You've brought this up a couple times now, but I don't really see the issue with starting him. It was reported Cotton had the flu. Its not like he played starter minutes. His 10 minutes played even with 3 guys fouling out and 2 overtimes should tell you all you need to know. I also think there is value in bringing a scoring spark off the bench, and Lucas Smith is never going to give you that. Utomi not being a scoring threat is a bigger problem than Lucas Smith starting. He needs to step up.
You could argue him starting caused us to get off to a slower start thus lose the game. You could also argue Jimond's missed dunk, Parrish's missed wide open bunny, and Utomi's good looks at the end of regulation and OT1 was the cause as well.