Utah News

With the backing of local leaders, the Utah Inland Port Authority board on Monday approved the creation of the Black Gold Project Area in Duchesne County.

The project area, spanning approximately 2,780 acres in Duchesne County and Roosevelt, will establish a framework for coordinating infrastructure improvements and economic development tools within the designated acreage.

Local land-use authority, however, would remain under the jurisdiction of Duchesne County and Roosevelt. Both the county and Roosevelt previously adopted resolutions supporting the establishment of the project area.

“The Black Gold Project Area is designed to align infrastructure planning and economic development tools with the needs of Basin communities,” said Ben Hart, executive director of the Utah Inland Port Authority. “This framework supports long-term economic resilience, encourages private investment, and helps position the region for a broader range of logistics-supportive and value-added industries.”

Governmental support

Duchesne Mayor Deborah Herron, who also serves as the county’s economic development director, said the inland port will help an area that has long been sustained by energy and agriculture build a “more resilient and diversified economy.”

“This project area helps diversify our economy by expanding opportunities beyond traditional extractive industries, while energy production will remain important in the Uinta Basin, the inland port framework allows us to intentionally recruit complementary industries,” Herron said, specifically mentioning logistics, manufacturing, warehousing and information technology.

She lauded the port’s ability to attract new businesses to the area while also emphasizing the importance of the county’s communities maintaining local control — a point echoed by Drew Eschler, Roosevelt planning director.

“This initiative supports a coordinated approach to economic development and infrastructure planning while preserving local decision-making authority,” Eschler said. “The Black Gold Project Area helps ensure that future investment aligns with the needs of our residents and contributes to long-term economic opportunity.”

Eschler added that the project could help the area better navigate the inevitable busts that accompany the booms of the extraction industry.

“Local businesses in downtown Roosevelt and throughout Duchesne County struggle when workers leave and spending declines. This is why creating a project area … is so important. An inland port project area would help attract new industries such as manufacturing, commercial logistics, energy services and agriculture, processing. These industries create year-round jobs that stabilize the local economy, even when oil markets fluctuate,” Eschler said.

Unanimously approved, the Black Gold Project Area joins 14 other established project areas across the state.

Friends and family expressed shock and disbelief when Kouri Richins was arrested in connection with the death of her husband, Eric, at their home in Kamas, Utah, in 2022.

“I was shocked,” said her mother Lisa Darden, remembering when she heard the news. “She can’t be arrested.” Darden believed that Kouri and Eric had a great relationship, though there were sometimes bumps in the road. Ronney Darden, Kouri’s brother, said that at the time of Eric’s death, “They were in probably one of the best spots I’ve ever seen them, um, in quite some time.” A year after Eric’s death, Kouri wrote a children’s book to help her sons cope with the loss of their father, and the family, Lisa says, was on their way to healing. Just two months later Kouri was charged in his death.

What is the real story of Eric and Kouri’s marriage – a marriage that would end in tragedy? It begins at their wedding, in June of 2013.

June 15, 2013: A wedding and a pre-nup

On June 15, 2013, Kouri Darden, 23, and Eric Richins, 31, got married in the backyard at their home in Utah. They already had one son, and their family would soon grow.

According to court documents, the couple signed a prenuptial agreement that day, establishing that each party did not have rights to one another’s “present or future income, property, or assets” — except if Eric died while the two were lawfully married. At that point, his stone masonry business, C&E Masonry, would transfer to Kouri.

April 2019: Kouri Richins starts her real estate business

Kouri started her real estate business, K Richins Realty LLC, in 2019. She began to buy homes, fix them up, and sell them for profit. As the business picked up, according to Kouri’s family, Kouri would typically be working on three houses at a time.

“That was what she loved doing,” said Kouri’s friend and marketing director Greg Hall. “Kouri was very successful at what she did.”

The spokesman for Eric’s family, Greg Skordas, told “48 Hours” something different. He says Kouri was not so savvy, and court documents allege that by 2022, Kouri’s business was drowning in millions of dollars of debt.

March-June 2019: “Stolen” funds

Prosecutors allege that in 2019, Kouri began stealing from Eric’s accounts and “misappropriating monies distributed from Eric Richins’ business.” Court documents claim that “without Eric Richins’ knowledge or permission,” Kouri used a “fraudulent” Power of Attorney to execute a $250,000 credit deed of trust on the family home, then withdrew the entire $250,000 from this home equity line of credit.

