Click here to watch a video about Head Coach Wicks<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWhen this search process started, our mission was to find a coach who possessed two defining characteristics: someone who was a relentless recruiter and someone who has been part of building a championship culture at the NCAA Division II level,\u201d said Josh Looney, director of Athletics. \u201cWith Sunny, we not only found a proven recruiter and winner, but we also found someone with an unwavering commitment to engaging and motivating communities through basketball. His energy and passion for basketball are unmistakable and he is the perfect fit to lead the resurgence of our men\u2019s basketball program.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an exciting time for Griffon Athletics,\u201d Wicks said. \u201cYou can tell by all the energy and enthusiasm throughout the athletic department and the campus community that Missouri Western is ready for the fight and about to take flight.\u201d<\/p>\n
After lettering four years as a student athlete and graduating with a bachelor\u2019s degree in international business at Northern State, Wicks held assistant coaching positions at his alma mater, Colorado (2006-07), Northern Illinois (2007-11) and San Francisco (2015-16). 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\u2019 draft class trainees included Kawhi Leonard, Alec Burks and Isaiah Thomas.<\/p>\n
As a student-athlete, Wicks was twice named first team All-NSIC, scoring 1,174 points and pulling down 665 rebounds in his career. He was also a two-time All-NSIC performer in the 400-meter hurdles at Northern State. After graduation, Wicks played for the Sodertalje Kings in Sweden. He led the team in points and rebounding.<\/p>\n
He also holds a master\u2019s degree in health, physical education and coaching from Northern State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sundance Wicks was hired as the new head men\u2019s basketball coach in March. Wicks joins Missouri Western fresh off the NCAA Division II national championship game as the associate head coach at his alma mater, Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He brings extensive experience to Missouri Western as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4514,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions\/4514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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