Jeff Borzello
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Jeff Borzello
ESPN Staff Writer
- Basketball recruiting insider.
- Joined ESPN in 2014.
- Graduate of University of Delaware.
Multiple Authors
Cincinnati is expected to hire Utah State’s Jerrod Calhoun as its next head coach, sources told ESPN.
It marks a return home for Calhoun, an Ohio native who graduated from Cincinnati in 2004 and began his coaching career as a student assistant under Hall of Famer Bob Huggins as a senior in college.
Calhoun just led Utah State to the second round of the men’s NCAA tournament, beating Villanova before falling to Arizona in the second round on Sunday night.
In two years at Utah State, Calhoun went 55-15, leading the Aggies to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances and a sweep of the Mountain West regular season and conference tournament championships this season.
Utah State went 26-8 last season, earning a 10-seed in the NCAA tournament before losing to UCLA in the first round. This season, the Aggies started off 23-3 overall and clinched the outright Mountain West championship with a win over New Mexico on the final day of the regular season. They then ran through the conference tournament with three straight double-digit wins and earned a 9-seed on Selection Sunday.
Their performance against Villanova in Friday’s 86-76 win featured a terrific offensive showing in the second half, going on a 14-1 run late to turn the game in Utah State’s favor. The Aggies missed just two shots in the final 12:45.
Before taking over at Utah State in 2024, Calhoun spent seven seasons as the head coach at Youngstown State. He took a program that had finished above .500 in the Horizon League once in the previous 16 years and went 118-106, including a regular-season championship in 2022-23.
Calhoun also spent five years as the head coach of Division-II Fairmont State and was an assistant under Huggins at West Virginia for five years from 2007-12.
Calhoun becomes the fourth consecutive coach at Utah State to leave for another job after an NCAA tournament appearance and three or fewer seasons in charge of the Aggies. Craig Smith went to Utah after two NCAA tournaments in three seasons; Ryan Odom left for VCU after two seasons and one tourney appearance; and Danny Sprinkle went to the second round of the 2024 NCAA tournament before leaving for Washington.
As a program, Utah State has gone six of the last seven NCAA tournaments and won three Mountain West regular-season championships and three conference tournament titles in the last eight years.
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