Kouri’s family insists that Kouri did not steal from Eric, and that Eric was always aware of the family’s finances. “Eric and Kouri sat down every month and did the bills together,” says Lisa Darden. “At all times, Eric knew what was going in and what was coming out.”

November 2020: The Eric Richins Living Trust

Prosecutors say that in late 2020 Eric discovered Kouri had misappropriated his funds. Kouri’s family disputes this claim. However, in November, Eric did meet with an estate planning lawyer, Kristal Bowman-Carter, to make a new estate plan. He created the Eric Richins Living Trust and named his sister, Katie Richins-Benson, trustee. In the case of his death, Katie – not Kouri – would manage his estate.

Bowman-Carter said in a statement filed with the court: “[Eric] told me he had two primary goals. His first goal was to protect him in the short-term from fairly recently discovered and ongoing abuse and misuse of his finances by his wife Kouri Richins. His second was to protect the three young sons he and Kouri had together in the long-term by ensuring that Kouri would never be in a position to manage his property after his death.”

Kouri was not informed about the trust and wouldn’t find out about it until after Eric died.

Early 2022: Kouri Richins allegedly asks for drugs

Prosecutors allege that in early 2022 Kouri Richins asked her housekeeper, referred to in court filings as “C.L.,” to procure fentanyl for her. Court documents say C.L. told investigators she sold fentanyl to Kouri. Court documents also say that phone records show that texts between Kouri and C.L. from January 2 until shortly after Eric’s death were deleted off of Kouri’s phone.

Kouri’s then-defense attorney Skye Lazaro says the evidence isn’t strong enough to prove Kouri ever bought drugs. She says there are no witnesses to confirm what C.L. says, and that C.L., who is a convicted felon, is not credible.

When C.L. spoke to investigators, she “was on probation at the time,” Lazaro said. “I think anytime you have an informant-type situation with promises made… by, you know, law enforcement or prosecutors, it can call into question the veracity of their statements.”

Feb. 14, 2022: A Valentine’s Day poisoning?

Prosecutors say that on Valentine’s Day, 2022, shortly after Kouri gave Eric a sandwich, he broke out in hives and had difficulty breathing. He used his son’s EpiPen and slept. According to the charging document, Eric believed that he had been poisoned, and told a friend that he thought his wife was trying to poison him.

Kouri’s defense denies this version of events in court documents. Documents say Kouri purchased lunch for herself and Eric that day, and that he was simply not feeling well after lunch and went to take a nap. Kouri’s then-lawyer, Skye Lazaro, says that aside from an assertion from the family, there is no evidence to corroborate the claim that Eric was poisoned.

Late February 2022: “Some of the Michael Jackson stuff”

Court documents describe a second alleged transaction between Kouri and her housekeeper, C.L., that took place in late February 2022. According to those documents, C.L. told investigators that Kouri said that the fentanyl pills C.L. previously provided were not strong enough and that Kouri asked for “some of the Michael Jackson stuff.”

Documents say C.L. later conceded that Kouri may have made the Michael Jackson reference during the first request for fentanyl. Skye Lazaro insists that Kouri never made any such reference and never bought drugs from C.L., and that C.L’s stories are inconsistent and unreliable.

“48 Hours” reached out to C.L. for comment, but she did not respond.

March 4, 2022: A tragic death

Summit County Sheriff’s deputies and EMS staff arrived at the Richins’ home in Kamas, Utah, at 3:31 a.m. on March 4. They found Eric Richins deceased. According to court documents, the responding paramedic thought “he’d been dead a while.”

Documents say that at the scene, Kouri told investigators she’d made her husband a cocktail before bed then went to sleep with her son who was having nightmares. She said that when she returned to Eric’s side at around 3 a.m., he was unresponsive, and she called 911.

Eric’s family’s spokesperson, Greg Skordas, describes Eric’s death as “a huge loss … he was this beautiful son and – and brother, and father, and cared about people … cared about everything he was doing.”

March 5, 2022: The $3.9 million mansion

The day after Eric’s death, Kouri Richins closed on a big purchase she’d made for her house flipping business: this $3.9 million, 20,000 square foot mansion in Heber City, Utah. Kouri’s family says Eric was on board with the plan to fix up the house and sell it for a large profit.

