Delon Wright with more coverage

From Brett Koremenos' most recent article:

After two straight sub-.500 years to start his tenure, Krystkowiak’s patient rebuilding process got a much-needed boost from an unheralded junior college recruit named Delon Wright. The 6-foot-5 Wright, the younger brother of Dorell of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, seems a perfect marriage of talent and attitude. Although Krystkowiak’s team is deep and balanced behind Wright, the senior point guard powers the engine that makes this machine hum.

“He’s just one of those guys that lifts the level of everybody,” Krystkowiak says.

Unlike most 6-foot-5 wings in the college game, Wright is more playmaker than tunnel-vision scorer. “He can take things upon himself and start getting his shots whenever he wants,” Soto says, “but he just focuses on his game, knows what his strengths are, and understands how he can help a team.”

Wright ranks 28th in the country in assist rate while also sporting an offensive rating of 125.6, good for 26th overall, per KenPom.com data. And thanks to improved shooting from the outside, Wright, who is ranked 31st on the DraftExpress prospect list, has a shot at being the first Utah player selected in the first round of the NBA draft since Bogut went first overall in 2005.

Although Wright also ranks second in KenPom’s “player of the year” metric, numbers can’t measure everything he does for the Utah program. From the “Pistol” sets made popular by the Steve Nash–Mike D’Antoni Phoenix Suns teams of the mid ’00s to classic NBA “floppy” action, Krystkowiak uses a number of plays and concepts from his NBA days. The Utes are more like an NBA minor league team than a Division I basketball program. Krystkowiak has even utilized the Spurs’ “one-second rule,” meant to deter his players from holding on to the ball by either passing, shooting, or driving once they catch it. They can run all of these sets because their star is also their most unselfish guy.

“When your best player and the guy that’s got the ball in his hands a lot of the time has that mind-set [to pass], it’s contagious,” Krystkowiak says.