Utah State University Athletics

Barret Peery is in his first season at Utah State as an assistant coach in 2026-27.

Peery, a native of Payson, Utah, is a coaching veteran with nearly 30 years of coaching experience across multiple levels of college basketball, both as a head coach and assistant coach. 

Most recently, he served as an assistant coach at UNLV for three seasons from 2022-25. While there, the Runnin’ Rebels won 18-plus games all three seasons, including a 21-13 campaign in 2023-24 which saw the team reach the postseason for the first time in 11 years. UNLV’s 21 wins was its most since 2012-13. That season, the Runnin’ Rebels won 12 of their final 16 games to earn a bid to the NIT, where they earned their first postseason victory in 16 years. They also posted four wins over ranked teams, including a victory over No. 8 Creighton. 

In his first season at UNLV, he helped the team to 19 wins, including two over ranked teams. The Runnin’ Rebels opened the year with a 10-0 start, their best in 34 years, and an 11-1 non-conference record, their best in 32 years. 

Prior to his time at UNLV, Peery served as the associate head coach at Texas Tech in 2021-22 under head coach Mark Adams. That season, the Red Raiders went 27-10 overall, finished third in the Big 12 before making a run to the championship game of the league tournament. The team earned a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament and made a run to the Sweet 16 before falling to No. 2-seed Duke. 

Peery was the head coach at Portland State from 2017-21, leading the Vikings to a 63-57 overall record. In his first three seasons at Portland State, Peery’s teams won 54 games starting with a 20-14 record in his first season. The Vikings went 16-16 his second year and 18-14 in his third season. In 2019-20, Peery directed the Vikings to their first six-game winning streak in 11 seasons and the second straight fourth-place finish in the Big Sky - their best placings since being third in 2011-12. Peery’s teams went 30-13 in home games during his four seasons.

Under the leadership of Peery, PSU guard Holland Woods became the first Viking to be a first-team All-Big Sky Conference selection since 2011-12. He set three new school records in the 2019-20 where he rose to fifth on the Portland State all-time scoring list. Senior center Sal Nuhu earned honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference after leading the league in blocked shots (2.2 per game) for the second year in a row.

Peery led Portland State to 20 wins in 2017-18 - the most ever by a first-year Viking coach and the most in 10 seasons at PSU. The Vikings secured the best nonconference record in school history (10-3), best road record ever (10-6), beat two Pac-12 teams in the same season for the first time ever, and went 7-2 in games against teams from other Division I conferences in the west. Portland State received a bid to the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.

Before his time at Portland State, Peery was the associate head coach for a season at Santa Clara in 2016-17. There, he assisted head coach Herb Sendek in the revival of the Broncos’ program, as it had its first winning season in four years and placed fourth in the West Coast Conference. He also spent the 2014-15 season on Sendek’s staff as an assistant coach at Arizona State.

As the head coach at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa (2011-14), Peery coached his team to 93 wins in three seasons and a trip to the national title game after a 34-3 campaign which included region and district titles in 2013-14. The Warriors went 60-1 at home during his time in Ottumwa. 

While at Indian Hills, Peery guided more than 15 players to Division I scholarships during his three-year tenure. His 2012-13 squad averaged a school-record 97.9 points per game and reached the century mark 14 times. His first team at Indian Hills posted a 33-4 record in 2011-12, went undefeated in conference play and was in the top 10 in the nation in both scoring average and winning margin.

Peery spent 2008-11 as an assistant coach at Utah. His first season there in 2008-09, the Utes went 24-10 and earned an NCAA Tournament bid. This was the team’s most wins and first tournament appearance in four seasons. 

Peery’s first experience as a head coach came at the junior college level for College of Southern Idaho. After spending two seasons as an assistant coach for the Golden Eagles (2003-05), he was promoted to head coach where he won three Scenic West Athletics Conference (SWAC) titles in three seasons from 2005-08. Peery took his team to the NJCAA Division I national tournament twice, including a fourth-place finish in 2007. That season, he was named the SWAC Coach of the Year after leading the Golden Eagles to a 30-2 overall record and a 14-1 league mark. The team was ranked No. 1 in the nation for the last four weeks of the regular season. 

In three seasons at CSI, Peery’s teams went a combined 85-19 (.817). Two of his three teams led the nation in scoring. During that span, he placed 23 players to NCAA Division I programs, including nine players from the 2007-08 team. 

Prior to going to CSI, Peery was the top assistant at Portland State for one year (2002-03), while also serving as the team’s recruiting coordinator. He helped the team go from five wins to 19 wins in his lone season there. Peery was also the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Southern Utah for four years (1998-2002), helping the Thunderbirds to a 25-6 record and their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2000-01. This is still the team’s record for wins in a season, and their lone trip to the tournament.

Peery also had stints as an assistant coach at Utah Valley (1997-98), Snow College (1996-97) and Southern Utah (1995-96). He served as a graduate assistant at Southern Utah in 1995-96. 

Before getting into coaching, Peery played college basketball at Snow College (1991-93) and Southern Utah (1993-95). He helped lead the Thunderbirds to two conference championships, while earning academic all-league honors and serving as a team co-captain. Peery attended Payson (Utah) High School, where he was an all-region and all-state player. 

Peery and his wife, Tracy, have four children: daughter, Kennedy, and sons, Crew, Whitton and Meyer. He graduated from Southern Utah University in 1996 with a degree in physical education.