University of Utah basketball coach Jim Boylen officially introduced his basketball staff Thursday and announced that recruit Nemanja Calasan has been released from his letter of intent.
In addition to Marty Wilson and Chris Jones, holdovers from Ray Giacoletti's staff, Boylen has hired Jeff Smith, who has spent the past five years as an assistant at Oakland University in Michigan, as an assistant coach.
"I have a lot of respect for Jim Boylen," said Smith. "When this opportunity came up, I jumped at it."
The 34-year-old Smith has spent his whole life in Michigan and is a 1995 graduate of Alma College, where he played basketball. He helped Oakland reach the NCAA Tournament in 2005 and coached Rawle Marshall, who now plays for the Indiana Pacers.
Before that, he was at Central Michigan, where he helped recruit and coach Chris Kamen, who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Wilson and Jones have been members of the Utah staff the past three seasons.
Wilson joined the Utah staff in 2004 after coaching at UC Santa Barbara for six years and two seasons at the University of San Diego after playing for Pepperdine.
Jones, a native of Salt Lake, played for Utah for two seasons (1992-94) under Rick Majerus and served as the team's video coordinator from 1995-97. After two years as an assistant at Westminster College, Jones rejoined the Utah basketball staff as director of operations in 2004 and was promoted to assistant coach the following year.
Besides the three assistants, Boylen has hired Derek Deprey as the director of player development, Jon Dykema as the director of basketball operations and Jason Larson as the video coordinator.
Deprey worked with Boylen in 2004-05 when he was an assistant video coordinator for the Milwaukee Bucks. Deprey spent the past two years at Marquette as the video coordinator and this past year as coordinator of basketball operations.
Dykema will receive his J.D. and MBA in management from the University of Akron School of Law and Graduate Business Program later this month and will study for the Utah bar exam this coming year. He was a student manager for the Michigan State basketball team from 1999-2003, serving as the head manager the last two years.
Larson comes from Western Michigan, where he spent the past two years as a graduate assistant. Before that, he spent five years as a member of the Grand Valley State basketball program as a student manager and an assistant coach during the 2004-05 season.
Calasan is a 6-foot-9, 245-pound post player from Midland Junior College in Texas, who signed a letter of intent with the Utes last fall when Giacoletti was the coach.
"I flew down to see Nemanja last Friday," said Boylen. "We had a very productive meeting, and I felt like we were very open and honest with each other. After that talk, we both felt that the best thing for Nemanja and the University of Utah was for us to release him from his letter of intent. He's a terrific player who has a bright future ahead of him, and we wish him the best."
Boylen didn't say what his plans are to fill the open scholarship.
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