October 07, 2025

Matt Wilber (NSU hoops) on the Tibbetts vs Hammon All-South Dakota WNBA Finals coaching duel & his year with Tibbetts and the Phoenix Mercury

41 minutes

Perhaps you've heard. Likely, you've heard it a hundred times within the last week:

The WNBA Finals features two head coaches who were born and raised in South Dakota, Nate Tibbetts (Jefferson and Sioux Falls) and Becky Hammon (Rapid City).

It is a source of immense pride for South Dakota sports fans, most intensely Matt Wilber, the Northern State head men's coach who spent a year with the Phoenix Mercury coaching under his long-time friend Tibbetts.

A lifelong South Dakota hoophead who played (and reached the Top 10 chart in career three-pointers as a walk-on) at Augustana, Wilber was an assistant coach at Augie and USF and SDSU, and for 11 years guided Dakota Wesleyan to national heights, Wilber has been close to Tibbetts for over two decades.

The two were assistant coaches at USF in the early 2000's and started a local basketball camp together in 2006 when Tibbetts was an assistant with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Tibbetts eventually became the team's head coach, then cracked through in the NBA as an assistant for 12 years before taking the Phoenix Mercury head coaching job in 2024 and convincing Wilber to join him. After a season, Wilber came back to South Dakota to take the Northern State job in Aberdeen.

In a 40-minute conversation with Happy Hour host John Gaskins, Wilber describes his 25-year friendship with Tibbetts, what makes Tibbetts a successful head coach — no doubt, the brilliance of Tibbetts' legendary girls basketball coaching father, Fred, played a part — and what Wilber experienced and learned about women's basketball at the highest level during his year in Arizona.

Wilber also breaks down the matchup between the Mercury and Hammon's Las Vegas Aces, the two-time WNBA champions (2022 and '23) who are playing in their fourth consecutive Finals.

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By John Gaskins