What’s next for Aggies now that magical 2023-24 season is over and their coach is on the move?

If it weren’t for the large blue-and-black “March Madness” logo covering most of the towel, it would have been a literal “waving the white flag” moment.

But when a media timeout was triggered by an out-of-bounds basketball with 6:21 left in Utah State’s game against Purdue Sunday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis, USU head coach Danny Sprinkle elected to take Great Osobor out of the game.

Considering the Aggies were trailing the Boilermakers by 39 points at the time, there certainly wasn’t anything Utah State’s leading scorer could do at that point to prolong USU’s season. But seeing the Aggies’ junior forward emerge from the huddle and place an NCAA Tournament towel over his head was still sobering.

Unless he was in foul trouble, Osobor had rarely spent any time on the Aggie bench the past couple of months. But as Purdue fans were getting up and leaving Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the 2024 Mountain West Player of the Year was sitting down for the final six-plus minutes of the biggest game of his life with obvious sadness in his always expressive eyes.

It was an unfortunate ending to an incredible season for Osobor, as well as for Sprinkle and the rest of the Aggies.

By the time Sunday’s second-round clash with the Boilermakers was mercifully over, there were a few more Aggies with towels on their heads, attempting to hide the indignity and disappointment of a season-ending, 106-67 loss to No. 1 seed Purdue.

It certainly wasn’t the way the Aggies (28-7) wanted to go out, especially considering that the outright Mountain West champs had only lost one game all year by as many as 20 points.

The team that had a knack all season for keeping games close and then pulling out victories in the final moments, held a 24-23 lead with 8:32 left in the first half before the Boilermakers — playing just an hour away from their campus — exploded for an insurmountable 16 straight points while their opponents missed a dozen consecutive shots.

‘Historic’ season

After the game, Sprinkle didn’t waste any time shrugging off the disappointment of the 39-point loss, and instead focused on his team’s unlikely rise to the top of the Mountain West after not returning a single point from last year’s roster. After all, before the wheels come off against Purdue, the program that was slated to finish ninth in the conference’s preseason poll somehow managed to win 28 games, including a regular-season MW championship and its first NCAA Tournament contest in 23 years.

“What our team did this year was historic,” Sprinkle proclaimed. “I don’t know if it will ever be done again at the Power Five, Power Six level. When you’re playing in the Mountain West, it’s hard to do with a completely brand-new roster. Was there some luck involved? No question.”

Less than 24 hours later, the architect behind that “luck” was headed to the Pacific Northwest. Washington announced Monday that it had hired Sprinkle as its new head coach, giving the 47-year-old a six-year contract worth just over $22 million.

“It was going to take something special for me to leave Logan, and the University of Washington was it,” Sprinkle stated in a UW press release. “The university means a great deal to our family, and I am excited to return to my home state. With a strong commitment to excellence and incredible fan support, we will recruit exceptional young men who will take pride in wearing the purple and gold, who will win championships and who will leave UW with an impressive degree. I am excited to get started and to be a part of such a special place.”

Although Danny Sprinkle grew up primarily in Montana and played basketball at Montana State, his father, Bill, was a defensive back for the Washington football team in the ‘60s, and Danny was born in Pullman, Washington. An assistant coach for 19 seasons, Sprinkle was the head coach at his alma mater for four seasons before being hired away from Bozeman by interim USU athletic director Jerry Bovee on April 7, 2023.

Similarly, Washington also currently has an interim athletic director after Troy Dannen left for Nebraska last week after just five months in Seattle. Erin O’Connell finalized filling the vacancy created when Dannen fired UW head coach Mike Hopkins just before the end of the regular season after seven years with the Huskies.

“Simply put, coach Sprinkle is a winner,” O’Connell said. “He won as a high school player, as a collegiate student-athlete, as an assistant coach, and then at both stops as a head coach, including the recent regular season conference championship at Utah State.

“… Coach Sprinkle is exactly what our program needs at this moment in time, and we are thrilled to have him take the reins of our men’s basketball program.”

Barely knew ya

Sprinkle leaves Logan after just one spectacular season that includes a 15-game winning streak, and an 88-72 win over TCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last Friday that ended the Aggies’ 10-game losing streak in the Big Dance.

Before leaving for Jet City, Sprinkle flew back into Cache Valley on USU’s charter flight Sunday night, and the team was greeted by appreciative Aggie fans upon its arrival at the Spectrum. But by Monday morning it was revealed that Sprinkle, as had been rumored for weeks, would be taking over the Huskies.

“Utah State men’s basketball had a great season under Coach Sprinkle’s leadership,” USU athletic director Diana Sabau said in a press release. “We did everything possible to retain him with a package that would have been highly competitive in the Mountain West in terms of compensation and support.

