It seems highly improbable, but by the time Jerrod Calhoun had guided the Aggies through the first two Mountain West Conference games of his career, Utah State’s new head coach already had a player who had won the MW Player of the Week award four times.
Such is the emergence of Mason Falslev.
“I compare him to some of the greats that I’ve been around,” Calhoun said of USU’s sophomore guard. “I was part of a Final Four staff at West Virginia, and I compare him to Joe Mazzulla and Da’Sean Butler. And what I mean by that is, those guys are really good players — great players — but even better people.
“And when you have a kid that can really play like he can — but also lead by example and his voice — it really gives us an extension of the coaching staff on the court. And I think he’s done a lot of things. He scores, he passes, he rebounds the ball.
“He’s very, very well-rounded player, and he really fits our system; the things we run, how we like to play,” Calhoun added. “It’s been really a good fit.”
Falslev’s Utah State basketball career
A standout starter last season as a redshirt freshman, Falslev has continued his upward trajectory in 2024-25 despite playing for his third coach in three seasons at Utah State.
The 6-foot-3 Falslev, a prep basketball and football legend at Sky View High School in Smithfield, redshirted for the Aggies in 2022-23 during Ryan Odom’s second and final season at USU.
Under former head coach Danny Sprinkle in 2023-24, Falslev started 34 out of Utah State’s 35 games, helping lead the Aggies to a 28-7 record, a Mountain West regular-season title and the program’s first victory in the NCAA Tournament in 23 years.
Falslev, who was fourth on the team in scoring at 11.3 points per game last season, has been even better this year, averaging 16.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the first-place Aggies.
His hot start led to Falslev being honored as the Mountain West Player of the Week four times in the first eight weeks of the season, as well as being named an Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week on Nov. 27 and Dec. 31.
And as a team, the Aggies have won 16 of their first 17 games of the season and are ranked 22nd in this week’s AP Top 25 poll.
And if that’s not enough, the 23-year-old has also been successful off the court, somehow finding the time to get engaged in between road trips in late November.
“Everything’s good,” Falslev said with his trademark smile as he settles into a seat before practice at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. “I’ve got no complaints at all.”
Falslev’s Utah roots
A native of Benson, an unincorporated farming community northwest of Logan, the always affable Falslev has become so beloved in Cache Valley that he’s picked up the nickname “The Mayor.”
He insists he doesn’t know the exact origin of the moniker — “It just started showing up all of a sudden” — but he does like to point out that it’s very different than what he was originally referred to by his teammates during the 2022-23 season.
“It stems back to my redshirt year; my nickname was ‘Baby,’” Falslev said. “I was only freshman on the team, and everyone called me ‘Baby,’ and one of our coaches actually mentioned that one time. He said, ‘You’re the ‘Baby’ now, but maybe one day you’ll be the ‘Mayor.’ But I never said anything.
“And then this last year, some people would call me ‘The Mayor.’ I think (former teammate) Darius Brown might have started it. I don’t know who exactly did, but then this year it just really took off.”
That’s certainly due to Falslev’s success, as well as his accessibility.
Whether it’s working with charitable organizations, going to basketball camps or visiting local schools, he’s proven to be very accommodating, particularly when young USU fans are involved, and he has even inspired many boys to get their hair cut in a fashion similar to that of their favorite Aggie.
“I mean, I just think back to when I was a kid and would touch Jaycee Carroll’s hand or Tai Wesley’s hand, and the impact that had on me,” Falslev said. “So, I feel like it’s my responsibility to just bring some joy to kids when I can.”
Falslev familiarized himself with the floor of the Spectrum at an early age.
He played basketball in his youth with Rylan Jones, the son of former USU assistant coach Chris Jones, and when he was in fourth grade, he served as a ballboy for the Aggies and then-head coach Stew Morrill.
“Because I was friends with Rylan, I was able to sit over there on the sideline, handing out water and towels and stuff,” Falslev said while gesturing towards Utah State’s bench area.
Ironically, it was that relationship with Rylan and Chris Jones that led to the son of Kyle and Hollie Falslev initially committing to play basketball at Utah.
