Former SIU men’s basketball assistant coach Tony Wills has landed on his feet across the Missouri Valley Conference at the University of Illinois – Chicago.  He was named an assistant coach on Flames coach Luke Yaklich’s staff on Monday.

Wills was a graduate assistant at SIU in Bryan Mullins’ first two seasons as head coach in 2019 and 2020 before rejoining the staff as an assistant this past year.

Wills, who was a standout defensive player at Illinois State, helped the Salukis rank in the top-15 nationally in scoring defense. The Salukis allowed just 62.2 points per game and led the MVC in scoring defense for the first time since 2007.

Wills was coached by Yaklich when he was an assistant under Dan Muller at Illinois State.