By Indiana Mad Ants Staff
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The Indiana Mad Ants, the NBA G League affiliate of the Indiana Pacers, have announced their basketball operations and coaching staff ahead of the 2023-2024 NBA G League season.
Tom Hankins will return as the team’s head coach for his fourth season. Hankins has coached 114 games in his first three seasons, going 62-52 overall as he helped the Mad Ants to their first playoff berth in five seasons in 2023. Hankins’ 114 total games coached is the second most in franchise history and his .549 winning percentage during the regular season/Showcase schedule is the second best in franchise history.
Justin Wetzel will return to the bench for a second straight season as Hankins’ lead assistant. Wetzel has also spent time with the Capital City Go Go, Rio Grande Valley Vipers and the Wisconsin Herd. Wetzel is the founder of the Native American & Indigenous Basketball Coaches Association.
Maria Witte returns, now as the Head Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist. Witte is a former college soccer player at St. Cloud State University. She earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Northwestern University and joined the Mad Ants staff last season as the Assistant Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist.
Shannon Norton will return as the Mad Ants/Fever Operations Coordinator. Norton will again assist with the Mad Ants during the NBA G League season and also continue with the Indiana Fever during the WBNA season.
Chris Taylor (General Manager), Tim Brown Jr. (Assistant General Manager), Jasmine Smits (Player Relations) and Dan Vance (Director of Public Relations/Social Media) will also return.
Hankins will welcome two new assistant coaches to his staff.
Bryce Taylor joins Indiana as an Assistant Coach. Taylor last served as an Assistant Coach, in charge of offense, for EWE Baskets Oldenburg in Germany. Prior to that, from 2021-2022, Taylor was a Player Development Assistant with the Indiana Pacers. Taylor spent time playing professionally in Germany, Italy and the NBA Summer League (including the Pacers in 2010) between 2008 and 2020 after a playing career at the University of Oregon. In Germany, Taylor was voted First Team All-German Basketball League in 2015-2016 and was the first ever American team captain for FC Bayern Munich from 2015-2017.
Rob Dosier joins Indiana as an Assistant Coach/Video Coordinator. Dosier has spent the last two seasons in the Washington Wizards organization, last serving as a Player Development Manager for the Wizards. In 2021-2022, Dosier was a Player Development Coaches Associate for the Capital City Go-Go, the NBA G League Affiliate of the Wizards. Dosier started his coaching career as a Player Development/Basketball Operations Graduate Assistant at Southern Illinois University. Dosier played in college for three years at Quincy University after one season at Southeast Missouri State University.
Also joining the basketball operations staff will be Jake Smith (Head Sports Performance Coach) Alexis Gholston (Assistant Athletic Trainer) and Alex Bowman (Coaching Associate/Assistant Video Coordinator).
Smith was previously the Director of Basketball Performance at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville since August of 2022. Prior to that, Smith spent four and a half years as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Army 1st Ranger Battalion. Smith holds a BS in Exercise Science from the University of Indianapolis, where he was a member of the university’s football team from 2012-2013. Smith also has a MSc in Physical Education from the University of West Florida.
Gholston joined Pacers Sports & Entertainment in May of 2023 and will serve both the Mad Ants and Indiana Fever. Gholston holds a Master of Science in Kinesiology from Sacramento State University and a Bachelor of Science from Eastern Washington University. From 2018-2021, Gholston was an Assistant Athletic Trainer for Eastern Washington. In 2021, she became the 1st Assistant Athletic Trainer for football at the University of Missouri.
Bowman returns to the Mad Ants, where he was a Basketball Operations Assistant during the 2021-2022 season. Last season, Bowman was the Head Video Coordinator for the College Park Skyhawks, the NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks. Between the Mad Ants and Skyhawks, Bowman spent the summer of 2022 as a Scouting Intern for the Detroit Pistons. Bowman studied at Michigan University where he was a student manager from 2018-2021.
Originally posted on fortwayne.gleague.nba.com