“Our tradition of success over the years has never been about one coach or one player. With 24 NCAA Tournament appearances, including 12 this century under several head coaches, winning is a part of our DNA. We have an incredible and knowledgeable fan base with generous donors, and we compete in one of the nation’s most competitive conferences.

“We are aligned with the university on a pursuit of excellence with elite facilities and a proven commitment to the student-athlete experience. Our search is already underway, and our candidate pool is strong. I cannot wait to introduce our new head coach and begin to write the next chapter in our storied basketball history.”

Since Stew Morrill retired in 2015 after 17 seasons and 402 wins at Utah State, the Aggie program has breezed through four different head coaches. Tim Duryea, Morrill’s longtime assistant, was fired after three seasons and replaced by South Dakota head coach Craig Smith. Smith won 74 games and qualified for three NCAA Tournaments in his three seasons before being lured away by Utah.

Smith’s replacement, Ryan Odom, came from UMBC and lasted two seasons and made one NCAA Tournament appearance with the Aggies before moving onto VCU. Ironically, Smith and Odom will be on the same court Wednesday night in the NIT when the Utes host the Rams at the Huntsman Center.

Meanwhile, Sabau will be hard at work trying to secure not only a new men’s basketball coach at Utah State, but also a women’s coach, as well. The Aggies still haven’t filled the vacancy created when women’s head coach Kayla Ard was fired on March 11. They will be the first major hires of Sabau’s tenure since being hired on Aug. 7 by new USU President Elizabeth Cantwell.

“Utah State University is a remarkable institution and our athletics programs play an important role on our campus and in our community and is a significant aspect of our plan to further elevate the university,” Cantwell said. “Our men’s basketball program has been a point of pride for a long time, and its success has lifted our amazing students, faculty, staff, alumni, fans and community.

“We are well-positioned to continue our track record of winning, and I am confident that director of athletics Diana Sabau will lead a comprehensive search and identify the right coach to take us to even greater heights. We thank Coach Sprinkle for an incredible season leading Utah State basketball and wish him the very best.”

While losing Sprinkle so quickly is obviously a significant blow to Utah State, his departure is certainly tempered by his ability to bring a long-sought-after victory in the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies were 0-10 in the Big Dance since upsetting Ohio State — where Sabau was employed at the time — in 2001, so beating the Horned Frogs will never be forgotten.

Looking ahead

The question is, how much retooling will USU’s new coach need to do? Utah State’s unquestioned leader this season, point guard Darius Brown II’s eligibility expired following the loss to Purdue. But every other scholarship player could technically move on via the transfer portal, some of them obviously to Washington.

The 2024 Mountain West Player of the Year as a junior, Osobor (17.7 ppg, 9.0 rpg) played two seasons for Sprinkle at Montana State before he and Brown followed Sprinkle to Logan. Martinez (13.3 ppg) is a senior with one year of eligibility left and has a strong relationship with Sprinkle’s associate head coach Andy Hill, but the Costa Rica native is already on his third school after starting out at Utah and then transferring to Maryland before coming to USU last summer.

Issac Johnson (6.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg), is a returned missionary from American Fork who came back to the Beehive State after a year at Oregon, while losing Mason Falslev, also a returned missionary, to the transfer portal would arguably be the most devastating move to the program and the community. A crowd favorite and Cache Valley native started 34 of USU’s 35 games, averaging 11.3 points per game as a redshirt freshman.

Josh Uduje (8.7 ppg) was the MW’s Co-Sixth Man of the Year but also made 10 starts, and junior forward Kalifa Sakho (2.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg), sophomore guard Javon Jackson (4.5 ppg) and freshman forward Karson Templin (2.5 ppg, 1.7 ppg) played significant roles off the bench.

Speed is certainly of the essence when it comes to bringing in a new coaching staff, considering the transfer portal has been open since March 18. And USU recruit Kase Wynott, who became the all-time leading scorer in Idaho boys basketball history in January, already announced that he was decommitting from the Aggies.

However, Sprinkle was still able to bring in 13 new players despite getting a little bit later start last year, and he certainly provided the blueprint for how to quickly rebuild a basketball program in a conference that ended up sending six teams to the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

But replicating the kind of success the Aggies had this season seems highly unlikely to happen again so quickly, especially if USU’s roster is gutted once again.

That means that for Utah State basketball fans, the 2023-24 season will end up living in their minds like one of those beloved sports movies like “The Bad News Bears” or “The Replacements” that chronicles one incredible season by a band of “misfits,” which is what Sprinkle lovingly referred to his players as this season.

“What an unbelievable journey,” Sprinkle declared Tuesday morning on X. “Our story would not be possible without the support of Aggie Nation, and you will always have a piece of my heart. I will be eternally grateful for you being next to us for every step of the way. It was such an incredible honor to lead this storied program. Spectrum Magic is real!”