After a slew of abrupt exits, Craig Smith and his staff are starting build back up.
East Carolina transfer Ezra Ausar committed to Utah this week. He averaged over 10 points a game in two years in the American Athletic Conference.
At 6-foot-9, he added five rebound and half a block per night.
Smith now has five transfers added to a roster that is almost unrecognizable from last year. In the span of a month, the Utes lost six transfers and two to graduation.
Now, Smith is building around a core of Gabe Madsen and Lawson Lovering as returning starters.
Around them he added Ausar, Miro Little, Zach Keller, Keanu Dawes and Mason Madsen.
Little was highly recruited coming into college. He spent last year at Baylor and played lightly as a freshman. Little is a 6-foot-4 guard who was a four-star prospect.
Smith still has a handful of scholarships to work with. After losing big man Keba Keita to BYU, he now has three pieces added to the front court. In the backcourt, he is still trying to replace Deivon Smith’s production after he went to St. John’s.
This is where the roster roughly stands:
Backcourt
Gabe Madsen (returning)
Hunter Erickson (returning)
Miro Little (Baylor)
Mason Madsen (Boston College)
David Katoa (freshman, Utah Prep)
Frontcourt
Lawson Lovering (returning)
Ezra Ausar (East Carolina)
Keanu Dawes (Rice)
Zach Keller (Wake Forest)
Jake Wahlin (Returning)