“[Kouri] and Eric sat down with an accountant one time,”  Lisa Darden told “48 Hours,” “and he said, if you can get it done and stay under budget, you could walk away with $12 million.”

But according to a search warrant, Eric’s family told investigators that Eric was not happy with the purchase, and that he Kouri were arguing about the property before his death.

“He was on board with supporting his wife,” family spokesman Greg Skordas said. “That doesn’t mean he agreed with it.”

March 6, 2022: A fight breaks out

Two days after Eric’s death, court documents allege, Kouri Richins and Eric’s sister Amy fought at the family home. Prosecutors say Kouri called a locksmith to attempt to access a safe in the house, and Amy objected. Amy allegedly told Kouri that Eric’s property, under the trust, did not belong to Kouri, and Kouri “became enraged” and “punched Amy in the face and neck.”

“I was standing in the middle of them,” says Kouri’s brother DJ. “All they did was push. Both of them were trying to swing over the top of me … so the narrative that’s been pushed that it was, poor Amy got assaulted was nonsense.”

Kouri was charged with assault and later pleaded no contest.

April 2022: Five times the lethal dose

According to court documents, following an autopsy in April 2022 it was determined that Eric had died from an overdose of fentanyl. The medical examiner said that Eric had 15 ng/mL of fentanyl in his blood — and that in other deaths caused by fentanyl, concentrations have been reported as low as 3 ng/mL. This data indicates that the amount of fentanyl Eric ingested was five times the lethal dose.

March 7, 2023: A book to cope with grief

Kouri’s family says that after Eric’s death, Kouri and her sons were grieving. “The boys … lashed out a little bit because they couldn’t quite understand what was going on,” says Kouri’s brother Ronney. “They needed some help and Kouri needed some help.”

To help her sons cope with their grief, according to Kouri and her family, Kouri wrote a children’s book, “Are You With Me?” On March 7, 2023, she self-published the book, which she sold on Amazon. It follows the story of a child who lost his father but is reminded his presence still exists all around. Kouri’s family says it helped her and the boys, and they were on their way to healing.

In April 2022 Kouri promoted the book on a local TV show called “Good Things Utah.” Just a month later, she was arrested for Eric’s murder.

May 8, 2023: Kouri Richins arrested

On May 8, 2023, Kouri Richins was arrested and charged in her husband’s murder. Prosecutors allege that when Kouri made Eric that drink just hours before he died, she deliberately poisoned him with fentanyl she purchased from C.L. She was charged with one first degree felony count of criminal homicide, aggravated murder and three second-degree felony counts involving possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

Kouri maintains her innocence. Her family says they suspect that Eric accidentally took something – perhaps a THC gummy, which they say he was known to take – that he didn’t know was laced with fentanyl, and that his death was a tragic accident.

“[The State is] gonna have to prove that she did this, that she got the drugs and that she somehow gave them to him,” Kouri’s then-attorney Skye Lazaro told “48 Hours.” “And unless they can connect those dots, they’re gonna have a hard time proving murder in this case.”

June 12, 2023: Kouri  Richins fights for bail

On June 12, 2023, Kouri Richins appeared publicly in court for the first time to argue for release on bail. Her attorney was hopeful: in order to deny Kouri bail, the state would have to prove substantial evidence existed in the case against her. In the four-hour hearing, prosecutors presented evidence and called several witnesses, including Chris Kotodrimos, a cellphone analyst, and Detective Jeff O’Driscoll, the lead detective on the case.

One of the things analyst Kotodrimos talked about was a report of the Google searches Kouri made in the year after Eric died. The searches include “can FBI find deleted messages” and “what is a lethal dose of fentanyl?” In her cross examination, defense attorney Skye Lazaro pointed out the timing of the Google searches, emphasizing that they were made after Eric Richins’ death. She says they were innocent questions Kouri had about what she was being accused of in this case.

When Detective O’Driscoll took the stand, he told the court about interviews he conducted with C.L. He said C,L. told him the dates and times that Kouri allegedly purchased fentanyl from her. Lazaro maintains that C.L. – who is a convicted felon – is not a credible witness, and that the state does not have the evidence to prove that C.L. ever sold Kouri anything. In her cross-examination, she asked the detective if there were any texts from Kouri or witnesses to corroborate C.L.’s story, and he replied that investigators had not found any.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge denied Kouri Richins’ request for bail. She will remain in custody until her trial.

