The 2022-23 season will be Dominic Okon’s 16th as Director of Basketball Operations. He arrived in the spring of 2007.
Okon serves a crucial behind-the-scenes role on the Shocker staff, managing the team’s budget, equipment orders, travel arrangements and day-to-day scheduling. In addition, he serves as a liaison to staff throughout the athletic department.
Okon’s coaching background also has also proven valuable with nine seasons as a collegiate assistant. He also served as an assistant with the Nigerian National Team during the 2012 Olympics in London.
The Shockers went 11-20 in Okon's debut year but went on to reach 12-straight postseasons from 2009-21 . That stretch included eight NCAA tournaments, highlighted by a trip to the 2013 Final Four and a No. 1 seed the following year.
The Shockers’ 2021 American Athletic Conference title was Okon’s sixth conference regular season crown in 14 years.
The Shockers’ 2020 American Athletic Conference title was Okon’s sixth conference regular season crown in 14 years on the WSU bench. The team was picked seventh in the league's preseason poll but won 11 of its 13 games during the COVID-shortened conference season and earned an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.
WSU was on track for another NCAA bid in 2020 after piling up 23 regular season victories, but the postseason was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2018-19 Shockers were one of college basketball's least-experienced teams but came together late in the year to earn an NIT bid. The sixth-seeded Shockers scored road wins at No. 3 Furman, No. 2 Clemson and No. 1 Indiana to reach the semifinals in New York for the second time under Gregg Marshall.
WSU spent the entire 2017-18 season in the national rankings, reaching as high as No. 3 in the AP Poll. The Shockers finished runner-up in the American Athletic Conference regular season standings and their NCAA Tournament No. 4 seed was the second-highest in school history. That June, Landry Shamet became the first Shocker drafted in the first round in nearly three decades when he was selected 26th overall by the NBA's Philadelphia 76'ers.
Despite heavy losses in the backcourt, the 2016-17 Shockers reached the 30-win mark for the third time in four seasons, finishing 31-5. They swept the Missouri Valley Conference's regular season and tournament crowns and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament
Led by the decorated senior duo of Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet (both three-time All-MVC first-teamers), WSU finished 26-9 in 2015-16 and posted NCAA Tournament wins over Vanderbilt (First Four) and Arizona (First Round).
In 2014-15, WSU posted a 30-5 record and earned its third Missouri Valley Conference title in four seasons with a 17-1 run through league play. The Shockers won an NCAA Tournament game for the third year in a row, taking care of traditional powers Indiana and Kansas to advance to the Sweet 16.
In 2013-14, Wichita State became the first team in the NCAA history to open at 35-0 before losing to eventual National Runner-up Kentucky in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. The Shockers' 35-1 record also shattered all of WSU's and the MVC's winning streak records, including Indiana State's 33-game record in 1977.
The Shockers won their second Valley regular-season title (18-0) in three seasons and won the MVC Tournament in St. Louis for the first time since the tournament went to a neutral site. The tournament title was the first for WSU since winning it in 1987 on Tulsa's home floor.
The Shockers were ranked in the Top 25 all season, also a first for WSU, and reached the No. 2 spot for the first time since the 1981-82 season. The Shockers' No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament was also a first.
Okon was also instrumental during the 2012-13 season when a Final Four appearance by the Shockers topped a six-year reconstruction at Wichita State under Head Coach Gregg Marshall. En route, WSU defeated Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, La Salle, and Ohio State before losing to eventual National Champion Louisville in the National Semifinal game in Atlanta. The voters in the USA Today Coaches poll rewarded the Shockers with a final No. 4 ranking, their highest final ranking ever.
The reconstruction brought WSU from 11 wins Okon's first season to a then-school-record 30 wins in 2013 that ended with the Final Four trip, the second for the Shockers, but the first in 48 years.
Okon also assisted the Shockers to the 2012 NCAA Tournament in Portland, Ore., where WSU lost to VCU in the Second/Third Round game.
The 2009-10 team also played in the postseason NIT, received votes in the AP poll and advanced to the MVC Tournament title game, while the 2009-10 team played in the CBI.
Okon came to WSU after one year at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., where he was an assistant coach after spending eight years as assistant men’s basketball coach at one of the nation's most renowned junior college programs -- Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo. -- under Gene Bess. Okon helped the Raiders to an impressive 197-62 record over eight seasons, while aiding Three Rivers in claiming two regional titles and a trip the national tournament.
During his tenure, Okon assisted in the development of four All-Americans, while more than 30 players under his tutelage moved on to four-year schools.
While at Three Rivers, Okon was responsible for on-court coaching, recruiting, scouting, and player development. In addition, he was in charge of athletic administration which included athletic insurance, athletic eligibility, study hall monitor and housing supervision.
Okon was a four-year collegiate basketball player, including two seasons at Three Rivers and two seasons at Loyola University of Chicago, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
While at Three Rivers, Okon earned all-conference and all-region honors and led the team to a 59-12 record, two region titles and a fifth-place finish at the national tournament.
After college, Okon represented the Nigerian National Team in various international basketball tournaments, appearing in the 1997 Nations Cup in Africa. The team's performance there qualified Nigeria for the World Cup in Athens, Greece a year later.
In 2012, he helped coach the Nigerian National Team in Venezuela that qualified for the London Olympics, the first appearance ever.
A native of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, he and his wife Monica, have two sons, Jaden and Jordan. Jaden is a member of the basketball team at Cameron University.
