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SALT LAKE CITY — Alex Jensen is coming home.
The Centerville native was hired Thursday as the University of Utah’s newest men’s basketball coach, just 10 days after the university announced the departure of former coach Craig Smith.
Jensen returns to his alma mater after spending the bulk of his nearly 20-year coaching career in the NBA, where he was an assistant for the Utah Jazz for 10 seasons before being hired on as an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks in July 2023.
The former Runnin’ Utes star during Hall-of-Fame coach Rick Majerus’ tenure was long considered to be on the path for a head coaching position in the NBA before electing to return to the collegiate ranks to coach at his alma mater.
But the timing was right to return home, especially as the Mavericks went through seismic changes that included trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster deal that shocked the NBA world — none more than those within the Dallas franchise.
Jensen faces an uphill battle while with Utah, where he will be expected to bring the program back to national prominence — starting with a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2015-16 season — while improving its position in relation to NIL and booster support.
As a top target for the head coaching vacancy — even before Smith was hired in 2021 — donor support is expected to follow as a fan favorite.
But Jensen has yet to be a head coach at the collegiate level and will have a short learning span in the Big 12. The former Mountain West Conference player of the year (1999-2000) last coached at the collegiate level from 2007-11, where he was an assistant to Majerus at Saint Louis before accepting his only head coaching gig with the Canton Charge (the former NBA D-League).
His long-term tenure in the professional ranks, though, give him a leg-up on preparing athletes for the next phase of their career, while also bringing an NBA mentality to a world of college athletics that is looking more and more like a professional league as it relates to paying athletes and roster management.
Alex Jensen cuts down net after the Utes won the game with New Mexico. (Photo: Tom Smart, Deseret News)
The 6-foot-7 Jensen played four seasons at Utah, starting in 1994-95 before leaving on a church mission to England. But in his first season back with the Utes, he helped the team as a starter to a national championship appearance before falling short to Kentucky.
During his senior season — Utah’s first in the Mountain West — Jensen averaged 13.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists en route to be named the conference’s player of the year while earning first-team All-MWC honors. His team lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament that season.
But Jensen knows nothing but playing in the Big Dance, having been in the tournament in all four seasons he was with the Runnin’ Utes.
And the Utah athletic department hopes Jensen will be the key to getting Utah back to that coveted postseason prize.
This story will be updated.
