Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle talks to his team during the second half of a first-round NCAA college basketball tournament game against Texas Tech, Friday, March 18, 2022, in San Diego. Texas Tech won 97-62. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

LOGAN — With Ryan Odom now gone from Logan, Utah State must undergo the head coaching search for a fourth time since 2015. The incoming coach will be the fifth coach for the Aggies since the start of the 2014-15 season. Who exactly the next head coach is is something few will know for quite a while. One of those few will be USU’s interim athletic director, Jerry Bovee, who will undergo the biggest test of his short tenure in trying to find someone that will continue the success that Odom, and his predecessor Craig Smith, brought to Utah State.

Potential candidates could be guessed in a few different ways. One is to find potential coaches that have some connection to Utah. Craig Smith became familiar with Utah State during his time as an assistant at Colorado State. Ryan Odom had a brother in the scouting department for the Utah Jazz. The connections were small, but present and likely played a role in both coach’s interest in taking the job. But given how small those connections were it’s hard to comb through every coach that has the smallest possible connection to the Beehive State.

On the other side of that coin, one could list off numerous people with connections to Utah State, perhaps starting with former players. Jaycee Carroll and Spencer Nelson have been thrown out as candidates. But just because a connection exists means nothing in regards to head coaching ability, which should be the most important factor in deciding who the next coach is.

With all that put out there, here’s a shortlist of possible candidates, subjectively narrowed down to coaches that have been successful but are also guys that could at least potentially be interesting in coming to Utah State, if not by some small connection then by the fact that the Aggies could offer a bigger opportunity and a step up the coaching ladder.

Danny Sprinkle (Montana State)

  • Age: 46
  • 2023 team record — 25-10 (2nd in Big Sky)
  • Record at current school — 81-43 (4 seasons)
  • Overall coaching record — 81-43 (4 seasons)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances — 2023, 2022
  • Accolades
    • Big Sky Regular Season Champion (2022)
    • Big Sky Conference Tournament Champion (2023, 2022)
    • Big Sky Coach of the Year (2022)

Sprinkle is a graduate of Montana State (2000) and was a top player for the Bobcats, setting records for career and single-season 3-pointers and remains eighth on the program’s points leaderboard. He became the head coach of his alma mater in 2019 and in his coaching debut took Montana State into the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum and gave the 17th-ranked Aggies quite the scare, taking USU nearly to the wire in an 81-73 game.

The Bobcats only went 16-15 that year but over the last two seasons MSU has posted a 52-18 record with back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances out of the Big Sky. Making two straight tournaments is already an achievement in a one-bid conference, but more impressive is that fact Sprinkle made it happen after losing three starters following the 2022 appearance.

Coaxing Sprinkle away would largely be testing his loyalty to his alma mater. Salary-wise the Aggies can more than quadruple his current rate of $185,711 per year according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and give Sprinkle a chance to play in a bigger conference.

Stan Johnson (Loyola Marymount)

  • Age: 43
  • 2023 team record — 19-12 (4th in West Coast Conference)
  • Record at current school — 43-39 (3 seasons)
  • Overall coaching record — 43-39 (3 seasons)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances — None

Though born in Liberia, Stan Johnson spent his high school years in Utah, graduating from Taylorsville High School in 1998. He went on to play three seasons at Southern Utah, appearing in 50 games. In his senior season, Johnson played at Bemidji State, a Division II school, where he led the team in assists and earned an all-conference honorable mention. The year after graduating, Johnson became an assistant coach at Bemidji State, beginning his climb up the coaching ladder. His first move was to Southwest Baptist (2004-07) and then, in order, to Cal State Northridge (2007-08), Utah (2008-11), Drake (2011-13), Arizona State (2013-15) and Marquette (2015-20).

