GREEN BAY — The (15-9,10-3) UW-Green Bay men’s basketball team has had an astonishing turnaround. From one of the worst teams in NCAA to first place in the Horizon League.
While the key driver in their turnaround is their new head coach Sundance Wicks – two brothers find themselves in the center of it all.
- Phoenix junior guard Noah Reynolds is averaging 19 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game.
- His brother Nic, an assistant coach, is a part of a staff that is authoring the ultimate underdog story.
- The pair have helped engineer a Cinderella story. The final chapter – they hope it ends with them dancing in the biggest ball of them all.
On the court, Phoenix junior guard Noah Reynolds is proving he belongs among the Green Bay greats. This season he’s averaging 19 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game.
“Tony Bennett, Rahmon Fletcher, Keifer Sykes — those are kind of the household names and I was telling people like, 'Noah Reynolds will be a Green Bay men’s basketball household name’,” said Nic Reynolds.
On the bench his brother Nic, an assistant coach, is a part of staff that is authoring the ultimate underdog story.
“He brings fire, he just brings a voice when there’s a lot of chaos,” said Noah.
The two share an obvious brotherly bond, but their relationship goes much deeper.
“He played the closest thing to like a father figure in my life,” Noah said. “Growing up I would always go to his high school games. That kind of introduced me to basketball. Just trying to follow in his footsteps.”
Being in green bay together wasn’t always necessarily the plan. Nic was on his coaching journey, working his way up the ladder before joining Wicks' staff.
“It didn't matter where I was at man, NAIA school, Division 2 school – I worked it the best I could,” Nic said. “I worked it as hard as I could. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I think that allowed me to be ready for an opportunity like this.”
When he was an assistant coach, Sunny wicks recruited Noah to Wyoming. Over two years together, they grew quite close. As he did with his brother Nic. After Wicks came to Green Bay, Noah entered the transfer portal and he was a hot commodity.
“It's easy to say he could of went anywhere,” said Nic of his brothers recruiting process once he entered the portal.
“He could of went to any league in the country. Any league. Every league. I heard it with my own ears. It wasn’t like I can’t play in the ACC or the Big Ten. It’s like no, I'm that good and I can go to one of the worst programs in the country and make that happen, and so that’s been the most special for me to watch.”
Green Bay wasn’t even his on his mind. Noah originally committed to play for Greg Gard and the Badgers. Things didn’t work out, so Noah went back in the portal and after a visit to Green Bay …
“I would say I knew the first night I came here,” Noah said.
He committed. The missing piece to help the Phoenix rise.
“It was just like I knew there’s a lot of places in the country I could go to, but at the same time, I knew with the transfer portal, other coaches mindsets. I knew there was only a few schools that truly had my interest at heart when it came to me committing,” Noah said. “I would just say, the belief factor was really real and I feel like that’s coming to fruition now.”
Now with Phoenix, the two brothers are helping each other grow. For Noah, sometimes it just helps to have his brother there, like in their battle against Oakland for first place last week.
“There was a point in the game where I just made eye contact with him during a dead ball and he just told me, ‘get a couple breaths in.' And from that point, I think I scored and assisted on two of the next three possessions.”
“When the best player allows you to coach him hard and wants that, then it enables some success for me personally to just kind of push everybody else’s buttons and try to raise their level as well,” Nic said of how Noah has helped him grow as a coach.
The pair have helped engineer a Cinderella story. The final chapter – they hope it ends with them dancing in the biggest ball of them all.
“Ranked last to start the season – got a lot of deadly weapons coming off the bench – a lot of young guys. We’re a dangerous team come conference time. As long as we keep pushing, I see no reason why we can’t go to the March Madness tournament.”
