The greatest protege of the late Rick Majerus is coming home. Alex Jensen, one of the most beloved players to ever grace the Huntsman Center court, will now be patrolling the sidelines. The longtime NBA assistant has agreed to terms on becoming the next University of Utah men’s basketball coach.
Jensen played at Utah from 1994-1995 and 1997-2000, serving a two-year LDS mission in England after his first season. It was during that mission that Majerus famously told his players that their ticket to the Final Four was somewhere at a bus stop in England.
Once Jensen returned to Utah, he was a key piece in leading the team to the 1998 NCAA National Championship game against Kentucky.
In his senior year, Jensen was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year in 2000. He finished his Utah career with 1,279 points and 896 rebounds.
A lot has changed since his days at Utah. During his time as a Ute, Utah not only made the NCAA Tournament every year, but they at minimum advanced to the Round of 32 each season. Since then, the program has advanced to that round four times total in 25 years, including only seven tournament appearances —three of those coming from Majerus-coached teams.
Jensen played seven seasons professionally overseas before he transitioned into coaching. He got his start as an assistant coach at Saint Louis University under Majerus from 2007 to 2011. He then became the head coach of the NBA G-League’s Canton Charge where he was named the 2013 G League Coach of the Year. This led to him joining the Utah Jazz as an assistant coach from 2013-2023 followed by time with the Dallas Mavericks.
Known as a brilliant basketball mind, Jensen is also an elite talent developer. Under Jensen’s tutelage, Rudy Gobert won three of his four NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards, and the Mavericks’ big men have shown steady signs of development.
Jensen was a candidate for the last Utah Basketball head coach opening, but the job ultimately went to Craig Smith, as Jensen had a comfortable gig with the Jazz. Since then, the Utes have continued to struggle, and the boosters and fanbase grew restless.
Smith was fired on February 28, and Jensen immediately became the leading candidate. The Utah administration and its boosters were determined to land Jensen.
Conversations began immediately, and the process moved swiftly. After the Utah administration traveled to Jensen for a meeting, boosters met on Sunday night where negotiations neared the finish line with Jensen asking for and receiving specific NIL demands. Sources tell UteNation that Utah met those demands in writing on Monday and the two sides moved to finalize from there.
Jensen now takes over a program starved for success. A program once with a rich winning tradition has not been back to the NCAA tournament since 2016.
One year after Majerus made his infamous “bus stop” comment to his players, Utah found themselves in the Final Four and competing for a national championship. Utah will now look to Jensen to get them back to national relevancy. Immediate success within an NCAA tournament appearance would be a great start to those expectations.
More to come.