After eight seasons as an assistant to Morrill and Tim Duryea, Jones returned to his alma mater in 2016 as director of basketball operations at Utah under then-head coach Larry Krystkowiak. Since he also had familiarity with Krystkowiak from playing with his sons, Mason Falslev orally committed to the Utes in July 2018, and then signed a National Letter of Intent in November 2019 believing he’d be playing alongside Rylan Jones after he completed a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But Falslev, who graduated from Sky View at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, saw his plans altered in many ways over the next couple of years.
Originally called to a mission in Brazil, Falslev ended up spending the first nine months of his mission in Arizona due to the pandemic before finally being sent to South America.
In addition, Krystkowiak ended up getting fired in March 2021 after 10 seasons at Utah, ironically — once again — opening the door for the Utes to hire Utah State head coach Craig Smith as his replacement.
That coaching change led to Jones leaving Utah after starting 43 games in two years. The 6-foot guard transferred up to USU to play for new Aggie head coach Ryan Odom.
“I was actually pretty close with Craig Smith, and I was able to get on a phone call with him when he was at Utah,” Falslev recalled. “I asked him if I could still go there, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you know, we’d love to have you.’”
“But,” Falslev added, “as time went on, my Dad actually reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, would you ever think about maybe going to Utah State?’ And I really thought about it, and somehow, someway, I got word that I could possibly come to Utah State. So, after a lot of fasting and prayer, I decided that that’s what I wanted to do was come to Utah State.”
Caught in the coaching carousel
Falslev said changing his commitment on his mission was “awkward” and a “hard process,” but it was made easier having some friends in the program, “And I’m happy with my decision.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean Falslev is totally thrilled with everything.
It was already tough being away from basketball for two years, but then Odom and his staff decided to redshirt him during the 2022-23 season.
That meant the former star quarterback/wide receiver, who was used to having the ball in his hands while leading Sky View to state basketball and football titles in 2019, would be sidelined for yet another year — a year that saw the Aggies go 26-9, finish tied for second in the Mountain West and earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.
“I was actually talking with (former Aggie forward) Taylor Funk the other day about my redshirt year,” Falslev said. “It was the hardest year of my life, for sure. I mean, it was fun because there were such good guys on the team. But never in my life before that had I just sat on the bench and cheered. It was really hard for me, but that’s also what made me work so hard in the summer because I didn’t want to have that feeling again.”
At the end of the 2022-23 season, which saw the Aggies lose to Missouri in the NCAA Tournament, Falslev chose to work on refining his game while more uncertainty swirled around him.
Odom was lured away by VCU, which led to Jones leaving Utah State and continuing his career at Samford.
Interim athletic director Jerry Bovee ended up hiring Montana State coach Danny Sprinkle to take over the helm of the USU program, and Falslev suddenly went from being “Baby” to being a veteran of sorts.
Almost the entire Aggie roster was turned over during the summer in 2023, with the exception of Falslev, fellow redshirt Isaac Johnson and walk-on guard Landon Brenchley, none of whom had scored a point the previous season.
But Falslev was ready for the moment. While the Aggies certainly could have used his services in 2022-23, Sprinkle clearly liked what he saw from the Cache Valley native in the offseason and plugged him into the starting lineup right away.
“You know, redshirting was the hardest thing for me, but it was also the best,” Falslev said. “It motivated me. But it also allowed me to sit back and learn a lot more. Sitting on the sideline, you notice a lot of things, and I had goals for myself, and the coaches had goals for me that we were working on all the time. It wasn’t like I was just taking a year off; I was in the gym. I was doing everything I could to get ready for that next year.”
The 2023-24 Aggies, who were picked to finish ninth in the preseason, miraculously emerged as arguably the best story in college basketball last season.
Just like this year, Utah State opened the season with a 16-1 record, and Sprinkle just kept pushing all the right buttons.
Led by Montana State transfers Darius Brown II and Great Osobor, Maryland transfer Ian Martinez and Falslev, Utah State won its first outright Mountain West title and beat TCU for the program’s first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2001.
And while Falslev scored 17 points in his first game as an Aggie against the South Dakota School on Mines on Nov. 6, 2023, and also put up 19 points each in pre-conference games against Stephen F. Austin and UC Irvine, it’s safe to say that he truly made his presence felt when Utah State hosted Northwest Nazarene a month later.
