George Mason head men’s basketball coach Paul Hewitt announced Thursday the hiring of Mike Wells as an assistant coach, rounding out Hewitt’s staff after joining the Patriots in May. Wells arrives in Fairfax following an extensive career in the professional ranks, most recently as assistant coach and advance scout with the NBA’s Washington Wizards.
“I feel fortunate to be able to add a person like Mike to our coaching staff,” Hewitt said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge in the game of basketball and it was my desire to hire somebody with NBA experience. Mike has been at that level for 17 years including two NBA championship staffs.”
Wells spent two seasons with the Wizards, part of an NBA coaching career that spans 17 seasons in total. He came to the Wizards after spending four seasons in the same role with the San Antonio Spurs, including San Antonio’s NBA Championship season in 2007. Prior to joining the Spurs, Wells spent the 2004-05 season as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers under Rudy Tomjanovich.
Wells began his career in the NBA in 1995 with the eventual NBA Champion Houston Rockets as the team’s assistant video coordinator, and was promoted to video coordinator in 1996. His stint with the Rockets spanned 10 seasons as he became a full-time assistant coach during the summer of 1999. Wells served as a scout for Team USA from 1998-2003 under Tomjanovich and Larry Brown, including the 1998 World Championships, and the 2000 Summer Olympics when Team USA won the gold medal in Sydney, Australia.
A 1993 graduate of Mount Vernon Nazarene, Wells served as an assistant coach for the Cougars for two seasons while he obtained a Master’s Degree in Sports Science from the United States Sports Academy. He and his wife, Jacqueline, have one son, Trenton.
Wells joins Roland Houston and Chris Kreider as Hewitt’s assistants, while Scott Lombardi returns as the director of basketball operations in 2011-12.
“I had a vision in mind of putting together a staff that would be strong with player development and individual instruction, and could also recruit domestically and internationally,” Hewitt explained of his staff. “The final thing was to hire somebody that had quite a bit of experience working on the NBA level. It is always a desire of mine to bring someone in that could teach Chris, Roland and myself some different things about the game – anything to make Mason stronger and better as we move into our first season.”
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