An Ohio native who woke up at 3:30 a.m. to watch The Game while coaching in Australia, longtime NBA assistant Mike Wells is fulfilling a lifelong dream by coaching at Ohio State.
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Longtime NBA Assistant Coach Mike Wells Fulfilling Lifelong Dream By Coaching at Ohio State
“I think everybody that's grown up in the state of Ohio ... I think everybody grows up wanting to be a part of this university at some point.”– Mike Wells on his dream of coaching at Ohio State
In a coaching career that’s spanned more than 30 years, Mike Wells has coached for six different NBA teams, winning two championships at basketball’s highest level. He became a head coach in Australia’s National Basketball League. But there was one place much closer to home where Wells always dreamed of coaching.
Growing up about an hour northeast of Columbus in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Wells is a lifelong Ohio State fan – so much so that he woke up at 3:30 a.m. to watch the Ohio State/Michigan football game while living in Australia for the past two years. So when Jake Diebler called Wells and offered him the chance to join Ohio State’s staff as an assistant coach, it wasn’t a hard decision for Wells to say yes.
“The Ohio State University,” Wells said, emphasizing the word “The,” when asked why he chose to join the staff. “I think everybody that's grown up in the state of Ohio, like, if you're not thinking about having Ohio State at some point, I don't know. I think everybody grows up wanting to be a part of this university at some point.”
“My journey was probably really different than a lot of people, and Adelaide, Australia ended up leading me here and the opportunity. However it gets here, I've always wanted to be a part of college basketball, high-major program. This opportunity presented itself, I couldn't pass it up.”
Wells said he had an “unbelievable experience” coaching the Adelaide 36ers, who made the NBL Championship Series last season in his second year as head coach, but his family wanted to return to the United States. His eldest son, Trenton, is an incoming freshman at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and his parents still live in Mount Vernon, so there was no better place for their return to America than Ohio.
“I had a really, really good team over there. Everybody was signed, super proud of what we accomplished there. And we came home as a family, and we were trying to figure out what's next in our lives,” Wells said. “If an opportunity like this came along, we were going to jump at it to stay in the United States, number one. The fact that it's here was a no-brainer for myself and my family.”
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