Nov. 3, 2023: Accusations of witness tampering

This unsent letter, found in Kouri’s jail cell, has become known as the “walk the dog” letter for the words scrawled at the top of the page. Its contents have become a point of controversy in the case. Prosecutors argued it’s evidence that Kouri was involved in witness tampering.

In the letter, prosecutors alleged, Kouri writes to her mother and gives her instructions on what her brother, Ronney, should say in court. She writes that her defense case needs “some kind of connection” between Eric and drugs. She says, “Here is what I’m thinking but you have to talk to Ronney. He would probably have to testify to this, but it’s super short not a lot to it.” She appears to tell her mother to tell Ronney to recount a story where “Eric told Ronney he gets pain pills & fentanyl from Mexico”.

On Nov. 3, 2023, prosecutors brought to court a motion for no contact, asking the judge to restrict Kouri’s communication with her mother and brother Ronney.

Kouri’s then-attorney, Skye Lazaro, argued that the letter wasn’t witness tampering. “It isn’t witness tampering,” she told “48 Hours,” “… ’cause it didn’t go anywhere and it was never communicated to anyone.” She says the document was private and should never have been released. The judge denied the state’s motion, saying prosecutors had failed to prove witness tampering.

Kouri Richins trial

On Nov. 12, 2024, a judge denied bail for Klouri Richins a second time, ordering the Utah mom to remain in jail until she goes on trial in the death of her husband.  Opening arguments in her trial began on Feb. 23, 2026 in Park City, Utah,.

A guilty verdict

On March 17, 2026, Kouri Richins was found guilty on all charges, including aggravated murder. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 13.  She faces the possibility of life in prison.

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SACRAMENTO — The Utah Jazz have just 14 games left to play in the 2025-26 regular season. Since the Jazz won’t be going to the playoffs and they aren’t trying to win games, it can be a little hard to know what to root for, so I’m here to help.

Root for the young guys

You can still root for small accomplishments and development for the players on the Jazz roster. The hope is that Ace Bailey’s concussion symptoms don’t last too long and that he’ll be able to play again. Root for some big nights from him, the chance for more plays to be called for him and for him to take on a bigger role in the final days of the season.

The same can be said for Cody Williams, who has shown some signs of improvement recently. The Jazz would be overjoyed if he gained even more confidence and opened up his game more as the team heads into the offseason.

Even if there isn’t enough development or promise to make you confident in a player being a part of the Jazz’s future, a good showing throughout the rest of the season could make a player a more valuable asset to be used in an offseason trade. So, good performances are always a welcomed sight.

Root for Jazz losses

This needs little explanation. The Jazz want to keep their pick in the upcoming draft and the only way to increase their chances of doing so is to lose as many games as possible.

Two ways to quell the sting of rooting for losses are; embrace the hilarity of the situation; or, root for the other team to win.

Root for other teams to win

This is where your rooting interests can get interesting. Any win for the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets would be great for the Jazz. Those are the teams that currently have worse records than the Jazz do, so they are competing for lottery odds. If the Jazz could possibly end up with a worse record than any four of those teams it would be great.

Notably, if the Jazz have one of the four worst records at the end of the season it guarantees that they keep their pick.

There are also a couple of teams that are dangerously close to the Jazz in the standings and if they go into a free fall in this last stretch of the season, it would mean more lottery competition for the Jazz. So, you also want the Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies to win games.

Root for yourself

This is the option that would probably give you the most peace of mind. You don’t have to watch these games that feature bad teams playing bad basketball. You can tune out. You can check the standings and check back on May 10 for the draft lottery results and then again in late June for the 2026 NBA Draft.

In between, enjoy March Madness, enjoy the NBA playoffs, and think about the Jazz getting a high pick and finally trying to win games when the 2026-27 season begins.

Updated March 16, 2026, 11:07 p.m. ET

A Utah jury convicted Kouri Richins of murder Monday after a weekslong trial in which prosecutors accused the children’s grief author and mother of three of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl.