Success has followed Johnson at nearly every stop in his career. With Southwest Baptist the team made the NCAA Division II Tournament. At Cal State Northridge the team tied for first in the Big West. In his first season at Utah, the Utes won a share of the regular season Mountain West title, were 25th in the final AP poll and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. With Arizona State, Johnson helped the team to the NCAA Tournament in 2014. And at Marquette, Johnson was part of two NCAA Tournament squads. It was also Johnson who recruited Markus Howard — an eventual two-time consensus All-American — first to Arizona State but then convinced him to change his commitment to Marquette when Johnson made his move from ASU to Marquette in the 2015 offseason. Howard ended his career as the all-time leading scorer for the Golden Eagles (and remains so), having averaged 21.6 points across four seasons.

Johnson was promoted to associate head coach during his time at Marquette and on March 20, 2020 he was named the head coach of Loyola Marymount. In his three years in Los Angeles, Johnson has helped the Lions build a bit of consistency. Since 2000, LMU has had just seven winning seasons (out of 23). Two of those have come under Johnson. In the 2020-21 season, LMU finished third in the WCC, its best finish in 15 years. This most recent season, Johnson’s Lions beat Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and BYU marking the first time any WCC team has ever done so. The win over Gonzaga came on the road on Jan. 19, the Bulldogs being ranked sixth in the AP poll at the time. The Gaels were ranked 15th when LMU beat them in overtime at home on Feb. 9.

Tim Miles (SJSU)

  • Age: 56
  • 2023 team record — 21-14 (5th in Mountain West)
  • Record at current school — 29-37 (2 seasons)
  • Overall coaching record — 216-239 (14 seasons)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances — 2014, 2012
  • Accolades
    • Mountain West Coach of the Year (2023)
    • Big Ten Coach of the Year (2014)
    • Phelan Coach of the Year (2014)

Aggie fans are obviously familiar with Miles who has seemingly revived the San Jose State program from the dead, leading the Spartans to a fifth-place finish in the Mountain West — the program’s best finish in the conference and one of just two times SJSU has finished better than last or second to last since joining the MW in 2013 — which helped Miles earn the conference’s Coach of the Year award. Miles also coached the conference’s player of the year, Omari Moore, who saw a big jump in production after Miles signed on with SJSU.

Prior to joining the Spartans, Miles was a head coach for 12 seasons, five at Colorado State and seven at Nebraska. Miles was poached from the rams after the 2011-12 season after he had led CSU to its first NCAA Tournament bid in nearly a decade, having posted a 20-12 record which at the time was tied for the most single-season wins in program history in more than 20 years. Miles’ tenure at Nebraska was a bit rocky. In his second season he earned an NCAA Tournament bid, which remains the Cornhusker’s only March Madness appearance since 1998, but then posted three straight losing seasons from 2015 to 2017. Miles began to turn things around with a 22-11 record in the 2017-18 season, the best record of his tenure, but after a 19-17 season in 2018-19 Miles was dismissed. Miles joined San Jose State after a two-year hiatus.

Pat Kelsey (College of Charleston)

  • Age: 47
  • 2023 team record — 31-4 (1st in CAA)
  • Record at current school —
  • Overall coaching record — 234-114 (11 seasons)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances — 2023, 2021, 2017
  • Accolades
    • Big South Coach of the Year (2021)
    • Big South Regular Season Champion (2021, 2020, 2017, 2016)
    • Big South Conference Tournament Champion (2021, 2020, 2017)
    • CAA Regular Season Champion (2023)
    • CAA Tournament Champion (2023)

Though not yet 50 years old, Kelsey already has a very solid resume in his time at both Charleston and Winthrop. He’s only spent two seasons at the latter, but in just his second season with the Cougars he set the program record for single-season wins and got the team to just its second NCAA Tournament this century.

At Winthrop, over the final six years of his time with the Eagles, Kelsey led the team to four Big South regular season titles and three conference tournament titles. He was robbed of an NCAA Tournament bid by the cancellation of the 2020 tournament. Across all nine season, Kelsey had 16 players selected to all-conference teams and coach three different Big South Player of the Year award winners.

