Brown Men’s Basketball Head Coaching Chair Mike Martin ’04 has announced two new additions to the Bears’ coaching staff for the upcoming 2022-23 season. Tyson Wheeler will join the program as an assistant coach, while Sydney Armand will take over the role of operations coordinator.
Sam Hershberger, who has served as the team’s operations coordinator over the last three seasons, has been promoted to assistant coach.
“Our program is in an outstanding position with the quality of coaching staff we have in place for this coming season,” Martin said. “I’m so excited to add Tyson and Sydney, and can’t wait to see how Sam excels in his new position.
“Tyson Wheeler is an outstanding basketball coach who has also proven himself as a player at the very highest level and, most importantly, is a fantastic person. He brings tremendous experience as a college coach for the past 13 years at Fairfield and UMass Amherst. He’s worked for excellent coaches and will enhance our program in every aspect.”
Wheeler spent the last three seasons at UMass where he helped the Minutemen win an Atlantic 10 Championship game in each of the seasons the tournament was played. During the 2020-21 season, Wheeler and UMass secured the No. 5 seed in the conference championship, the program’s highest seed since 2008. That season, they advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016.
Before URI, Wheeler was an assistant coach at Fairfield for eight seasons where he helped guide the Stags to five winning seasons and three postseason berths.
As a player, Wheeler was a four-year member of the men’s basketball team at URI from 1994-98. He was a four-time all-conference honoree, earning All-Rookie honors as a freshman and was selected to the A10 First Team as a junior and senior. In 1998, Wheeler was selected in the NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors.
“Sam absolutely excelled in his role as operations coordinator for the past three years and is so ready for this opportunity to be an assistant coach,” Martin said. “All of those associated with our program will benefit from Sam’s appointment, especially our current student-athletes.”
Hershberger got his start at Brown in 2019 as the team’s operations coordinator. For the last three years, he was responsible for every logistical aspect of the team from travel arrangements to helping organize practice footage along with many other duties.
Before Brown, Hershberger worked as a graduate assistant at the University of Florida from 2017-19.
He attended Elon University where he was a walk-on to the men’s basketball team and worked his way to being voted team captain as a senior, lettering all four years.
“Sydney comes to us with great experience at the University of Rhode Island,” Martin said. “He’s highly intelligent, innovative, and detail oriented. Sydney has benefited from the mentorship of some outstanding coaches at Rhode Island. He’ll provide great organization and creativity to our program and will work really well with all of our student-athletes and staff.”
Armand had been with URI since 2017, having spent the last three seasons as video coordinator. His duties included managing scout film, providing analytic reports to the head coach and coaching staff, organizing and scheduling film sessions for players, as well as other duties.
From 2017-19, Armand served as the team’s head manager. He also had a stint as the program’s interim director of basketball operations.
Brown finished the 2021-22 season at 13-16 overall and with a 5-9 record in Ivy League play. The Bears return reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Kino Lilly Jr., as well as starters Paxson Wojcik and Dan Friday. Players who saw major minutes off the bench last year who will also be back include Nana Owusu-Anane, Perry Cowan, Kimo Ferrari, and Aaron Cooley.
Martin announced his four-player freshman class back in June, all four of whom are expected to come in and immediately compete for minutes and contribute to this Bears team.
Brown Basketball Staff Update