Richins, 35, was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, fraud and forgery in a unanimous verdict.

Richins, wearing a floral blouse, lowered her head as the judge read the verdict. Her sentencing was scheduled for May.

Richins‘ trial was expected to last through March 26, but it concluded Monday with closing arguments. She did not testify, and her defense team rested without calling any witnesses.

Speaking outside the court after the verdict was read, Amy Richins, Eric’s sister, said her family was grateful to everyone who worked to bring justice to the case.

“Our focus is now on honoring Eric’s life and supporting his voice as we all continue to heal,” she said.

Richins was arrested in May 2023, a little over a year after Eric Richins died in their home on March 4, 2022. She told investigators that she had made him a drink to mark her recent sale of a property for her real estate business and found him unresponsive in their bedroom.

A medical examiner said Eric, 39, had five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in his system when he died, according to court documents. The medical examiner said that the drug had been orally ingested and that it was “illicit” and not medical-grade fentanyl.

A year after Eric’s death, Richins wrote a children’s book about grief, which she dedicated to her “amazing” husband.

“For nearly three years, the public has heard accusations about Kouri. Those accusations created a narrative that spread far beyond this courtroom,” Richins’ attorneys, Wendy Lewis, Kathy Nester and Alex Ramos, said in a statement Monday after closing statements.

“But in court, accusations are not enough. The law requires proof. … Kouri has maintained her innocence from the very beginning. … Kouri should finally be able to go home to her three young boys and begin rebuilding her life.”

Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses, including Eric’s friends and family, investigators and a housekeeper who testified about selling Richins fentanyl pills.

The housekeeper’s testimony was pivotal. Carmen Lauber, who cleaned a home for Richins, told the court that she sold pills to her multiple times in early 2022.

After Eric’s death, Lauber said, she talked to Richins over the phone.

“I said, ‘Please tell me these pills were not for him.’ She said: ‘No they were not. Eric passed away from a brain aneurysm,’” Lauber told the court.

She testified that investigators eventually told her that Eric had died from an overdose.

“That hit hard,” she said. “Only for the fact that if that’s what happened, I needed to step up and take accountability of my part in this.”

“At first, it took a minute to process everything,” she said, wiping away tears.

The prosecution also called Richins’ former boyfriend as a witness. Robert Josh Grossman became emotional as he testified about their affair and hopes of a future together. He told the court that the relationship ended a few months after Eric’s death and that at the time, he didn’t believe she was involved.

Updated March 15, 2026, 10:11 p.m. MT

The WAC was quietly one of the more competitive mid-major conferences during the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season, so it should come as no surprise that it had one of the best conference tournament championship games. Utah Valley won the league’s regular season crown, and was looking for its first ever March Madness berth. Cal Baptist was a D2 school less than a decade ago, and finished second in the conference while enjoying its best season since climbing to the DI level.

There was going to be jubilation on one side and heartbreak on the other with two schools looking for their first ever men’s NCAA tournament appearance, and it played out in dramatic fashion. Trailing by two in the final seconds, Utah Valley threw an alley-oop to try to send the game to overtime. The pass was on point, but the finish was not. The Utah Valley player got rejected by the rim on the dunk, and Cal Baptist ran out the clock to win the league and clinch the auto-bid to the NCAA tournament.

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Watch the final play here. This is the double-edged sword of March in one sequence.

Utah Valley and Cal Baptist will have to continue their rivalry in a new conference next year. Both are leaving the WAC to join the Big West. Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia and Central Arkansas will join the new-look WAC in 2026-27 alongside returning members Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, and UT Arlington.

It’s hard to keep up with conference realignment, but the drama keeps us coming back. Congrats to Cal Baptist. Better luck next year, Utah Valley. Get your printable blank bracket here.

The Kansas City Current rarely trailed in a game, let alone a home game, during the 2025 National Women’s Soccer League season.

But an imprecise first half set the stage for a furious second-half comeback against Utah Royals FC in Saturday afternoon’s season opener at CPKC Stadium.

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Second-half goals by Croix Bethune and Ally Sentnor gave the Current a 2-1 victory — the Current had trailed Utah 1-0 at halftime — in the debut match for new KC head coach Chris Armas.

