Phillips ready to take the reins of UVU men’s basketball
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- New Utah Valley University men’s basketball coach Todd Phillips (center) shares the stage with UVU President Astrid S. Tuminez (left) and Director of Athletics Jared Sumsion at the NUVI Basketball Center on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
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- New Utah Valley University men’s basketball coach Todd Phillips (center) answers questions from reporters after a news conference at the NUVI Basketball Center on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
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- New Utah Valley University men’s basketball coach Todd Phillips (right) awaits his news conference with his son Zach and his wife Bobbi at the NUVI Basketball Center on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
The following story is absolutely true: About 20 years ago, Willie the Wolverine was entertaining fans at halftime of a Provo-Timpview boys basketball game. The UVU mascot climbed up on the basket, hung on the rim and accidently shattered the backboard, which caused a 45-minute delay to replace it and Willie slunk away in shame.
The Utah Valley men’s basketball program has come a long way since then and is now shattering records. Last year the Wolverines won 28 games, packed 5,289 fans into the UCCU Center for an NIT quarterfinal game against Cincinnati televised on ESPN and reached the semifinals of that revered tournament for the first time.
That’s the program new coach Todd Phillips is walking into, starting, well, now.
Phillips was introduced as the school’s fourth Division I head coach on Wednesday at the NUVI Basketball Center. He follows Dick Hunsaker, Mark Pope (now at BYU) and Mark Madsen, who announced on March 29 he was leaving for a Pac-12 head job at Cal.
“Utah Valley is a dream job for me,” Phillips said. “My challenge is ‘What’s next?’ What’s next is that we’re going to win more. We’re going to win WAC Championships and we’re going to get to the NCAA Tournament. I think I’m a great blend between what Coach Madsen did and where the program is going.”
Director of Athletics Jared Sumsion said the search process to replace Madsen including a nine-person committee that took just eight days to find the school’s next coach. He added the committee interviewed seven candidates in-person before offering the job to Phillips.
“We wanted someone who could coach champions in the classroom, champions in competition, champions in the community and champions in life,” Sumsion said. “UVU will continue to be a destination of destiny. Todd’s quality of humanity is off the charts.”
The Wolverines biggest little fan, school president Astrid S. Tuminez, stood tall at the dais (albeit on a block to reach the microphone) to sing Phillips’ praises and playfully scold those in attendance not wearing Wolverine green.
“I feel so much love,” Tuminez said. “UVU was founded on love and exceptional care for one another. I’m tiny but competitive and I hate losing. We hired Todd because he’s a man who knows how to work hard. He knows how to win and how to win in the right way.”
Phillips replaced the legendary Norm Parrish at Salt Lake Community College, heading up that program for eight seasons. He knows a little about stepping into a challenging situation.
“I think I’m a pretty smart coach,” Phillips said. “You want to change some things but you also know what works. I know what works here and what’s been working. So we’re going to be really similar in style. I don’t think you’ll see a lot of differences in the outward play of our program. We’re going to get out and run. We’re going to dunk on you. We’re going to lead the country in blocked shots. And we’re going to shoot threes. But there are other little things that I want to put my stamp on and change the program as it grows.”
The next step for Phillips is to put together a coaching staff and a roster. So far, six UVU players have entered the transfer portal, including starters Justin Harmon and Le’Tre Darthard. Harmon has already found a new home at Illinois. It appears seven-foot center Aziz Bandaogo, who averaged 11.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game while blocking 105 shots, will return to Orem.
“My job is to get players, get players, get players,” Phillips said. “I mean, that’s No. 1. No. 2 is probably recruiting and getting players and No. 3 is retaining and getting players. That’s a big part of it. I’m going to put my staff together. From the minute I got the job, I’ve been reaching out to the players and trying to recruit guys. It’s a crazy time as everyone in the NCAA knows. Everybody’s team is gone. I think the average now is five guys transferring every year. So for us it’s important to get out and get some of the those guys and for us to recruit our own guys back. Recruiting is the lifeblood of the program.”
Phillips said he gave a speech two or three years ago in which he forgot to thank his wife, Bobbi.
“You can’t come back from that,” Phillips said.
Funny. Seems like he’s done a pretty good job of recovering so far.
