New men’s and women’s head basketball coaches prepare for next season

The Utah State University athletics department held a press conference on Tuesday to introduce the new head coaches for men’s and women’s basketball. 

The new head coach for the women’s basketball team is Wesley Brooks, who served as an assistant coach at Ohio State University. Before that, he worked as an assistant at Michigan, Utah, North Texas, Texas Southern and Robert Morris. 

On Saturday, Jerrod Calhoun was named the 22nd head coach for the men’s basketball team. He previously led Youngstown State to consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in their program’s history. 

Calhoun was asked about the transfer portal and how he plans to foster retention and handle high school recruiting. 

“My sole focus is our current players. I think so many coaches come in and talk about the next recruit. The best recruit are those guys sitting right over there,” Calhoun said. 

Calhoun mentioned the current players, who were in attendance at the press conference, multiple times and said how talented and connected they are as a team. 

Calhoun was also asked about his staff. He said he likes to see that potential staff “have a motor. I want guys who want to be head coaches.”

Following Calhoun, Brooks was asked about things he wants to work on with the women’s team. 

Brooks said that he “hasn’t met with the team yet” but has been watching film. He also said they “got some work to do to play the style of play that we want to play.” 

He followed up by saying he has worked in a coaching role his whole life and has a plan for the team going forward.

“Our conditioning has to be better; if we want to play, we have to be in shape. The other thing is the turnovers; we can’t turn the ball over.”

He said these are his priorities as the team begins to go into summer workouts and pre-season practice. He also emphasized the team’s mindset, and how he wants to change their mindset of “we can’t win.” 

Calhoun was asked whether he plans to stay in Logan for the long run, with the previous head coach Danny Sprinkle leaving after just one season with the Aggies. 

“I knew this question would come up. I’ve read quite a bit about this place and in the number of changes, but I can tell you this: my girls are at an age where we don’t want to move,” Calhoun said. 

He said he hoped for a “big raise if that happens” when talking about staying in Logan. 

Diana Sabau, vice president & athletics director, shared more about the process of finding the two coaches. She said the searches were “deliberate” and there were a lot of “tremendous” candidates, especially in the women’s pool. 

Sabau said both she and the coaches used to wear a lot of red, since they all have a sporting background from Ohio. She then said that her hires were “not by coincidence at all” and wants to bring more familiarity of their traditions and programs to Utah State. 

Brooks ended the conference saying that he wants to work with the team one step at a time, saying, “Rome wasn’t built in one day.” 

He said he plans to shoot for getting 1% better every day, so by 200 days, the team will be 200% better.