Minnesota Basketball: 5 candidates to replace Richard Pitino as head coach

Craig Smith

All of these candidates would be a great fit even though they all have marvelously different resumes and backgrounds. Minnesota will likely want someone with head coaching experience, someone who’s achieved success and has familiarity not necessarily with the Big Ten but with power conference basketball. We’ve named a few people who fit this bill already, but why not also include Smith on the list?

Smith was born and raised in Minnesota before embarking on a coaching career that’s taken him to the Dakota’s and around that region. He was a longtime Tim Miles assistant, including two years on his staff at Nebraska. He did some pretty great things in building the South Dakota program during four years as their head coach. Smith was named head coach at Utah State in 2018 and has completely turned around the Aggies program, winning a pair of MWC Tournament titles and earning another NCAA Tournament bid this season.

These three years have been fantastic for Utah State and it may be time for Smith to seek greener pastures. The Minnesota job would be attractive to Smith and the Golden Gophers will be attracted to the success he’s brought to his first two head coaching posts. Smith doesn’t have a lot of experience at the power conference level, but that’s certainly not a necessity in today’s college basketball world, just ask Nate Oats or Mike Young.

We’ve taken a closer look at five potential candidates for the Minnesota head coach opening; who do you think the Golden Gophers will tab to be their next leading man?