Kayla Ard. Photo by Lorene Hale LOGAN, Utah — Utah State University Vice President and Director of Athletics Diana Sabau announced on Sunday that head women’s basketball coach Kayla Ard has been relieved of her duties after four seasons. Ard, the ninth head coach in program history, guided the Aggies to an overall record of 24-90, which included a 10-62 mark in the Mountain West. “We appreciate everything Kayla and her staff have contributed to Utah State,” said Sabau. “However, it is in the best interest of the program to make a change.” A national search for Utah State’s next head women’s basketball coach will begin immediately. Free News Delivery by Email Would you like to have the day’s news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start! Source link

Let’s go over this one last time. In late April 2023, the Utah State basketball program was, as some put it, “in shambles.” A brand-new coach had just taken over but he had no roster. Last season’s stars, including a First Team All-Mountain West selection, the Sixth Man of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-MW player had all either graduated or transferred. Not only the stars, but other starters, backups, even the backup’s backups left the program. A whole 0.14 percent of USU’s points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks production from last year stayed with the program and only three players from the 15-man roster. You know, the stuff that’s been repeated game-in and game-out, with every new set of CBS Sports Network or FS1 broadcasters gushing over these facts and seemingly every national basketball podcast and radio show lining up interviews to ask about it. But there’s a reason that kept happening. And it’s because what Utah State did on Saturday — win the outright Mountain West regular season championship — wasn’t supposed to happen. It should never happen because sports has pretty much never worked this way. Even Danny Sprinkle, the head coach and leader of the