“On these days you learn a lot about who you are,” Armas said. “Today I learned — I think we learned — that we still are a really gritty team, we’ve got really good attackers, we have depth. Going down a goal and coming back was a really good sign for this team.”

Tatum Milazzo put the visitors up 1-0 in the 35th minute, getting to the ball before Lorena. Milazzo’s header sailed into the net off a short corner routine.

The Current lost the shot count in the first half 6-3 and looked out of ideas at times. The hosts’ best chance was a low strike by Katie Scott that was easily saved.

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Defender Kayla Sharples said the Current, early on, didn’t match the energy the home crowd brought to the stadium.

“We weren’t freaking out or anything,” she said. “We were like, ‘OK, we have the whole next half. Let’s just settle into the game.’”

Halftime served as the perfect remedy. Armas said the team had created 26 transition moments in the first half, and one of the things he told his players at halftime was to calm down and keep the ball.

“Which we’ve been talking about all along — easier said than done from a coach when they’re out there, and they’re trying to go fast in these moments,” Armas said. “But you can see if we were a little bit sharper, maybe it leads to more final actions.”

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It did. The Current outshot Utah 15-6 in the second half. Another tweak came in how KC pressed Utah’s passing out of the back line. It allowed the Current to build up its attack set the stage for a comeback.

Bethune got the game level by scoring in her KC debut — and on her birthday, no less. The sequence began when Gabrielle Robinson launched a long pass toward the box after Utah cleared a Current corner kick in the 57th minute.

Kayla Sharples’ deft flick into the path of Bethune set her up one-on-one with Utah goalkeeper Mia Justus. Bethune slotted a good shot inside the left post with her left foot.

Kansas City’s Penelope Hocking nearly scored the winner after replacing Bethune as a substitute. But minutes later, it was Sentnor who found the solution and put the Current on top.

Sentnor took a pass from Debinha in the 69th minute, dribbling inside through six Utah defenders. Then she cut a right-footed shot across the grain and into the net.

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It was Sentnor’s first goal since being traded to the Current from Utah last summer. Add that to the two recent goals she’s scored with the U.S. Women’s National Team, and it’s plain to see that her confidence is starting to grow.

“I want to continue to hopefully score goals for this team,” Sentnor said. “And honestly just (continue to) create chances and continue to build as the season goes on, and not just peak right now.”

Up next: The Current hits the road for a few games now. First up in a three-matches-in-one-week stretch as a game at Chicago next Sunday, March 22 (1 p.m. Central Time).

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

While they might have been playing for a conference championship on Pi Day, the Utah State Aggies didn’t concern themselves with any complicated mathematics formulas Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.

They just knew that two trophies were better than one, as they beat the San Diego State Aztecs 73-62 at the Thomas & Mack Center to claim the Mountain West Conference tournament crown after winning the regular season title.

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“The last three days we’ve just guarded our tail off,” Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “I’m really proud of the guys. To win the regular season (outright) and a tournament title, we just made Utah State history. It’s never been done, so I’m just really, really proud of our guys.”

While there was perhaps a 3.14% chance the Aggies (28-6) wouldn’t hear their name called during Sunday afternoon’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s game against the Aztecs (22-11), they made that positive outcome a 100% certainty while potentially also knocking their longtime rivals out of the field of 68.

Utah State, which will make its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament next week, also became the seventh team in school history to win 28 or more games in a season.

“I hear all these coaches talking about their team,” Calhoun said. “We just won the regular season and the tournament. We’ve got 28 wins with great metrics on both sides. Now we’ll see if we get rewarded. I’ll be anxious to see what kind of seed, what kind of matchup, but our guys will be ready.

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“Momentum is a powerful thing, and we’ve got great momentum right now.”

Senior guard MJ Collins Jr. led the way offensively for Utah State Saturday, totaling 20 points — including four 3-pointers — in 37 minutes on his way to being named MVP of the Aggies’ final Mountain West tournament.

“He’s the MVP for a reason,” USU graduate guard Drake Allen said of Collins. “That’s what he does. Whenever we needed a big shot down the stretch, he was ready to take them.

“We’re very confident putting the ball in his hands. We know he’s going to make big shots; he’s been doing it all year.”

Utah State also got 16 points, six assists and four rebounds from 2026 Mountain West Player of the Year Mason Falslev, 13 points, six rebounds and three assists from Allen and 11 points and six rebounds off the bench from senior forward Garry Clark.

