SALT LAKE CITY — The path to higher education looks different for everyone. Wil Thomas went to high school at Timpanogos High, where he played baseball, and Janet Lopez was a Student Body Officer at Taylorsville High, but both knew higher education was a step they wanted to take.

“It was kind of something that was always pushed on me from my mom since I was young,” Lopez said.

“The way I see education is it is something that will help me get further,” Thomas affirmed.

As high school upperclassmen, both were thinking about the stress and pressures that come with college — including the financial stress. Then they heard about the Utah Jazz Scholarship Program.

The program provided a four-year full cost of attendance scholarship to 114 Utah high school students — one for every Jazz win from the 2020/21 and 2021/22 NBA seasons. 100% of the recipients are from an underrepresented group.

Wil applied as the class of 2021, Janet as the class of 2022 — at first, they didn’t know their chances, then they were called for a second interview. “The screen goes on in the locker-room and we’re just watching the video, and then Donovan Mitchell was the one that said, ‘Congratulations, all of you guys have gotten the Utah Jazz scholarship,’ and tears just started coming out of my eyes,” Lopez remembered.

“I was really nervous about that second interview, then I got a FaceTime from Royce O’Neal, and then he told me I actually got the scholarship,” Thomas recalled.

Thomas is now finishing up his senior year at Utah Valley University, and Janet is a junior at the University of Utah.

“You’re starting this chain of like future students, future cousins, family members, friends that are going to want to pursue college because you’re in that position and they know it’s possible,” Lopez said.

The financial aspect of the scholarship has been life-changing, but so has the additional mentorship, support, and networking the Jazz organization has provided. “The amount of connections that I’ve made is unbelievable, and I don’t think I would have made them without the scholarship,” Thomas said.

Of course, there are also some fun perks of being a Jazz scholar — like going to the games. “I remember the first time they gave us dinner and everything like that, my dad was like a little kid, like woah this is so cool,” Lopez said.

Two Utah Jazz scholars have already graduated, 15 are part of the class of 2025, 40 are expected to graduate next year, and 50 in 2027 and beyond.

Wil and Janet’s stories are just two examples of what happens when hard work meets incredible opportunity. “If it’s going to happen it’s going to happen, but also it doesn’t just happen by itself you have to put in the work and effort to actually get it to happen,” Lopez said.

While a lot of the discussion on the Utah Jazz’s development and progression centers around their young talent and recent draftees, that doesn’t mean the veteran pieces on this roster won’t be eyeing their own set of improvements to make across the off-months of this summer.

Lauri Markkanen is no exception, who comes off his third year with the Jazz during his age-27 season, and has proven in past offseason periods of his career that a strong leap for his game in the summer is wildly possible, as shown during his 2023 Most Improved Player campaign after bursting onto the scene after his stint with the Finland national team.

Looking ahead to the coming offseason, Markkanen will be looking to make another jump in his game. This time, that progression will focus on his shot-creating ability, end-game shot-making, and in his own words, he’ll still look to “work on everything.”

“Just keep getting better at the end-of-game and isolation stuff,” Markkanen said. “I know it’s going to come down to that. It’s the same answer every year: work on everything. Tighten the handle up a little better, and again, getting [further] out of my comfort zone with shots. I feel like I shot a lot of tougher shots than I’ve done in the past. The window’s kind of smaller, everybody knows you can shoot. Doing that off the dribble and stuff like that, those are the big things I’ll be working on.”

Markkanen finished his last season with Utah putting some of his lower numbers since coming to the Jazz during the 2022 summer. In 47 games, he put up 19.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists on 42.3% shooting from the field a night. Still, nice numbers to emerge as the team’s leading scorer in the stat sheet, but not quite on par with his averages from the past two seasons.

For this offseason, it’ll be a big one for Markkanen to get healthy from his injury-riddled year and get back to the dominant form Jazz fans know their star forward for. Perhaps another stint with the Finnish national team during FIBA play this summer can spark that play in the right direction, and with it, reinforce himself as a centerpiece for Utah’s long-spanning rebuild.

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Running back Micah Bernard, who led the Utah Utes with 1,009 yards rushing in 2024, signed a free agent deal with the Tennessee Titans shortly after the NFL Draft ended.

If he makes the final roster, he’ll be teammates with Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The Titans were 3-14 last year. 

Bernard is 6-0, 206 pounds and has been clocked at 4.38 in the 40-yard dash. 

He played in 51 games at Utah with 23 starts, including 22 at running back and one at cornerback. He finished with 2,217 yards rushing (5.3-yard average) and 11 touchdowns. His 1,009 yards last season — which included four touchdowns — ranked seventh in the Big 12 and was the 21st 1,000-yard performance in school history. 

He had six career 100-yard games, four of them coming last year. 

He also had 30 catches for 150 yards and two touchdowns. In his career, he had 99 catches for 770 yards and five scores. 

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