For Tyron McCoy, a high school basketball star in South Carolina in the early 1990s, the fourth time was the charm when picking a college.
After visiting Virginia Tech, the College of Charleston and Coastal Carolina, McCoy made a trip to Richmond to check out VCU.
“I went to VCU on my fourth visit. I decided it was the place for me,” McCoy said in a phone interview. “I kind of felt at home. They had Kendrick Warren, who was a top 10 player coming out of high school. I played against him in high school. He was an NBA prospect. I knew the roster, and they had one senior ahead of me.”
Signing on with the Rams paid off.
McCoy scored more than 1400 points and averaged 12.6 points per contest with VCU from 1991-1995 while playing for coach Sonny Smith, who had been the head coach at Auburn and East Tennessee after earlier stints as an assistant at William & Mary and Virginia Tech.
One of his teammates was Bernard Hopkins, who had a long-playing career overseas.
After four seasons in Richmond, McCoy parlayed that into a successful career as a pro hoopster overseas, playing in Austria, Malta and mostly Germany.
Staying on in Europe
After stepping down as a player, he has been a head coach and assistant coach for several teams in Germany since 2008. He is back on the sidelines this season as an assistant in the city of Ulm, a club he has been with since 2018. The head coach is Ty Harrelson, who is from Texas.
“I was not planning on coaching,” said McCoy, now 53. “I had already gone back to the States (after playing) and nothing came along. Then a got a phone call from a friend I had met, Rick Stafford. He asked me to be his assistant.”
McCoy worked in Ludwigsburg under Stafford, a native of Utah who played basketball at Alaska-Anchorage and is in that school’s Hall of Fame.
From 2010-2015, McCoy was a coach with the Artland Dragons in Germany, then was with the Walter Tigers from 2015-2017 before joining Ulm.
One of the American players this season with Ulm is North Carolina native Jaylen Sims, who starred in college at UNC-Wilmington and played in six games with the Charlotte Hornets during the 2024-2025 season.
“He is seasoned and pretty good; we are expecting a lot from him,” McCoy said. “He can make things happen for other guys; he is also from Charlotte, where I live in the off-season. He has been great for us.”
Most German teams in the top league, the BBL, have six imports on the roster and six Germans.
Other Americans with Ulm this season include CJ Anthony, who played in college last season at Iona, and Ibrahim Watson-Boye, who finished up at the University of Dayton in the Atlantic 10 in 2021.
McCoy has good memories of his time with VCU, which was in the Metro Conference during his tenure and then CAA before joining the Atlantic 10 in 2013.
He recalls scoring 40 points in a game at George Mason and going for 36 in a contest against Oklahoma.
One the downside, McCoy remembers scoring 12 points in the first half in the Metro Conference tournament one season.
“I had just two points after that,” he said of his second-half slump.
Overseas sojourn
After his senior year, McCoy looked to play at the next level.
“I had some invites to NBA combines, but they fell out, and I did not get invited,” he said. “I was kind of lost in the shuffle. The only other opportunity was to go to the CBA. I ended up in Austria.”
“There were not that many jobs” overseas, added McCoy, noting that is not the case today for American ballers. “Going from college, where you had so many things going on in your life, you are kind of spoiled because so many people are taking care of you. Then I ended up in a small town. It was big-time culture shock. Back then (in 1995) you had no internet. I was a little nervous.”
Smoothing the way a little bit in his first season was American teammate Jimmy Shields, who had played at the University of Richmond.
Also in Europe, McCoy played against former Spiders Kenny Atkinson and Chris Fleming. Atkinson became a head coach in the NBA and is now with Cleveland, while Fleming was a coach for several years in Germany.
McCoy, as an assistant, tries to be flexible.
“Each coach has been different. Whatever each coach needs, I will help him with that. I help them wherever they need me and give them advice,” he said.
He has adapted to life in Europe – though he does head back to the Carolinas each summer.
“I think I feel both (cultures) since I have lived here so long,” he said. “I know my culture. I know where I grew up. That is who I am – from America. I am the product of living in two worlds.”
He keeps in touch with some of his former VCU teammates, including Terrence Gibson, Rodney Ashby and Warren.
McCoy has only been back once to VCU since his playing days – when he also went to see an ailing Sherron Mills in Snow Hill, Maryland, about a decade ago.
Mills played for the Rams from 1990-1993 and was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA. Mills played in France, Italy, Turkey and Spain before passing away from ALS at the age of 44 in 2016 in Baltimore.
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David Driver
