A new prestigious coach is now in CoMo!
Up-and-coming coach Deon Thomas has been officially announced as the new Director of Player Development for the Missouri Tigers women’s basketball program. Thomas comes to Mizzou with a great resumé in his young career.
In his three years of college coaching experience, he’s already been named to to the WBCA’s Thirty Under 30, a prestigious award in women’s basketball to coaches under 30 years old. He was chosen for this award during the 2019-2020 season while an assistant Roosevelt University, an NAIA school in Chicago.
In 2017, Thomas earned his first collegiate coaching role at Benedictine University in Illinois. In both of his seasons, the Eagles were conference runner-ups and helped lead them to a program best 21 wins in the 2018-2019 season.
In December 2020, Thomas was named the interim head coach at NAIA Ottawa University in Arizona. During his sole year, he recruited 16 players and upped the program’s GPA from 2.4 to 3.1.
This past season, he made the jump to Division 1 coaching when he was named the assistant coach at Saint Louis University. He was in charge of developing perimeter players and recruiting, among other responsibilities.
Per the press release, Thomas will be involved in all things player development, scouting, analytics and recruiting efforts. You can read more about Coach Thomas in the press release here.
Coach Pingeton praised Thomas saying the following, “Deon is filling a critical role in our program and it’s an honor to welcome him to our staff. He has a great deal of experience at all levels of basketball and his Thirty Under 30 recognition from the WBCA speaks for itself. We are really looking forward to seeing him excel in this role and help us keep building our program to a championship level.”
Welcome to the Zou, Coach Thomas!