What Alex Jensen said after Utah basketball's season-opening win over San Jose State

Runnin' Utes hung on to beat Spartans in 2025-26 opener

Utah Utes head coach Alex Jensen gives instructions during the first half against the San Jose State Spartans at Jon M. Huntsman Center. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

A late second half surge against San Jose State helped the Utah men's basketball program start the Alex Jensen era off on the right foot on Monday.

Led by a career-high 23 points from Seydou Traroe, who scored 18 in the second half, the Runnin' Utes powered their way past the Spartans for an 84-75 win at the Jon M. Huntsman Center, giving Jensen his first career win as head coach of his alma mater.

San Jose State appeared to take control midway through the second half when Traore, a 6-foot-6 transfer from Iowa, came up clutch with a 3-pointer that put Utah back in front, 66-64, with under 9 minutes left to play in regulation. After the junior scored in transition moments later, the Runnin' Utes never looked and went on a 17-4 scoring run that lasted over 8 minutes.

The Spartans put together a rally that was too little and too late, as the Runnin' Utes held on to win after shooting 50% from the field, including 10-of-25 from 3 (40%), and scoring 20 points off 11 turnovers from San Jose State.

Here's what Jensen had to say after his team's win.

On Traore's impact

"I think just his competitiveness and his physicality and just kind of like, leadership — not in a vocal way, but just the toughness. And I think that, tonight, it showed on the stat line, and also I think it helps the other guys on the team. I think he's one of those guys that you know his teammates will listen to and follow. So, great game by him tonight."

On McHenry and Brown's performances in the backcourt

"I'm gonna ask Don to get nine rebounds every night, which doesn't happen. But Don and TB, they both come from teams, last year, where they needed to score 20 points a game; that's what their particular teams needed. That's not an easy thing to do, but I've asked them to control the team, run the team, pass the ball; and I think they both did a great job with that."

"That's not an easy thing to do, and I think they've accepted that responsibility and role, and I think they'll continue to get better at that. There's going to be times when we need them to score, but more importantly, we need them to get us organized and run the run the team."

On the type of identity he wants his team to embrace

"I think there'll be a lot of times when we might be smaller or slower than the team we're playing, but I think just the toughness one."

"Like a tough team that keeps going and, the one thing I again, I'm not happy with the fouls; but I think our guys didn't complain a lot, like we've had some refs in to do some of our scrimmages and practices and we've made a point of just next play, and they did a really good job with that tonight. But just like a tough team, and I would say what I want our team to be known as, like, the next play, like, we keep coming. We get knocked down, we keep coming. We get a bad call. We keep coming."

On teaching moments from the season-opener

"Those two exhibition games were great. I think they helped us a lot. For tonight, there's plenty of teaching moments."

"We talk about our absolutes; who's gonna crash and who's gonna get back. And we slipped up on those a few times. That's the easiest thing to do. We always try to tell them, 'you gotta think about your role in the team; what my job is, and do your job,' and I think they've done a great job responding to it."

"But there was a handful of times where guys — that might not be something I do in a year or two — but they came out when they made certain mistakes, and to give them credit, they handled it well, and then they bounced back."

On his team's interior defense

"I mentioned the rebounding: I thought that was disappointing in the first half. It was good at times, but I think the fouling; just guarding the drive was difficult for us, keeping them out of the paint, like I mentioned."

"I think just the talking as a unit and keeping them out of the places they want to go, especially the paint and the fouls; it was just not being prepared for when the guy had the ball."