Three straight slam dunks in front of your home crowd will do that.
Falslev came up with a steal and a breakaway slam for his first one, then drove along the baseline on USU’s next possession and suddenly emerged in heavy traffic for his second dunk. Falslev then threw down a perfect lob pass from Martinez on the Aggies’ next time down the court to complete the hat trick.
“Mason’s just a big ball of energy, man,” Sprinkle declared after the game. “He was terrific tonight. He was flying around the whole game, and we needed it.”
Falslev, who briefly had a look at a fourth straight dunk, said he definitely remembers that sequence of events and calls that third dunk “an amazing moment.”
“But what’s really crazy is that I had three dunks in probably like 20 seconds in that game, but I’ve only had one this year,” he adds with a chuckle.
A more complete player
Calhoun saw Falslev’s dunk barrage before he was hired as Sprinkle’s replacement last spring. In preparation for his interview with Utah State athletic director Diana Sabau, the former head coach of Youngstown State watched all 35 of Utah State’s games from the 2023-24 season.
“I knew a lot about Mason’s game,” Calhoun said. “I knew a lot about him as a basketball player, but I didn’t know him as a person, right? When you get a job and you get here, you’re trying to really find out what their story is. And we just immediately kind of hit it off. Same thing with Martinez and Karson Templin and Isaac Johnson and Jaxon Smith.
“We did the same thing for all those guys; just really try to share our vision of how we run our program. You know, Mason’s played for a lot of coaches — let’s call it like it is — and I think he’s really thrived this year.”
Whether Falslev would return to Utah State for his sophomore season was briefly up in the air after Sprinkle left for Washington shortly after USU’s season came to an end with a loss to national runner-up Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
In a social media post that had Aggie fans petrified that the talented homegrown guard was headed elsewhere, Falslev announced that he had placed his name in the transfer portal.
“I was only in there for like three or four days, but that was just because I didn’t know who the coach was going to be. And I didn’t know if he was going to bring this whole team or not, and I didn’t want to be in a position where I was behind all these guys,” Falslev explained.
“But staying was probably the easiest decision I’ve made. Calhoun was on a visit here, at the time, and he knew he was getting the job. I was in (the Spectrum) shooting, and he came up to me, he’s like, ‘Hey, I’d love to meet with you more. Let’s talk tomorrow.’ I talked to him, and I was like, ‘Alright, yeah, I’m all in. Let’s get it done.’
“That was an easy call,” Falslev added.
So far this season, that “easy call” — and a lot of hard work — has definitely paid off for the Utah State basketball program.
Martinez, who played at Utah alongside Jones in 2020-21 before transferring to Maryland after Krystkowiak was let go, returned to Utah State for his final season, giving Calhoun a formidable 1-2 punch in the backcourt.
Either Falslev or Martinez has been the Aggies’ leading overall scorers all season long, with Martinez (16.8 ppg) currently out in front offensively after scoring 18 points — including the game-winning four-point play — in USU’s 81-79 win over Boise State last Saturday.
But when Falslev was awarded his fourth Mountain West Player of the Week award on Dec. 31, the sophomore was leading the Aggies in scoring (17.2 ppg), rebounding (6.3 rpg), assists (3.4 apg), steals (2.4 spg), minutes played (30.8 mpg) and 3-point percentage (44.7%).
Falslev put up a career-high 28 points in USU’s win over North Texas on Nov. 29, and he came up just short of notching the first triple-double by an Aggie since 1988 when he racked up 27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in an 88-67 win over South Florida on Dec. 14.
“I don’t think about it too much,” Falslev said of coming so close to making USU history. “As long as we win the game, I’m happy. Obviously, it would have been great to get a triple-double, but I feel like I have a lot more basketball to play, and a lot more things that I can do. But that’s definitely on the list of things that I want to accomplish here at Utah State.”
The one hole in Falslev’s game, at least at the moment, is his free-throw shooting.
While he’s shooting 53.7% from the field this season, he’s only knocking down 57.6% of his attempts from the charity stripe. Considering that driving to the basket — and often absorbing a lot of punishment on the way — is a big part of his playing style, that’s potentially very problematic as the season progresses.