Tod Kowalczyk (Toledo)

  • Age: 56
  • 2023 team record — 28-8 (1st in MAC)
  • Record at current school — 259-169 (13 seasons)
  • Overall coaching record — 395-281 (21 seasons)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances — None
  • Accolades
    • MAC Coach of the Year (2023 , 2021)
    • MAC Regular Season Champion (2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2014)

A whole 21 years of coaching experience have in recent years produced the sweet fruit of success for Kowalczyk. After decent success in eight seasons with Green Bay of the Horizon League, Kowalczyk has built a perennial conference contender at Toledo. The Rockets have won five of the last six MAC regular season titles including three straight. It hasn’t resulted in an NCAA Tournament bid, seeing as how Toledo has consistently come up short in the conference tournament, but a record of 140-59 over the last six seasons speaks for itself.

Casey Alexander (Belmont)

  • Age: 50
  • 2023 team record — 21-11 (3rd in MVC)
  • Record at current school — 98-30 (4 seasons)
  • Overall coaching record — 235-150 (12 seasons)
  • NCAA Tournament Appearances — 2018
  • Accolades
    • A-Sun Coach of the Year (2019)
    • Skip Prosser Award (2018)
    • A-Sun Regular Season Champion (2019)
    • A-Sun Conference Tournament Champion (2018)
    • OVC Regular Season Champion (2021, 2020)
    • OVC Tournament Champion (2020)

This year Alexander had what could be considered a down year relative to his first three seasons at Belmont in which the Bruins won 25 games for three straight seasons. Still, the “down year” was a 21-win season and a third-place finish in the MVC.

Prior to his time at Belmont, Alexander built Lipscomb into a consistent conference contender and rewrote much of the program’s record book. Lipscomb set a program record for wins, got its first-ever win against a ranked opponent, made the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and received its most-ever votes in the Ap Top 25 poll (though it never made the actual top 25). Alexander led the __ to a regular season conference championship in 2019, the program’s first in seven years.

Alexander coached one eventual NBA player, guard Garrison Matthews while at Lipscomb. Matthews earned honorable mention All-American honors and the A-Sun Player of the Year award in 2019, the year of Lipscomb’s regular season title and record-setting 29-win season.

Darren Savino (UCLA assistant)

Officially the associate head coach of the Bruins, Savino has 15 seasons of coaching experience, including in the Mountain West with New Mexico (2000-02). He also spent time at Murray State (2004-06), Cincinnati (2011-19), Rutgers (2006-10, Quinnipiac (2002-04) East Carolina (1998-99), St. John’s (1996-98), Seton Hall (1995-96).

Savino has coached at least eight players that ended up in the NBA and was also the primary recruiter of a McDonald’s All-American to Cincinnati during his tenure there. Team success has also followed Savino across the country, winning conference titles with Murray State and Cincinnati along with NCAA Tournament appearances with both schools.

Nate Dixon (Utah State assistant)

Current assistants are always a possibility to stay behind after a coach leaves and take over rather than leave with the head coach. Dixon has followed Odom multiple times to new positions — including going from Lenoir-Rhyne to UMBC and later UMBC to Utah State — but may decided to try his hand at being a head coach. He’s certainly been recognized as a top assistant, being a three-time participant in the TopConnect Virtual Seminar which seeks to find the top basketball assistants and facilitate opportunities as mid-major schools. Dixon participated in this seminar in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Aside from his time at Utah State, Dixon crossed paths with the Mountain West from 2010-11 as an assistant with Wyoming. Dixon has also been an assistant at Louisiana-Lafayette (2009-10), Louisiana-Monroe (2005-07), Florida (2003-05), and Stetson (2001-03) along with some Division II schools prior to 2001.

Chris Burgess (Utah assistant)

Last time the Aggies were in the market for a head coach, Burgess threw his hat in the ring and campaigned hard to become the coach but was passed up in favor of Odom. Burgess has spent his entire coaching career in the state of Utah, spending time as an assistant at Utah Valley (2015-19), BYU (2019-2021) and Utah (2021-present). Burgess was part of the successful UVU teams under Mark Pope that went 58-22 over the final two seasons Pope was with the Wolverines. Burgess was then with Pope at BYU when the Cougars finished ranked in the AP poll in two straight seasons and appeared in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. When Craig Smith became the head coach at Utah, Burgess joined the staff and has been there both seasons during which the Utes have gone 28-35.







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