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OREM — It isn't easy for any college basketball team to build through an offseason. But coming off its all-time winningest season, Utah Valley is facing unprecedented change.
The Wolverines went 70-51 in four seasons under Mark Madsen, who was named last month as the head coach at California after a program-record 28-9 season, a Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship with a 15-3 mark, and a spot in the NIT semifinals in Las Vegas.
Utah Valley tried to rebound with continuity, promoting associate head coach Todd Phillips to his first Division I head coaching job. There was hope inside the program that Phillips' promotion could keep together the core of the returning players who had eligibility remaining to make another run at a similar title — maybe even the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid — last year.
So Phillips signed a three-year contract through the 2025-26 season with an annual base salary of $238,500 — the same salary Madsen was making in his final year of a contract extended in 2021, according to both contracts obtained by KSL.com.
The deal includes similar benefits as Madsen's contract, including bonuses for team GPA, winning against buy-game opponents like last year's victories over BYU and Oregon, and all-conference awards like player and coach of the year, in addition to WAC championships and NCAA or NIT tournament berths.
There are scheduling bonuses, like $25,000 for securing at least $150,000 in buy games from power conference programs, and a contract buyout of $450,000 if Phillips terminates the agreement without cause (such as in the event of a new job offer) that matches the buyout of Madsen's contract that sources say has already been paid to the university.
It was, in many ways, a "dream job" for Phillips, a Boise native who played junior college basketball at Snow College and coached Salt Lake Community College to an NJCAA national title before making the move from Taylorsville to Orem to join Madsen's staff in 2019.
"I think I'm built for this area," Phillips said. "It starts with regional kids; you have to have good regional kids. If you look in the state of Utah, every team that has been good in the state has always had good regional kids, from Utah, Arizona, Idaho and our area. I think I'm really dialed in with that. But you've also got to reach out nationally, and bring in really good national kids to help with that foundation.
"I was just in Italy and Germany a month ago, too; we've been working in Africa a lot. We're just trying to recruit really good kids. But it comes back knowing your niche, knowing where you're at, and having a framework. That's having kids that fit us regionally."
Still, continuity can be a fickle objective, and the Wolverines have hardly found it.
Nine players from last year's roster have entered the transfer portal in the past month, and close to half of them have found a home. Jaden McClanahan entered the portal before opting to return to Orem, while Justin Harmon and Le'Tre Darthard accepted Power Five offers at Illinois and Oklahoma, respectively.
Converted wing-turned-point guard Trey Woodbury submitted his name to the portal over the weekend, even though the one-time UNLV transfer was still working the process of receiving a waiver for a sixth season of eligibility from the NCAA. But the 6-foot-4 guard from Las Vegas who averaged 13.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game a year ago wasn't the only surprise entry.
Of the returning core to UVU for next season, only former Layton High standout Ethan Potter and a handful of seldom-used players in redshirt freshman Joao Das Chagas, sophomore Brenden Crowther, redshirt freshman Trevan Leonhardt and redshirt freshman Raul Freire Del Tio have not entered the portal.
Sources confirmed Monday that Aziz Bandaogo, the Akron transfer who won WAC defensive player of the year last season, had entered the portal. Bandaogo signaled his intention Friday when he told ESPN.com that a move away from the new staff that also includes now-associate head coach Todd Okeson for the sake of his mental health.
"I have been going through a very hard period for months where my day-to-day life has severely been affected," Bandaogo said. "I'm grateful for the chance and I hope all my supporters will acknowledge the importance of this decision."
Phillips acknowledged the need to "get players" by any means necessary — through high school recruiting and the transfer portal — to KSL.com when he was introduced following his hiring. But he also admitted traditional avenues for recruiting, particularly out of high school and junior colleges, have been neglected by many programs in the era of portal-chasing that coincided with a free season of eligibility granted nationally to players who played through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Phillips has used the portal in recruiting, bringing in and developing the past two WAC Defensive Players of the Year in Bandaogo (Akron) and soon-to-be Cal center Fardaws Aimaq (Mercer). He also knows the benefits of homegrown recruiting, as well. He also added a commitment from Drake Allen, the Westlake High graduate who earned NJCAA All-America second-team honors at Snow before All-WAC Newcomer status in Southern Utah's first season in the conference, as well as McCook Community College scorer Simon Akena (15.9 points per game).
"I think the high school ranks are untapped a bit (as well). There are some really good high school kids that are getting overlooked," Phillips said. "If you look 10 years ago, some kids were definite Division I kids. Those are both types of players that we're looking at; we made the comment the other day, if we need to chase in a different direction at times. And we definitely do."
