Sprinkle sets standards for men’s basketball program

By Jake Ellis SPORTS EDITOR

“I’m about winning and I’m about doing it the right way,” said Danny Sprinkle, the recently announced 21st head coach of Utah State Men’s Basketball. “We will continue to cultivate, enhance the culture, the atmosphere that’s been around here and just try and go win a game in the NCAA Tournament.”

Sprinkle was welcomed to Utah State at a press conference inside the Wayne Estes Center on April 10. The conference was attended by Sprinkle’s parents Bill and Danette, interim athletics director Jerry Bovee and Noelle Cockett, president of Utah State University, along with dozens of Aggie faithful.

To select Sprinkle as the new coach, a panel made up of Cockett, Bovee, executive associate athletics director Amy Crosbie and a community member interviewed three candidates based on a prior group of 10 to 12 coaches that Bovee had screened at the Final Four in Houston, per Cockett.

Cockett said she is “certain that this is the man we want to lead us forward with our men’s basketball program.”

“The attributes of Danny, coach Sprinkle — I love his name too — matches what we are as Aggies,” Cockett said. “He’s energetic. He’s personable. He has a commitment to integrity. He has grit. He will make things happen. And one of the things that was especially important to me was a commitment to the professional and personal development of our student-athletes.”

Bovee echoed the sentiment of Cockett and thanked Aggie fans for their support and “die-hard fandom” during the coaching search. He added that there was widespread interest in the job around the country.

“There was a lot of interest in this job,” Bovee said. “If you were to see this list that I was working off, you'd be amazed with some of the names on that list.”

Bovee mentioned that several head coaches inquired and interviewed for the job, including some from “Power Five” schools. He added that even though some coaches may have had more experience than Sprinkle, Bovee was focused on fnding the right person for Utah State.

“Just because you have a name and you have experience at other places, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be successful here,” Bovee said. “We had to fnd the right match in that process.”

He said Sprinkle was the right match. That seemed evident in the way Sprinkle talked about how he wants his team to engage with the campus and Cache Valley.

“We are going to be visible in the community. We are going to be visible on campus — it’s important. That’s what makes Utah State special,” Sprinkle said. “Our players — you’re heroes to these little kids. That means a lot to me and I’m going to make sure that those little kids see that and that’s why they want to be Aggies when they grow up.”

After thanking God, Bovee and Cockett for the opportunity to coach at USU, Sprinkle explained his belief in the tradition of Aggie basketball and the importance of representing former players as well as current ones.

Sprinkle shouted out former Aggie guard Brock Miller who was in attendance. Sprinkle said he still has “nightmares” about Miller draining a 3-pointer that took Montana State out of Sprinkle’s frst game as a head coach against Utah State.

Sprinkle continued by talking about the impact of tradition and being representatives of Utah State.

“I talked a lot to our team about representing the players that wore that jersey before and that's important to me,” Sprinkle said. “Tradition is important. In college basketball, it's the most important. And when you're working in the weight room, when you're on campus, when you're in the community, we're going to represent you guys well. And we're going to represent the community and every former player that ever put on that blue and white jersey.”

After giving thanks to coaches that helped Sprinkle progress in his career, he talked about the history of Utah State basketball and mentioned notable players including Wayne Estes, Jaycee Carroll, Spencer Nelson, Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta among others.

Sprinkle was also keen to mention how important the “care factor” is to him. He said how much the school and community care is what drew him to Logan. “This community cares. There's not a lot of communities that care about their basketball team like this does,” Sprinkle said. “You’re a loyal fanbase that cares.”

Sprinkle pointed at Pac-12 Conference fanbases that draw crowds of less than half of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. He said that that would never happen here because Cache Valley cares. Sprinkle also added that he shares that same passion.

“The one thing that I can tell you is like my care factor is off the charts,” Sprinkle said. “I sometimes have to remind referees about that too and my mom does too. ... It’s different here and I appreciate that.”

Rivalry games were also a topic of discussion. One attendee proclaimed to Sprinkle that “the only thing worse than a Utah Ute is a BYU Cougar.” Utah State hasn’t beaten either team since the 2011-12 season, which includes 10 straight losses to Brigham Young.

Sprinkle has experience fipping rivalries. Before he took over at Montana State, the Bobcats were 1-15 against Montana since 2012. Under his tenure, they went 3-3. Sprinkle puts a lot of weight on rivalry games.

“It’s huge, that’s what makes college basketball,” Sprinkle said. “It was the funnest and most stressful game at Montana State when we played University of Montana. ... We hadn’t been very successful in that rivalry until me and my staff got there, but I think it’s the most important thing.

Obviously, there’s some unbelievable teams in this state and it’s fun to compete against those teams and it's fun for the fans to kind of have those state bragging rights.”

However, the diffculty may be getting those institutions to play games with Utah State as the Utes have only played the Aggies once since joining the Pac-12 Conference and BYU is set to join the Big 12 Conference this year.