NCAA Basketball: Sundance Wicks of Green Bay warrants NCOY consideration

In what was already an impressive season for Green Bay, first-year HC Sundance Wicks got his most impressive victory to date.

It's hard to describe how bad things were at Green Bay in the two years prior to this season. They were a combined 8-54 overall and 6-34 in Horizon League from 2021-23 before hiring Sundance "Sunny" Wicks last offseason. He was an assistant at Wyoming for a few years prior and was able to bring with him Noah Reynolds, a transfer from the Cowboys who has become an elite impact player this year.

Reynolds is averaging 19.8 ppg on the season and has six games of at least 30 points. The latest one was last week, going for 32 points in a road overtime win at Robert Morris. For the most part, the addition of Reynolds has been viewed on the outside as to why the Phoenix has had this wonderful turnaround to be in 1st place of the league standings. So when he was ruled out last Saturday at Youngstown State, it was supposed to be an easy win for the Penguins.

That didn't happen. After a 7-0 early deficit, Green Bay managed to come back and take the lead, thanks to a barrage of three-pointers. Considering that there aren't any other double-digit scorers on the roster, the Phoenix finding ways to score over 80 points on the road is one of the more impressive feats of the season. It was a true collective effort, led by Preston Ruedinger with 26 points en route to earning HL Player of the Week. David Douglas Jr., who started in place of Reynolds, had 16 points, while Foster Wonders chipped in with 10 off the bench, including the final three of the game.

Green Bay defeated Youngstown State, 84-83 on Senior Day to remain in first place in the league at 12-3, now 17-9 overall. Besides the standings implications, it also was the big example that as big as Reynolds has been to the team, Coach Wicks is the reason why the Phoenix has gone from the bottom to the top of the Horizon League.

When it comes to biggest team turnarounds, guys like Lamont Paris (South Carolina), Drew Valentine (Loyola-Chicago), Hubert Davis (UNC) have gotten plenty of attention. But none of them has taken a team ranked in the bottom-10 nationally a year ago to now a conference favorite in the Horizon League.

At this point, Coach Wicks shouldn't be just the favorite to win the Horizon League COY Award but he should be in the conversation for the National Award as well, because there simply isn't a bigger turnaround. And as the Youngstown State upset showed, he doesn't need Reynolds to do all the work to win.