Jerrod Calhoun Freed Up to Talk to WVU Following Blowout Loss in NCAA Tournament

This West Virginia candidate didn't have a great trip to the dance.

Mar 20, 2025; Lexington, KY, USA; Utah State Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun calls to his team during the first half against the UCLA Bruins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images / Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

The Utah State Aggies had a rough outing on Thursday night against No. 7 seed UCLA, losing 72-47, marking the third-worst margin of defeat on day one of the NCAA Tournament. Only SIU Edwardsville's 38-point loss to Houston and Omaha's 30-point loss to St. John's were worse.

If you couldn't tell by the lack of scoring, Utah State struggled to shoot the ball all night long, particularly in the second half. They went 18/60 (30%) from the field and a dreadful 4/31 (12.9%) from three-point range. Their poor shooting combined with UCLA's 41% night from deep led to the lopsided result.

While it's not the way Utah State wanted their season to end, it is, however, a good thing for West Virginia. Now that the Aggies are done, head coach Jerrod Calhoun is free to meet with the Mountaineers about the head coaching job. The expectation is that the two sides will talk in the coming days, likely over the weekend, a source told West Virginia On SI.

Calhoun is one of many coaches West Virginia would like to talk to. Another potential candidate the Mountaineers would like to meet with is Drake's Ben McCollum, who pulled the upset over No. 6 Missouri on Thursday. Any conversations with him will have to be delayed, of course.

But as for Calhoun, he knows this state and university well. He was a member of Bob Huggins' staff for a handful of years before taking his first head coaching job at Fairmont State. He slowly but surely turned around a historically bad Youngstown State program, which helped land him the job at Utah State.

A new contract is already on the table for Calhoun, as the Aggies are hoping to retain the 43-year-old.

“I will talk about it,” Calhoun said following the loss to UCLA. "First of all, I have a ton of respect for our athletic director. Diana (Sabau) took a gamble on me. We didn't know each other. We had no relationship, no previous relationship, did not know each other at all. The first time I flew out to Utah State was in April. I can remember getting off the plane and seeing those mountains, right, and it was just hard to describe, right, the scenery. Instantly we had a connection. There was a really good plan. I met with every single player. This year has been unbelievable. Right?

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