STILLWATER – As we’ve written about over the past few days here on Pokes Report, Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg doesn’t want to waste any time in hiring a new men’s basketball coach and would like to have to position filled before next week.
One candidate which seemingly every school with a vacancy is pursuing is Utah State’s Danny Sprinkle. He’s a candidate I mentioned in my very first coaching search article and a coach who’s had a lot of success in a short amount of time. The 47-year-old out of Pullman, WA, is in just his first year with Utah State and has compiled a 27-6 overall record, Mountain West regular season champions, a berth into the 2024 NCAA tournament and was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year. All of that follows a four-year stint at Montana State, his first head coaching job, in which he took the Bobcats to back-to-back NCAA tournaments and two-straight Big Sky Conference titles, as well as a conference tournament championship.
As I mentioned, Sprinkle is in the first year of a five-year contract, which pays him $900,000 a season and increases $25,000 a year. The buyout details are as follows: “ If [Sprinkle] terminates the contract for convenience within the first two years, he owes the university 75% of the remaining salary. If he terminates it during the final three years, he owes 50% of the remaining salary. If Utah State terminates his contract without cause at any point, it owes Sprinkle 75% of the remaining salary.”
Spending $8+ million on Boynton’s contract, plus the money the athletic department has to spend on a new coach and staff shows Weiberg and the athletic department cares and is serious about making sure OSU basketball is successful. We’ve also known for two weeks that in order for Oklahoma State to go out and get a good coach, the athletic department was going to have to buyout a contract. Just shy of $3 million isn’t a bad price to pay to land a very talented, and young, up-and-coming coach.
Sprinkle is already a hot commodity and Utah State needs to do everything it can to keep him in Logan, UT. But after this season with the Aggies, Sprinkle’s name is being thrown around in just about every coaching vacancy, rightfully so, and Chad Weiberg should be doing all he can to get him to Stillwater.
One reason, or rather an example, is current junior forward for the Aggies, Great Osobor, who transferred to Utah State from Montana State following Sprinkle’s hire. I’m not suggesting he would/should come with Sprinkle to Stillwater should he get the job, but let’s just take a look at his numbers. He’s 6-8, 250 pounds, leads the team in scoring and rebounds with 18 points and 9.2 boards per game and is a physical force in the paint. Everything on that offense goes through Osobor down low, which means he gets double-teamed a lot and has to kick It back out to the perimeter, usually to an open player which puts him second on the team in assists with 95. All of that earned him Co-Player of the Year in the Mountain West.
Does this remind you of anyone from OSU this past season? This could be Brandon Garrison. He’s 6-11, 245 pounds and is coming off a great freshman season. Oklahoma State needs to have a post-driven coach, someone who can develop a talented big like Brandon Garrison and that’s Danny Sprinkle.
Mike Boynton was a point guard in college and was a guard-focused coach, bringing in and focusing on guards, albeit talented guards. Brad Underwood was only here for one season and coached Travis Ford players, another guard-focused coach.
While Garrison’s the only OSU player “officially” in the portal, partly because of spring break and offices being closed, I believe he and the other players would be willing to listen to the next head coach to see what he brings to the table. Sprinkle is a coach who can find and develop talent in the paint and with what he’s done with Osobor, I feel he could convince Garrison to stay in Stillwater and fully utilize his potential and turn him into a dominate force in the Big 12 next season.
Most Oklahoma State fans loved Mike Boynton, as they should have. He was an incredible face for the program, athletic department and university and was one hell of a person. However, lack of consistent winning and trips to the NCAA tournament sours a fan base. A great head coaching hire would reinvigotate a fan and donor base in regards to NIL, something OSU needs to help keep current players and recruit talent out of the portal, and Sprinkle would do just that.
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Sarah Wilson is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
