LARAMIE – Pat Monaghan was already vetted by Don Meyer's mother long ago.
 
Wyoming's newest assistant lived in the basement of Edna Meyer's house in rural Nebraska when he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wayne State College.
 
Edna's legendary son once held the record for men's college basketball coaching wins before Duke's Mike Krzyzewski surpassed the mark in 2011.
 
Sundance Wicks, who played for Don Meyer at Northern State, announced the hiring of Monaghan on May 14 as an assistant with the Cowboys.
 
Monaghan helped Green Bay win 18 games last season after Wicks inherited a three-win team.
 
"Number one, it was having a plan and vision," Monaghan said of the dramatic turnaround that led to Wicks being named the Horizon League coach of the year and the Joe B. Hall national coach of the year. "Sunny had everything laid out from his first 60 days on the job to the type of recruits he wanted to get in the program. I give him a ton of credit and a ton of respect because he allowed me to help him, especially early on, just with knowing the league prior."
 
After his time at Wayne State and a two-year stint at Coffeyville Community College (2008-10), Monaghan spent a season at Loyola University (2010-11) in his native Chicago before being part of four NCAA Tournament teams on the staff at Division II powerhouse Minnesota State (2011-17).
 
Wicks also coached in the Northern Sun Conference as a Northern State assistant during part of Monaghan's run at Minnesota State.
 
Monaghan went on to coach in the Horizon League as an assistant at Milwaukee (2017-19) and then coached at Southern Illinois (2019-23). In June of 2022, he was one of 12 Division I assistants selected to attend the Jay Bilas Coaches Leadership Program designed to identify and develop up-and-coming coaches who have the potential to be head coaches.
 
Wicks wisely reached out to Monaghan after leaving his position as one of Jeff Linder's assistants at UW to become Green Bay's head coach.
 
"We stayed in touch and when he had an opportunity to get the Green Bay job, he called me up and I felt like I could help him over there," Monaghan said. "It was a great opportunity. We had a great 12 months over there at Green Bay. … I was familiar with the league, and I knew the type of players you needed and the style of play to potentially have some success."
 
The Cowboys, who went to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 when Wicks was on the staff, are looking to get back in contention in the Mountain West. Six teams from the conference were invited to the Big Dance in March and San Diego State made it to the national championship game in 2023.
 
UW added four players to the roster last week, including 6-foot-10, 275-pound center Scottie Ebube, a Southern Illinois transfer Monaghan recruited to the Salukis.
 
"There's a lot of tradition here and success has been there," Monaghan said. "Now for us it's kind of building that brand and that culture from the history of what other coaches have done here and try to do it consistently. That's what Sunny's goal and vision is. Whatever we can do to have that consistency because that's the hardest thing today. If you look at the most successful teams in the league, the one thing they have in common is the consistency in their program."
 
Monaghan and Nic Reynolds are the assistants Wicks brought with him from Green Bay to Laramie. Reynolds was an NAIA All-American at Columbia (Missouri) College and coached a list of small schools before joining Wicks' staff.
 
"Obviously Pat and Nic, you've got to bring foxhole guys that have been in the trenches with you, that helped you quote, unquote, rise from the ashes as we like to say in the old Phoenix country," Wicks said. "Those guys that have been in the trenches with you and helped you do something remarkable in that sense. They know the eye that we're looking for, they know how to evaluate and over-evaluate the talent and the type of people we're trying to get here."
 
Nick Whitmore, Shaun Vandiver and Tim O'Flannigan were retained by Wicks from Linder's staff.
 
Monaghan was an outstanding player at Harper Junior College and Division II Lewis University before moving into Edna Meyer's basement while beginning his coaching career.
 
"I think we're going to have a shared vision of what we want to do and how we want to accomplish things," Monaghan said. "That's the biggest thing I'm looking forward to. Those guys have been great. It helps with the transition, especially at this time when we are taking over. It kind of narrows the gap. We've been able to hit the ground running."
 
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