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For their play, Allen and Falslev joined Collins on the MW All-Tournament Team.

The Aggies shot 46.2% from the field as a team despite connecting on just 6 of 21 3-point field goal attempts, but Utah State outscored SDSU 46-22 in the paint and only committed six turnovers, while the Aztecs racked up 14 miscues, which the Aggies converted into 17 points.

“That’s our defense,” Collins said. “We know we’ve got to get out in transition and get easy buckets, so when we we’re able to turn teams over, it makes everything much better.

“We get going, and it’s like the defensive energy gets contagious because we’re just flying around and playing green. When we can turn a team over and also take care of the ball, I think we’re unbeatable.”

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The top-seeded Aggies, who clinched the outright Mountain West regular-season title with a 94-90 win over New Mexico a week ago at the Spectrum, played greedy basketball in Las Vegas, roughing up No. 8 UNLV by 20 on Thursday and eliminating No. 5 Nevada by 13 Friday in the semifinals before taking out No. 2 San Diego State.

Four of USU’s five regular-season conference losses came against those programs, and yet the Aggies became the first team in the history of the Mountain West tournament to win in the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final by double-digits in the same year.

“We knew this was a revenge tour for us,” said Collins, who scored 20 points in the win over the Rebels and a dozen against the Wolf Pack. “Everybody we played, they beat us, so we took that personal.

“And you know, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without God, my family, my girl, Coach (Calhoun), the whole coaching staff and the whole community of Logan. They were behind our backs, and we came out here and played for them.”

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Calhoun seconded Collins’ declaration that the Aggies came to Sin City earlier this week seeking revenge, as well as getting back to firing on all cylinders after losing three out of four games in late February and early March to the three teams they faced in the tournament.

After beating San Diego State 71-66 in Logan on Jan. 31, the Aggies were crushed by the Aztecs, 89-72, at Viejas Arena on Feb. 25.

“I’m extremely, extremely proud of the toughness level that this group of guys came to Vegas with,” Calhoun said. “We were not going to be bullied. We were going to be the bully.

“I kind of deemed this our redemption tour. UNLV beat us twice, Nevada beat us at Nevada and we obviously got embarrassed a couple weeks ago by the Aztecs. We were coming in here to be the bully, we were coming in here for a redemption tour, and it certainly was accomplished.”

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Coached by Craig Smith, the 2018-19 Utah State team shared the regular season title with Nevada, then went on to win the Mountain West tourney behind an MVP performance from current Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill. The Aggies beat San Diego State in the championship game that year, as well as in the title contest at the end of the 2019-20 season, just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Aztecs avenged those defeats with victories in the MW title game in 2021 and ’23, but the 2025-26 version of the Aggies broke that 2-2 tie just prior to both teams leaving the Mountain West for the new-look Pac-12 Conference.

“First of all, congratulations to coach Calhoun, Utah State and their coaching staff,” said SDSU Brian Dutcher, who made his eighth appearance in the MW championship in the past nine seasons Saturday afternoon.

“Regular season champs and postseason champs, that’s hard to do, but they did it, and they did it with great efficiency. We knew the whole game was going to be decided in the paint, and they got in the paint more than we did. They lived in the paint, made plays from the paint and then made timely jump shots.”

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San Diego State, which advanced to the championship game with a hard-fought 64-62 win over New Mexico late Friday night/early Saturday morning, got 20 points from senior guard Reese Dixon-Waters and 12 points and eight rebounds from sophomore forward Magoon Gwath.

Both of those Aztecs were also named to the all-tourney team, while junior guard BJ Davis also contributed 14 points in the loss to Utah State.

Overall, San Diego State shot 40.8% from the floor Saturday, went 5 for 16 from 3-point range and finished 17 for 24 from the free-throw line.

Already short on sleep due to the tournament schedule, the Aztecs also played without the services of Miles Heide. Dutcher said the junior forward, who was averaging 5.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 19 minutes per game, likely broke his left (shooting) hand during Friday’s game against the Lobos.

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“I mean, you don’t want to blame fatigue, but I think we got back to our hotel at 12:30 last night. Three games in a row,” SDSU junior guard Myles Byrd said. “Obviously, they just looked like the more fresh team in the second half.

