Salt Lake Community College men's basketball coach Todd Phillips has only been on the job for a month, but he's quickly learning the ropes. The former assistant coach is juggling paperwork, bringing in recruits and feeling what it's like to be in charge.

The interim coach is still under the microscope as he tries to fill the shoes of former Bruins coach Norm Parrish.

"There is a lot of work to do," Phillips said. "I think it puts a lot of expectations [on the program]. One of the cardinal rules in coaching is you never want to follow a legend. Norm's had 25-plus wins and a national championship, so I'm kind of violating that cardinal rule."

Parrish left SLCC to become the University of Utah's director of basketball operations.

Phillips, a former Snow College swingman, spent eight years as an assistant coach under Tommy Connor at Westminster College and three more seasons under Parrish in the same position. He believes he's learned his craft under the right people and is ready to take on the challenge.

"I spent time with some of the best coaches in the state of Utah," Phillips said. "Both of those guys [Connor and Parrish] are Hall of Fame coaches in their own right. I also played for [current Dixie State coach] Jon Judkins and got to learn from him. Hopefully, I've picked up a little bit from each one of them and can kind of put it all together."

Last season, the Bruins went 25-8 and ended their season with 94-86 loss to Southern Idaho in the Region 18 tournament. Phillips said this year's team will have a good mix of talent and maturity. He expects to compete in the traditionally tough Scenic West Conference and maybe make a run at the national championship.

One of the players Phillips is excited to see join the program is former Utah State walk-on Skyler Halford. The ex-Timpanogos star is a 6-foot-1 shooting guard who averaged 23.6 points per game during his senior year of high school.

Phillips said recruiting basketball players to SLCC is always a year-to-year deal, and in many cases, coaches will hear about available prospects only through word of mouth.

As a longtime coach of the Adidas Pump-N-Run team, Phillips has developed some of the top college prospects in the state, including notable players such as BYU's Kyle Collinsworth, Brandon Davies and Logan Magnusson.

"My involvement with that has just been a great experience for me," Phillips said. "Some of those kids are unbelievable kids. On this last year's BYU team, I think we counted six ex-Pump-N-Run kids on the team."

Phillips confirmed that three players off the Pump-N-Run squad have orally committed to play at Salt Lake Community College in the fall. —

Todd Phillipsat a glance

Former Westminster assistant Todd Phillips took over in May as the interim men's basketball coach at Salt Lake Community College.

Phillips played at Snow College/Lewis-Clark State College and learned the coaching craft under Jon Judkins, Tommy Connor and Norm Parrish.

He has helped develop Division I players Kyle Collinsworth, Brandon Davies and Nate Bendall.