College sports have become more and more professionalized in the NIL and revenue sharing era, with players being paid and teams hiring general managers to oversee the roster and financial allocation.
For all intents and purposes, every player is on a one-year deal, with “free agency” happening every season in the transfer portal.
The Runnin’ Utes, which have lost seven of their eight conference games, are in need of a roster upgrade ahead of Alex Jensen’s second season as coach of his alma mater. While Jensen is focused on closing the season strong, that doesn’t mean that the Utes aren’t also looking ahead to next season.
Wes Wilcox, the team’s general manager, is a valuable asset for Jensen. Wilcox is already at work evaluating areas of need for the 2026-27 roster while Jensen continues to try and get the most out of the current roster.
“That’s another reason I think you need a general manager or even a front office because the communications with agents is crucial because it’s got to be ongoing throughout the year, whether it’s next year or anything, injuries with players,” Jensen said.
“Wes has been invaluable for us. He has those conversations and leads that charge, and we’re part of those discussions at the same time as trying to win the next game. I don’t how you’d do it without somebody like Wes.”
With a full season under Jensen’s belt — and an entire offseason coming up — Utah will be in a much better position to attack the transfer portal than last season, when Jensen was still finalizing a staff as the portal opened.
“You got to have somebody dedicated to that, leading that charge instead of the coaches, because you have games and scouts and you have the players that are here, but you kind of have to prep, so when the portal comes, like you’ve done that work,” Jensen said.
“It’s kind of fun. It’s interesting. It’s similar to the NBA in some aspects, but the pool’s so many more players, so it’s actually been fun. But yeah, that was the one thing I knew I needed when I came.”
Some teams have gone heavy on building in the transfer portal, while others, like Arizona, are starting freshmen they recruited. Jensen says he’s still trying to figure out the right balance in roster composition.
“I don’t think there’s any one area we’re focusing on strongly. I mean, obviously you can see that people have had a lot of success with being older, but at the same time, we just played Arizona, who started three freshmen,” Jensen said.
“Now, we’re not right now in the place to be in the running for players like that, but I think it’d be a combination of it, and I think more so than that, you’re trying to find the core characteristics of a player you want and they’ve got to want to be here, which seems simple and obvious, but it’s a big deal.”
Obviously, if Utah wants to compete in the talent-heavy Big 12, the Utes need another roster shakeup prior to the 2026-27 season. Wilcox is doing the work for the Utes to improve in that area next year, but with 10 games remaining in the regular season, Jensen is trying to end the season on a somewhat positive note.
The past two games — BYU and Oklahoma State — have featured some postgame frustration from Jensen, with Utah’s head coach remarking after the loss to the Cowboys that his team was playing selfishly.
As Utah prepares to host Arizona State on Wednesday at the Huntsman Center, Jensen has seen good practices from his team to start the week.
“We had a good day of practice today and yesterday, and film is always helpful. I think we have good guys and we’ve done it at times,” Jensen said. “We just need to be more consistent approaching the game about what my role is.
“What’s my role as far as how do I tie into the group, there’s the four guys on the court, even on the bench,” Jensen said. “But yeah, it’s a learning process, a maturing process, and again, first year being together, that’s kind of the norm now. But yeah, it does take time.”
Utah and Arizona State both enter Wednesday’s game desperate for a win.
As noted, the Utes have lost seven of their eight conference games, while the Sun Devils have lost seven of their last nine Big 12 contests. The Wednesday night contest is the most winnable game for the Utes in the next stretch — after that, Utah plays No. 11 Kansas and No. 8 Houston.
Both Arizona State and Utah rank in the bottom fifth in the country defensively, but have offenses that rank in the high 100s nationally. Wednesday’s game could be a high-scoring affair, but Jensen is hoping to see a much better performance on the defensive side of the ball than he has been seeing this season.
“The Sun Devils, I think they’re dangerous. They’re explosive. They can score a lot of points. I think there’s some similarities to Oklahoma State, and again, hopefully we can be led off of our defense,” Jensen said.
“I think that helps us offensively. Then vice versa, if we take care of the ball offensively … if we make it easy for them defensively, if we (take) no pass shots, we shoot shots on the first and second side as opposed to the third and fourth, then it makes defending them a lot harder and I think it plays into their strengths.”