“When it came to winning time, they made more plays, got to the paint, dropped off to the big, dunks, layups, offensive rebounds. They just made more winning plays than we did.”

Arguably the biggest play of the game came with five minutes left with the Aggies holding onto a 58-54 advantage.

Collins, who had already knocked down a 3-pointer just 30 seconds earlier, buried another trey from the left corner for what appeared to be a 61-54 lead.

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However, just as Collins was setting up to release his shot, Dixon-Watters flattened USU forward Zach Keller while trying to get to the Aggies’ leading scorer and was called for his fourth foul.

But before Keller could take aim at a potential five-point play, the Aggies had to sweat out a lengthy review by the officials to decide whether or not the foul came before or after Collins’ shot.

The call eventually went USU’s way, and Keller connected on both free-throw attempts to suddenly put the Aggies ahead by nine points.

“Yeah, it made me feel good,” Collins said of his pair of timely 3-pointers. “I got to chirping a little bit, but just credit to coach; he always tells me to make the right read. As I’m coming off the pin-downs and I’m taking a rear-view peek at Reese Dixon to see how he’s guarding me, I curled one of them, and I hit the 3.

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“And the second one he tried to shoot the gap, and I bumped it. A great screen by Zach, great pass by Mason, and the shot goes down. It’s a big swing because it was a five-point swing right there — Zach goes to the line, and he hits two free throws, so it was huge.”

The Aztecs, who would fall behind 65-54 on an easy bucket by Adlan Elamin moments later, were unable to get any closer than eight points the remainder of the game.

“Obviously, the critical play of the game was the five-point play in a four-point game,” Dutcher said. “That was really a huge momentum turner; took the lead from four to nine in one possession. Then they just kind of held on to it from that point on.

“But it was a hard-fought game, and its basketball. We’re disappointed. We wanted to win in the worst way and put ourselves in a position to do that, and then obviously Utah State did a great job defensively and really limited our opportunities at the offensive end.”

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The Aggies led by as many as six points in the first half, but the game was tied on six occasions, and a woeful offensive stretch by Utah State just before halftime helped San Diego State take a one-point lead into halftime.

While SDSU scored the final five points of the first half, Utah State missed nine of its final 10 shot attempts and the Aztecs enjoyed a 35-34 advantage as they headed to their locker room.

But that optimism quickly disappeared when Allen put together a 7-0 run all by himself coming out of intermission. The former Westlake High star got Utah State the lead back on a driving layup just 10 seconds into the second half, and then quickly added a 3-pointer and another layup in transitions thanks to a steal by Collins.

Suddenly down 41-35, Dutcher called for a timeout with 18:22 left, which led to a quick, 10-2 run by the Aztecs to go back up by two points.

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But the Aggies countered with two free throws by Allen to tie the game for the final time at 45-45, and a high-flying dunk by Collins on SDSU forward Pharoah Compton moments later got the lead back for the Aggies for good.

“It means the world,” Collins responded when asked about being named tournament MVP. “But it also shows how good our team is. Mason got Mountain West Player of the Year, and then I can come and get the MVP.

“… This is a team accolade. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them, so I’m thankful for them and coach Calhoun, of course. Like I’ve continued to say, the fans travel for us. On their spring break, they gave their time up to come and support us, so it means the world.”

For the third straight game, the contingent of Aggie fans at the Thomas & Mack Center dwarfed that of their opponent, particularly when comparing the student sections.

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Partly as a reward for that support, Utah State announced on Saturday that it will host a Selection Show watch party at 4 p.m. Sunday for the team and the media as well as the public. Doors to the Spectrum will open at 3:30 p.m.

“Tomorrow is going to be an unbelievable day for our fans,” Calhoun said. “We should pack the Spectrum. … Tomorrow is just a celebration.

“It’s a celebration, but it’s also go time. We need a day off, maybe two. I’ve got to call some coaches, get a good game plan on that, but we need a good seed.”

Calhoun later added, “We’re going to get back to Logan. We’re going to take tomorrow off physically, but it starts again tomorrow night.

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“We’ll be drinking more coffees, and we’ll be in Estes (Center). You don’t sleep as a coach. How could you? This is the greatest time in the world for college basketball coaches and players and fans. Buckle up; the next three weeks could be really good.”