Spencer Nelson set to return to the Spectrum

Utah Statesman

It was announced this morning Chris Jones, the USU men’s basketball assistant coach, will resign his position after eight years and will be hired on as the director of basketball operations at the University of Utah. Former Aggie basketball star Spencer Nelson is set to take his place.

“A completely unexpected job change has been offered to Spencer as an Assistant Coach at Utah State University,” Julie Nelson, Spencer’s Nelson’s wife, wrote on Facebook. “This amazing opportunity came up recently and we feel like it is the right thing for our family. We will be moving up to Logan to join back with our Aggies and are excited about our new adventure, especially since we love Logan and Utah State so much.”

Nelson, the Pocatello, Idaho native, was a forward for the Aggies in 1999 and returned to the program in 2002 after serving an LDS mission in Oklahoma. He was a redshirt in 2002 and continued to play from 2003-2005. He was named to USU’s All-Century team and was considered one of the Big West Conference’s best players at the time. Although he was not drafted to the NBA in 2005, he was offered a position to play professionally overseas for GHP in Bamberg, Germany. In 2006 he played for Benetton Treviso, a professional Italian team, and continued to play for several teams across Europe before he announced his retirement in 2014.

He will now resume his basketball career with the Aggies while Jones returns to his alma mater.

Jones played for the Utes from 1993-1994 and was previously the director of operations and assistant coach from 2005-2008.

During his time at Utah State he helped the Aggies win three conference titles and make four postseason appearances. Additionally, he helped mentor 17 USU student athletes to 17 all-conference citations.