From the ground up: UVU rebuilds roster after successful season
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- UVU head coach Todd Phillips and his staff watch the action during the WAC game against Southern Utah at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, March 1, 2025. They wore special “JST” shirts to honor Jeffrey Tolk, husband to UVU president Astrid Tuminez and a supporter of Wolverine athletics, who recently died.
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- UVU freshman Jackson Holcombe goes up for a dunk during the WAC game against Southern Utah at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, March 1, 2025.
The pecking order of men’s college basketball means Utah Valley head coach Todd Phillips and his staff are basically rebuilding their roster every season.
As a strong mid-major program, the Wolverines best players get raided by power conference teams and others chase the bag or more playing time. A successful season — UVU was 25-9 overall and 15-1 in the Western Athletic Conference last year, winning the regular season title — usually results in a lot of extra work for Phillips and his support staff on the recruiting trail.
“Our main three guys (WAC Player of the Year Dominick Nelson, Tanner Toolson and Carter Welling) all got more than half a million dollars,” Phillips said. “I mean, you get a 10-times pay bump, we’re all out the door.”
Nelson (Iowa State), Toolson (TCU) and Welling (Clemson) are the biggest losses and Ethan Potter (Utah Tech), Cory Wells, Kylin Green and Osiris Grady are also gone. The main returners are junior point guard Trevan Leonhardt, sophomore forward Jackson Holcombe, senior forward Hayden Welling and graduate guard Noah Taitz.
UVU’s 2025-26 roster is complete — 13 scholarship players, two walk-ons — and Phillips is happy with the lineup.
“We got the roster done as quick as we ever have,” he said. “I don’t really know how that happened. It’s all about getting pieces and we got them all signed by the end of May, first week of June. It obviously hurts when someone leaves but we’ve been doing this the past three or four years. You always make plans for the next group of guys. We wish Carter, Tanner and Dom would have stayed but we know where it’s at.”
Holcombe, who averaged 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds while playing 31 minutes per game off the bench last season, said the veterans can lead by example as the new players adjust.
“One of the keys that made us successful last year is we would get big games from different guys,” he said. “We need everyone in this locker room to work hard and depend on each other. We don’t care who gets the credit. Our priority No. 1 is winning. That’s our culture. Whatever it takes to do that’s what we’ll do.
“Coach Phillips does a great job of trusting players. He acknowledges our strengths and he’s pretty vocal about that. He always puts us in the best position to be successful. Last year he really trusted us to play together.”
Phillips likes to build around skilled and rangy post players, so that’s where the roster takes shape for him.
“There’s Isaac Davis (from Utah State),” Phillips said. “He’s 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds. He got some good minutes his freshman year and he’s a guy who can make an impact right away. He’s athletic and really a load down low. Then we got Isaac Hawkins (College of Southern Idaho), one of the top bigs in JUCO. He’s 6-10, long and athletic. He needs to gain some weight but he’s got a big-time motor.”
UVU also secured a commitment from 6-11 center Joul Karram (University of Utah), who is playing with the Israeli U19 team this summer.
“I’m really excited about our bigs,” Phillips said. “I always like guys after they’ve had a year of college. They grow up and they blossom their sophomore year.”
Losing Nelson and Toolson on the guard line required an influx of talented wing players. One of those newcomers is Tyler Hendricks (UCF), a 6-6 combo guard who came on late in the season for the Knights. He’s the twin brother of current Utah Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks.
Former Skyridge guard Brayden Housley was at Southern Utah and Utah State before opting to join the Wolverines. He’s a 6-4 guard who is strong and can shoot and handle the ball.
UVU also signed AJ Riggs, a guard who played in the JUCO national championship two seasons ago.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good steal in him,” Phillips said. “He has a high motor and really shoots it. He was one of the top JC kids in the country two years ago.”
Sherman Witherspoon (Frank Phillips College) is another JUCO combo guard who will have an opportunity to grow in the Wolverines’ system. UVU signed former Corner Canyon star guard Jaxon Roberts in 2023 and he has returned from a church mission to Spain.
“I think we’ll have more depth and we’ll be more athletic than last year,” Phillips said. “The biggest thing for me is we’ve got to find the way that these guys fit together. That’s the secret sauce and our strength last year. Identifying roles is going to be big for us. They need to be great at one or two things and then expand from that.”
Another burden of a good mid-major program is being caught in limbo when it comes to scheduling.
“We’re in the heart of it,” Phillips said. “We’re probably three-quarters of the way done. We’ve got to schedule a couple of ‘buy games’ with some power four programs. You really have to set up a good schedule to be successful.
“Two years ago we were 33rd in strength of schedule but last year, it was more doable. We don’t have any exciting in-state games but we do have one at the Delta Center that’s pretty much done. We tried to schedule ten teams out of the Big 12, but they wouldn’t play us.”
Even with a big roster turnover, Phillips expects his team to be in the thick of things in the WAC, the program’s last season in the league before moving to the Big West in 2026-27.
“There are huge expectations from our school and community,” Phillips said. “You keep learning and growing. Guys get comfortable with their positions and with each other. We’ve got to get the pieces to fit together and that’s the biggest thing for us to work on.”
Addition and Subtraction
Utah Valley head coach Todd Phillips and his staff have rebuilt a roster than won the Western Athletic Conference regular season title last season. The new roster includes seven returners and nine newcomers.
Left the program (11)
Dominick Nelson 6-5 Jr. G (Iowa State)
Carter Welling 6-10 So. F (Clemson)
Tanner Toolson 6-5 R-So. (TCU)
Ethan Potter 6-8 Jr. F (Utah Tech)
Osiris Grady 6-9 So. F (UC Riverside)
Kylin Green 6-0 Jr. G (Houston Christian)
Dylan Metoyer 6-1 Fr. G (Howard)
Cory Wells 6-7 Gr. F (out of eligibility)
Andre Johnson Jr. 6-4 Jr. G
Jake Nadauld 6-3 Fr. G
Majer Sullivan 6-8 Jr. C
Returning to the program (6)
Jackson Holcombe 6-7 R-So. F (5.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg)
Noah Taitz 6-4 Gr. G (2.7 ppg, 41% 3s)
Trevan Leonhardt 6-4 R-Jr. G (5.8 ppg, 5.2 apg)
Hayden Welling 6-9 Sr. C (4.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg)
Tyler Weaver 6-7 R-Fr. (redshirt)
Tyler Medaris 6-7 R-Fr. (redshirt)
New to the program (9)
Isaac Davis 6-8 So. F (Utah State transfer)
Jaxon Roberts 6-2 Fr G (Corner Canyon, returned missionary)
Sherman Weatherspoon IV 6-3 Jr. G (Frank Phillips College transfer)
AJ Riggs 6-3 So. G (Fort Lewis College transfer)
Braden Housley 6-4 R-So. G (Utah State transfer)
Tyler Hendricks 6-6 R-Jr. G/F (UCF transfer)
Isaac Hawkins 6-10 Jr/ F (CSI transfer)
AJ Dixon 6-5 R-Fr. G (Western Illinois transfer)
Joul Karram 6-11 So. C (University of Utah transfer)
