of conference round robin and lost to USC in double OT in the conference tourney quarters. USC was formidable last season as they showed by making it to the elite 8. USC had Mobley who ended up being a high draft pick (I think #2 overall).

It was good timing for BYU to play Utah early in the season, because Utah would have been a much tougher opponent later in the season.

Utah had good talent with Timmy Allen who this season is the leading scorer for Texas which is projected as a tourney team. Plummer was also a great shooting threat and this season Plummer is second in scoring for the top 25 Fighting Illini of Illinois. They had the freshman Swedish guy who is in the rotation at top 5 arizona this year. That other 4 star guy Martinez transferred to Maryland and is about 3rd guy off the bench, so 8th overall in their rotation and gets 10-15 minutes a game.

Every one who stuck around was more of a role player type. A few bounces here and there and Utah would have won a few more this year.

Assuming Coach Krysko could have kept his guys here for this season (which is a big assumption), Utah would have been a lot better this year. But with the general apathy of the fans towards their program, I could imagine some of these guys transferring even if Coach Krystko had been retained.

But starting over is always a risk and now Smith is in for a big rebuild. Also hard to think what Smith's great recruiting pitch will be to get great guys to come play at the U when their fan apathy level is so high now.