Ohio Dominican University head coach Dan Evans, University of Minnesota Duluth assistant coach Matt Hockett, University of North Dakota assistant coach Jeff Horner and Minnesota State University-Moorhead assistant coach Justin Wieck are the four finalists for the UMD head men’s basketball coach position. Each of the four will be on campus this week for interviews.
Evans has compiled a five-season record of 59-69 at Ohio Dominican University, an NCAA Division II institution. He took over a program that had posted five wins the year prior to his hiring to one that went 20-11 this past season. In each season under Evan’s watch, Ohio Dominican has eclipsed its victory total from the previous year. That culminated in 2017-18, when his Panthers reigned as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament champions and went on to compete in the NCAA II Tournament for the first time ever. Evans took over as the 13th head coach in Ohio Dominican history in May 2013, fresh off a six-season assistant coaching stint at Hillsdale (Mich.) College. He was a three-year basketball starter and team captain at Wisconsin’s Lawrence University.
Hockett recently completed his third season of assistant coaching duty at UMD where he’s helped produce three All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference performers and one NSIC Tournament quarterfinalist. Hockett a former Bulldog forward, returned to his alma mater in August 2015 after spending the previous six seasons as the head boys basketball coach (and physical education teacher) at Stoughton High School in Wisconsin. During Hockett’s tenure, the Vikings won four straight Badger Conference championships and in 2013 secured the school’s first trip to Wisconsin state tournament since 1939.
Horner has been with the North Dakota basketball program for four seasons, serving as an assistant coach the past three years after handling the director of operations role in 2014-15. Two years ago, he and the Fighting Hawks claimed their first Big Sky Conference regular season and playoff titles which earned them their first-ever trip to the NCAA Division I Tournament. From 2010-14, Horner served as the head coach at Valley City High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, compiling a career record of 70-27 and qualifying for a pair of state tournaments (including a runnerup finish in 2014. He played collegiately at the University of Iowa and professionally in Belgium and France as well as with the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League.
Wieck, who joined the MSU-Moorhead coaching staff in the spring of 2014, has been part of a Dragon program that has gone 96-38 overall since his arrival. During his debut season, MSU-Moorhead posted the best record in team history at 35-4 and went on to capture the NCAA II Central Region title en route to the school’s first-ever NCAA II Elite 8 appearance. Prior to coming to MSU-Moorhead, Wieck served for two years as the head coach at Jamestown University (N.D.), where he went 32-31 while directing the Jimmies to a NAIA Division II National Tournament appearance in 2014. Wieck is a University of Iowa basketball alumnus and a two-time NCAA Tournament participant.
UMD is expected to hire its 17th men’s basketball coach in the coming weeks.
