Following-up on last night’s report (D3 DIRT). Brock Erickson has officially been named as the Associate Head Basketball Coach at UTRGV. Here’s the release from the school:
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) head men’s basketball coach Kahil Fennell announced on Monday the hiring of Brock Erickson, who spent the last three seasons as the head coach at Nichols College, as associate head coach.
Erickson guided the program at Nichols College to 22 wins, including 15 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play, this past season. Erickson helped compile 16-straight victories, which was the third longest streak in program history, en route to the program’s fourth consecutive regular season championship that earned him CCC Coach of the Year honors.
Under Erickson’s tutelage, Tavon Jones was named CCC Player of the Year and All-Conference First Team honors while Dominic Mello earned All-Conference Second Team honors.
“Brock is a high level coach that brings a tremendous amount of experience through all levels of college basketball,”Fennell said. “He has a fantastic track record of helping build programs in creative ways and has combined his excellent mind for the game with an ability to build relationships across the landscape of college basketball. When coupled with his impressive record as a head coach, Brock is the perfect fit to become our Associate Head Coach.”
In 2022-23, Erickson guided the Bison to 26 wins, including 14 of them coming in CCC play, while also seeing the program set a program record with 20 consecutive victories. The Bison were ranked ninth in the nation in scoring after averaging 87 points per game.
Erickson helped the program to a trip to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Division III Tournament and saw five members of his team earn All-Conference honors, including Matt Alectus who earned First Team honors and CCC’s Defensive Player of the Year.
In his first season with the Bison, Erickson helped Jakigh Dottin earn CCC Player of the Year honors, Jaekwon Spencer earn CCC Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Taheem Dupree earn CCC Rookie of the Year honors. Erickson guided his team to 25 wins while also ranking No. 3 in the Division III Region II rankings while ranking sixth in the nation in scoring (88.2 ppg).
“I am incredibly grateful to be joining Coach Fennell’s staff and the UTRGV community,” Erickson said. “I truly believe in Coach Fennell’s vision of building a championship culture, which he has done at an elite level throughout his career. I could not be more excited to get to work with our players, coaches, and administration to #RallyTheValley. V’s Up!”
Prior to joining Nichols College, Erickson spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he was the recruiting coordinator and shooting development coach. Erickson helped UIC to record the highest GPA in program history as he was in charge of monitoring the student-athlete’s academic progress.
Before his season at UIC, Erickson was the associate head coach at Bryant University for two seasons (2018-20) under head coach Jared Grasso. In 2019-20, Erickson guided Michael Green III to Northeast Conference (NEC) Rookie of the Year honors while guiding Benson Lin to the NEC All-Rookie team and Adam Grant to Second Team All-NEC honors. The Bulldogs also finished the season ranked 11th in the nation in rebounds per game (40.28).
In his first season with the Bulldogs, Erickson helped Grant earn National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District honors. Erickson was part of the staff that helped the Bulldogs post their highest GPA in program history.
Prior to joining Bryant, Erickson spent the 2017-18 season as an assistant coach at Kent State, where he helped the program to the Mid-American Conference semifinals and helped Jalen Avery finish with the nation’s best assist-to-turnover ratio (5.04).
Prior to his season at Kent State, Erickson spent four seasons (2013-17) at Iona, where he guided the program to 94 wins and four postseason appearances throughout his tenure. Erickson helped Kent State to a MAAC Tournament Championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2016-17 and 2015-16 while guiding the program to the championship game in the MAAC Tournament while earning appearances in the National Invitation Tournament in 2014-15 and 2013-14.
Before his tenure at Iona, Erickson was the head coach at State College of Florida during the 2012-13 season, where he guided the program to a Suncoast Conference Tournament championship and state tournament appearance. He saw his program rank eighth in Florida College System Activities Association while having his team lead the nation in scoring (95.1 ppg).
Erickson also has stints as an assistant coach at Monroe College, College of Eastern Utah, and City College of New York helping each program set program records in wins.
Erickson played collegiately at Rhode Island before transferring to Assumption, where he graduated with bachelor’s degree in business communications in 1998.
