I mentioned this move in the DAILY DIRT back on 6/9…Derrick Wrobel’s move to Grand Canyon is now official. Here’s the announcement from GCU:
After working 22 seasons for major college basketball coaching staffs and being a part of nine NCAA Tournament teams, Derrick Wrobel is coming full circle with his career returning him to the Valley as Grand Canyon’s chief of staff.
Vast experiences and connections brought Wrobel to work with sixth-year GCU head coach Bryce Drew, who gave Wrobel a memorable experience by making a legendary connection – “The Shot.”
Wrobel, a freshman student manager for Ole Miss, watched Drew become a March Madness legend with the buzzer-beating 3-pointer that upset Ole Miss in 1998.
“I’m really going to have to look at this every day,” Wrobel joked about the GCU Basketball Facility wall adorned with a photo of “The Shot” from 1998.
Wrobel followed Rob Evans from Ole Miss to continue being a student manager at Arizona State, where he graduated and worked his first four professional years as director of basketball operations. From there, he handled operations for Ben Braun at California, became assistant to the head coach for Steve Lavin at St. John’s with Hall of Famer Gene Keady on the bench, returned to ASU under Bobby Hurley for five years and joined Kyle Smith’s staffs at Washington State and Stanford.
“We are thrilled Derrick decided to come back to Phoenix and be at GCU,” Drew said. “He has a great deal of experience working for really good programs and coaches. His experience will really help our staff.”
Wrobel enhances a staff that returns assistant coaches Marc Rodgers and Casey Shaw and added assistant coaches Matt Lottich, Jordan McCabe and Kam Murrell this summer.
“It’s a blessing to be aligned with the university, a head coach and a staff that has an alignment that is similar in terms of my philosophical viewpoint,” Wrobel said. “I have so much respect for Coach Drew. To leave Stanford and Coach Smith, it was going to require a very special and a very unique opportunity. I found it here, and it’s such a blessing to be at a university that has these amazing core values and administration. Coach Drew leads with the stuff that is so important and critical. It’s faith and belief.”
Wrobel prioritizes three areas in a program – attitude, work ethic and pride. He already sees that at GCU in the way the university is connected to the program beyond the raucous, sold-out home crowds.
“The family piece is critical – the connection with your team and your teammates, whether it’s coaches or players,” Wrobel said. “If you’re about those elements, the results will chase you down.”
The opportunity to join GCU felt like “a miracle” to Wrobel beyond the basketball side. With four college homes since his 10-year-old son, Zach, was born in New York and adding 8-year-old Addison, Derrick and Michelle Wrobel put down a home base in Phoenix last season. The I-17 drive to campus is a godsend after a year of going from the Bay Area to Phoenix amid a Stanford schedule that sent the Cardinal cross country for ACC road games.
“I’m just fortunate to come into this situation and bring as much as I can bring with my experiences professionally and personally,” Wrobel said. “Just blessed to be a part of this institution, athletic department and men’s basketball program, where I can bring some value to continue to move this thing forward.”
From 2011 to 2016, Wrobel worked at another non-football university with a basketball passion – St. John’s. When he moved to ASU from 2016 to 2021, he said the staff took note of cross-town developments at GCU.
“We were paying close attention and quickly seeing the rise,” Wrobel said. “Then Coach Drew comes in, takes over and continues to have success. Playing against him last year and seeing the Havocs show up in Palm Desert and taking over the venue created a semi-road game for us at Stanford.
“I’m excited and thrilled to experience the game-day atmosphere here.”
Wrobel embodies the three traits that he values most in a program – attitude, work ethic and pride.
“There is so much pride in the program, and that’s a testament to Coach Drew and his staff in terms of what they have built up,” Wrobel said. “All of it comes together to make this decision. I prayed about it, and it was the right move at the right time with the right person and the right staff
“It’s so beautiful in terms of what we get to do every day. We get to empower young people to empower themselves through the beauty of basketball and do it with amazing teammates and coaches. There’s so much value in that. I’m blessed that Coach feels like I can bring value, and and then here we go.”
