WSC Women's Basketball Camps - Wayne State College

WSC Men's Basketball Camps

Head Coach Rico Burkett

Rico Burkett enters his eighth year as the head men's basketball coach for the Wildcats. Burkett guided the Wildcats to a 15-13 overall record in the 2006-07 season, Wayne State's first winning record since 1999-2000. The 'Cats finished fifth place in the Northern Sun Conference with a 10-8 league mark. Burkett's overall mark at WSC is 84-109, including a 58-58 record against Northern Sun Conference schools.

Burkett was named the 22nd head men’s basketball coach in Wayne State College history on April 7, 2000. He took over a team he helped mold into one of the most successful NCAA Division II programs in the nation. In Burkett’s four seasons as assistant coach, the Wildcats won 90 games, the most wins during any four-year period in school history, and two consecutive NCAA Division II national tournament appearances.

During his rookie season, he directed the Wildcats to a 15-15 overall record, and a 12-6 third-place finish in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The competitive Wildcat leader looks to continue the success that has been established in his past.
In1999-2000, the Wildcats finished the season 26-6 and ranked 19th in the NABC/Division II Bulletin Top 25 poll. That season they won the NSIC regular and postseason titles and went on to compete in the regional tournament in Denver, Colo. There, the Wildcats were eliminated in the championship game by the eventual national champion Metropolitan State College of Denver, by a score of 84-72.

As the Wildcats' assistant, Burkett was involved in all phases of the program, with a special emphasis on working with the perimeter players. He developed, organized and maintained the current WSC recruiting system and worked closely with the summer basketball camps. Burkett also was the academic coordinator for all basketball student-athletes.

Burkett came to WSC from the University of North Dakota in 1994, where he was the assistant coach with the nationally-prominent North Dakota women’s basketball team. Serving as the assistant coach during the 1994-95 season, Burkett returned to WSC in 1996, after spending two years at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla.

A standout point-guard for the University of North Dakota’s men’s basketball program, Burkett lettered for the Fighting Sioux from 1989-91. As a senior, he was named the North Central Conference Defensive Player of the Year. As a junior, he set the UND single-season assists (232) and steals (75) records. In his two-year career, Burkett dished out 401 assists, which broke the UND career record. He currently is third on the Fighting Sioux all-time assists chart.

Burkett was a key figure in the resurgence of the North Dakota program. In his two-year UND career, the Fighting Sioux posted a 57-11 record. UND won two NCC conference titles and two trips to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, finishing third in 1989-90.
Before attending North Dakota, Burkett played two seasons at Iowa Central Community College, where he helped the Tritons to a regional title and a berth in the national tournament in 1988-89.

Burkett, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, graduated from UND in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education/secondary education. He earned his associate of arts degree from ICCC in 1989.

Rico and his wife, Mandy, have two children, daughter Taryn (4) and newborn son Marcus, and they reside in Wayne.