Wearing a mauve tie, a dark suit and white Adidas sneakers, the 47-year-old Texas native thanked interim president Leslie Durham, athletic director Tim Crompton, and spoke for 12 minutes in the north concourse at the Dee Events Center on Friday morning, outlining his general vision for Weber State men’s basketball as the 11th head coach in the program’s Division I history.

“We’re going to build a winner,” Canales told the small gathering of university staff and boosters. “Great city. I’ve been here a couple days, and just a great city to raise a family and to have my roots here, and to build a special place, a special program.

“One of my goals is to be one of the top programs in the country, and I think we’ve got the people and the support here to do it.”

Canales has 18 years of NBA coaching experience, as well as two more in the G League and another as head coach in Canada’s professional league. That includes 23 games as interim head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

His two lone seasons as a college coach, though — in 2004 at UT Arlington, and last year at Troy — are, he says, plenty to position himself as a winner at Weber State.

“You know, both years, we were conference champs,” he said. “So I know what that looks like, I know what that feels like, and I know the commitment that it takes to win.”

But he’s banking on all that NBA experience to bear fruit, too.

“I think the gap’s never been closer to the NBA in college, in terms of age. I think I’m the perfect fit at the right time for the next chapter of Wildcat basketball,” Canales explained. “I know players want to get better. They want to develop, and there’s going to be no better place in the country for them to come do that here.”

He’s got a coaching staff to hire, and that’s a place he thinks his experience matters.

Rick Bowmer, Associated Press

Neither Canales nor WSU has provided information about what might be in place just days into his tenure; eight-year staffer Jorge Ruiz (four years as an assistant coach, three as director of operations, one as video coordinator, plus four months as assistant general manager) and first-year video coordinator Bobby Jones were in attendance Friday.

“I think one of the blessings is that I have a really pretty big rolodex when it comes to coaches. So we’re going to pick high-character men that are great examples, that are loyal to the university, to the athletic department and to our basketball program,” Canales said. “Without getting into specifics, I feel really confident that we’re going to get the right group in here.

“It’s going to start with us. We have to be teachers, and we have to be mentors, and we have to be coaches to these young men, because they’re still developing as humans, too.

“I really look at building a coaching staff similar to like building a team, right?” he continued. “Everyone’s got to match; the chemistry is really important to me. Obviously, the knowledge and the basketball acumen is going to be important. I have a pretty good idea of what that’s going to look like, but … I’ll get together with Tim and the rest of the coaches and finish off the staff.”

And a coaching staff is just the beginning. Canales will largely have a team all of his own in Year 1 with at least eight, and up to 10, roster openings. Over the weekend, redshirt freshman David Hansen became the seventh player to announce his intention to enter the transfer portal (which opens Tuesday).

Canales said he’ll have one-on-one conversations with those players and have his game plan on what his first recruiting class will look like.

He also said he’ll target the state of Utah.

“We want the best players to stay here and to stay home,” Canales said. “That’s going to be a huge priority for us going forward.”

This early in the game, Canales said there’d be a time to get into the weeds on recruiting priorities, the X’s and O’s of his scheme, and more.

“We have a pretty good idea how we’re going to attack (recruiting). … Fully confident we’re gonna have a great roster that connects with the community,” he said. “I’ve been pretty blessed and spoiled to coach the best in the world. So, usually (good players) have a little bit of everything, which is I think what we want our team to look like, right?

“Positional size is really important,” Canales continued. “The ability to shoot, I think, is the greatest skill in today’s game. And again, like defensively, offensively, identity, style of play, I have full confidence we’re going to be forward-thinking in a lot of areas.

“But yeah, I mean, bigger, faster, stronger that can shoot, we like those players,” he quipped with a smile.

On the court, his priorities, like any coach, are high-level play on both ends. Canales said he wants high-character players who want to be coached and held accountable.

“Offensively, we want to play a modern type, free-flowing, decision-making, 3s, having the best shot possible every possession,” he said. “We want every player to be — we call it being live on the court, but we want everyone to be a threat on the court.”

That’s the vision, and Canales has seven months for it to come to pass for the 2026-27 season. He said he chose Weber State because he thinks the support is there to make it happen.

“Our conversations, long and brief, with both (Durham and Crompton), I know (of) their full support of our team, of our program, of the next chapter and our vision,” Canales said. “So, that really, really excites me and my family. So we’re ready to get started and get the ball rolling.”