Falslev was shooting 76.4% from the free-throw line through USU’s win at St. Mary’s on Dec. 22, but he’s gone just 5 for 21 over the last five games, including a 1-for-7 performance against Boise State.
“I think Mason definitely has the yips, there’s no doubt about it,” Calhoun said after that game. “He’ll tell you that.”
Free throws aside, Falslev currently leads the Mountain West in steals (2.4 spg) and has already recorded 40 steals this season, just three fewer than he had all of last season.
His free-throw percentage also leads the conference through last weekend’s games, and his 3-point percentage of 46.8% (29 for 62) would be the best in the MW if he had more attempts.
“Each offseason we come up with a development plan for every guy, so we really break down their game tape,” Calhoun said of Falslev, who shot 30.5% from 3-point range last season. “One of the biggest things was his shooting, right? His ability to take and make shots at the mid-range, but also catch and shoot threes. You know, his decision making.
“I put him in a lot of pick-and-rolls, a lot of quick-hitting actions to get him downhill. He was a tremendous finisher last year, but now I think he’s just a little more complete player, understanding defenses.”
Making the right decisions
Falslev has always been intelligent, on the court and off.
He graduated from Sky View High School with a 3.97 grade point average, and the finance major was recognized as an Academic All-Mountain West selection and Joe E. and Elma Whitesides Scholar-Athlete his first two years at Utah State.
Falslev, who is on track to graduate from USU at the end of 2025, also figured out a way to pull off a midseason marriage proposal in between the Aggies’ trip to play Iowa in Kansas City on Nov. 22 and their appearance in the NIT Season Tip-Off in Orlando on Thanksgiving.
“Yeah, I left the next day for Florida,” Falslev said of his engagement to fellow Aggie Elle Dunyon, a tennis player originally from Fruit Heights whom he has been dating for just over a year. “I told her that my family was taking photos for a Christmas card, and that we needed to meet them there (at the edge of the mountains in Cache Valley).
“It was a super special moment, and I’m super happy with my fiancée and the decision I made.”
While that might not have been the “decision making” Calhoun was referencing, Falslev has certainly displayed improved decision making on the basketball court, as well. Most notably at the end of Utah State’s game at No. 20 San Diego State on Dec. 28.
The Aggies, who hadn’t won a game on the Aztecs’ home court since November 1998, trailed SDSU by 18 points before mounting a furious rally in the second half. They were down by just two points with about 30 seconds left when Templin came down with a defensive rebound, and the ball ended up in Falslev’s hands with 12 seconds to go.
No one would have faulted Falslev if he had put up a contested 3-point attempt as the clock wound down. But instead, he passed the ball off to teammate Tucker Anderson, who was open to his right.
A transfer from Central Arkansas who was shooting just 20.5% from 3-point range coming into the game, Anderson calmly buried the game-winning trey in Utah State’s 67-66 upset of the Aztecs.
“We drew up a play for me to catch it on the wing and shoot it if I was open, but San Diego State did a good job stopping that, and somehow I ended up getting the ball near half-court,” Falslev said. “I saw the time that we had left, and I was like, alright, I might have to take it. I was actually going to shoot a setback, I can’t lie. So, I drove, and I stepped back, and then I saw Tucker’s guy help in.
“I’m like, dang, Tucker’s hit three or four threes this game. You know. He’s feeling good. And Tucker is a great shooter. He’s struggled a little bit, but I’m always going to trust him to take a shot like that. So, it was an easy decision to give it a Tucker and let him do his thing.”
Falslev’s confidence in him wasn’t unnoticed by Anderson, who after scoring in double figures in just three of USU’s first 12 games, averaged 12 points a night over a four-game stretch beginning with the Aggies’ win at San Diego State — the program’s first road win over a team ranked in the AP Top 25 since 1991.
“He’s just a natural born leader,” Anderson said of Falslev. “Every time we come out of halftime, Mason is the same Mason, where he’s always hungry to win. He’s always hungry. I’ve never seen someone that’s able to get every single 50-50 ball the way Mason does. And Mason is going to play hard from the tip, all the way to the very end.
“And so having a guy like that on your side that’s always competing for you and also cares for you at the same time is huge, and it’s one of the main reasons we’ve been so successful this year.”