COLUMBUS, Ohio — Although this is Utah State head coach Craig Smith’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament as a head coach, he’s not totally unfamiliar with the Big Dance.
While he never quite made it during his four seasons as the head coach at South Dakota, Smith went to the NCAA Tournament twice as an assistant under Tim Miles: once at Colorado State, and once at Nebraska, where Miles is still the head coach.
“Our fifth year at Colorado State we were an 11-seed, and we played Murray State when they had Isaiah Canaan, who is an NBA player right now,” Smith recalled.