Mike Ricks Named Goucher Women's Basketball Coach

TOWSON, Md. – Goucher College Director of Athletics Dr. Andrew Wu announced Thursday that Mike Ricks, the current head women's basketball coach at Birmingham-Southern College, has been named the head coach of the Gophers' women's basketball program.  A veteran of 12 years as a women's basketball collegiate head coach, Ricks will officially begin his duties on June 5.

"I am honored and excited to become the head women's basketball coach at Goucher College. My family and I would like to thank Andrew Wu, Andrea Ricketts-Preston and the rest of the search committee for the chance to join the Gopher family," said Ricks, who becomes the Goucher program's 10^th head coach in the NCAA era.  

"We are going to build a program at Goucher that will compete for championships. We will work extremely hard, but we will have a lot of fun as we do it. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with our players to create something we will all be proud of."

Ricks guided to Birmingham-Southern to 25 wins in his first season at the helm in 2015-16.

"I'm thrilled to welcome Coach Ricks to our team and look forward to him jumping straight in to lead our women's basketball program," said Wu.  "Mike brings significant head coaching experience - including a major program rebuild - and impressed across the board during the interview process, showing that he has the tools to move us forward."

In eight years at Birmingham-Southern, a Division III member of the Southern Athletic Association in Birmingham, Alabama, Ricks posted a record of 107-94 with five winning seasons.

In his first season, 2015-16, he inherited a team that finished under .500 and guided the Panthers to a 25-4 record, the SAA regular season and tournament titles and a second round NCAA appearance.  The following season, BSC went 17-11 and was the SAA regular season champion.  Ricks was named the SAA Coach of the Year following each of those seasons.

During his tenure at Birmingham-Southern, Ricks coached two D3hoops.com All-Region players, two SAA Newcomers of the Year, one SAA Defensive Player of the Year and 17 All-Conference selections.

Over the past three seasons, Ricks' BSC teams have employed The System, an aggressive, up-tempo style of basketball that relies on pressing and quick shots while utilizing players in short spurts.  Under this system the Panthers have led Division III in scoring each of the past three seasons, averaging 95.7 points per game in 2022-23.

Prior to Birmingham-Southern, Ricks was the first women's basketball head coach at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.  While guiding the fledgling NAIA program, Ricks coached two WBCA All-Americans and seven All-Conference players and increased the program's winning percentage in each of his four seasons.

Before taking the helm of the new women's program, Ricks served as assistant coach with the men's team at St. Thomas for two seasons. Prior to his stint at UST, he spent several years coaching at the high school level, going to four Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) state tournaments and coaching three championship teams. Ricks was athletic director and head boy's basketball coach at Northeast Christian Academy in Kingwood, Texas, where he led his team to a 30-10 record and the 2009 TAPPS AA state title. Following that season, he was named TAPPS 10-AA Coach of the Year, and in 2009 Ricks was honored by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches as a State Champion Coach. He also was selected to coach the TAPPS Blue South All-Star Team in June 2009.

Prior to serving as head boy's coach, Ricks was head girl's basketball Coach at NCA from 2004 to 2007, leading the Warriors to a runner-up finish in the 2007 TAPPS AAA state tournament and amassing a 81-34 record over three seasons. As varsity assistant boy's coach from 2002 to 2004, Ricks also helped coach the Warriors to the 2003 and 2004 TAPPS state titles.

Ricks received a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 2004 and a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from LeTourneau University in 2012. He completed a second Master's Degree in Sport Management from Liberty University in May 2015.