The bench this upcoming winter will look different for the Wabash College Men’s Basketball team. After spending the last nine seasons with the Little Giants, Pat Sullivan took the head coaching job at Allegheny while fellow assistant coach Aaron Jacobs is now at North Park University.
Looking to replace the two, head coach Kyle Brumett welcomed both Evan Sizemore and Liam Thompson to the coaching staff as the duo has been with the Little Giants for right around a month.
Sizemore comes from spending the last two seasons at Wisconsin Lutheran College and helped the Warriors to Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular-season titles in 2023 and 2024, along with the NACC Tournament title in 2024, earning Coaching Staff of the Year honors from the conference in 2023 and 2024.
“I’ve been following Wabash from a far the last several years,” Sizemore said. “This is a great institution first and foremost and of course a great program. Seeing the amount of success that the coaching staff has had here the past few years and when Coach Sullivan got a head coaching job and the door opened, I knew this was something I wanted to pursue.”
For Little Giant fans, there’s another Liam Thompson that the college can now cheer for as Thompson comes from spending the last two seasons as a Graduate Assistant at Illinois Wesleyan University. Thompson worked as the head junior varsity coach of the Titans and performed duties as the strength and conditioning coach. He helped guide IWU to a 19-8 overall record and a 14-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) record. The Titans claimed the CCIW regular season title and defeated North Central College in the semifinal round of the CCIW Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“This first month here at Wabash has been fantastic,” Thompson said. “It’s been fast moving for sure with camps and shootouts and getting to know the players. The people here at Wabash are so nice and care for each other. To be in a position where I can help facilitate anything to bring the community closer together is a great feeling to have. Wabash is such a unique place and that’s what really separates it from other schools out there.”
Both Sizemore and Thompson have already also been at work on the recruiting front in terms of finding the next great players for the Little Giants. While the transition from a long time coach in Sullivan wasn’t the easiest thing in the world for Brumett since the to have been together for so long, he knows that Sullivan deserves the chance to be a head coach and that both Sizemore and Thompson have and will continue to fit in nicely.
“The transition period was interesting to say the least,” Brumett said. “Sully and I have been together for a good portion of our coaching careers. The good thing about us being together for so long is that I had a very good idea of the kind of coach that I was looking for. Ultimately Coach Sizemore and Thompson pursued this job the hardest and wanted to be at Wabash. They believe in what we’re doing here and have DIII experience. Those two things really stood out when we were going through the process.”
It’s not just the on the court success that stood our for Sizemore when he looked at joining the Little Giants. Yes, Wabash has won the North Coast Athletic Conference three straight years along with making three straight NCAA D3 Tournament’s. However it goes beyond that as Sizemore explains.
“I not only want to work with people who have been successful like Coach Brumett and Coach (Ron) Henricks have been, however I also want to work for just genuinely good people. Those two gentleman embody what it means to be a great person and care for each and everyone of their players and their community. I couldn’t be more excited to learn from two of the best.”
Thompson has seen high level mid-west basketball while at Illinois Wesleyan as the Titans and Little Giants have both been staples of excellence. Going from one successful program to another, has made the process a little more smooth as Thompson gets adjusted to his new role.
“I was all for this when I saw the opportunity,” he said. “Wabash is one of the best high-level mid-west programs in the country and being able to surround yourself with great coaches is important. Being able to learn under Coach Brumett and work with Coach Sizemore is going to be an amazing opportunity.”
