In this week's basketball coaching conversation, Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks joins the Basketball Podcast to share insights on his teach and reach philosophy and the six championship factors.
In his first year at Green Bay, Wicks was named the 2023-24 Horizon League Coach of the Year. He was also named the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year, which is presented annually to the top rookie, first-year head coach in NCAA Division I college basketball. Last season, Wicks posted an 18-14 record after the program finished at 3-29 prior to his arrival in 2022-23. That 15-game turnaround tied for the ninth-best turnaround in NCAA DI history.
Wicks spent three seasons at Wyoming under former head coach Jeff Linder. The Cowboys reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022 finishing the season with a 25-9 overall record. The Pokes received their first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament since 2002 and marked the first trip to the Big Dance since 2015. The Pokes recorded 24 wins in the regular season for the most since the 1951-52 campaign.
Prior to his time in Laramie, Wicks was the head coach at Missouri Western for two seasons. Wicks led the Griffons to 18 wins in 2019-20, as it was the most by the program in 10 years. He spent eleven years as an assistant at four different colleges, including Northern State, Colorado, Northern Illinois, and San Francisco.
Wicks also built the Arizona Power Basketball Academy, serving as a skill instructor and director from 2011-15. Prior to launching the APBA, he spent five months training NBA pre-draft prospects at the Impact Basketball Academy in Las Vegas. Wicks’ draft class trainees included Kawhi Leonard, Alec Burks and Isaiah Thomas.He began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Northern State under the legendary Don Meyer.