By: Tanner Stiles, Assistant A.D. of Operations & Communications
BETHANY – Over the coming weeks, SNU Athletics is highlighting former Crimson Storm standouts in the "Alumni Spotlight" from multiple sports. This week, in the inaugural "Where Are They Now?" the focus is on Men's Basketball's Tyrone Ellis.
Dominating at SNU:
Ellis was a two-time NAIA All-American guard from Dallas, Texas who played at SNU from 1997-2001. The 6'4 guard was an absolute force on the hardwood as he racked up 1,822 career points in the Crimson Storm uniform, good enough for 5
th all-time in school history. He finished 4
th all-time in school history for career 3-pointers made with 248 as well. In 2001, the guard was named the Sooner Athletic Conference Player of the Year after stuffing the stat sheet with 22.5 points, and 6.0 rebounds on 47.2 percent shooting and 42.8 percent shooting from downtown. In 1998, he helped SNU to an NAIA National Runner-Up finish as well.
Ellis in the Pros:
Since his graduation from SNU, Ellis played professional basketball for 10 different teams in five different countries. During his tenure in the pros, Ellis held a couple of Summer League stints with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks. In his first professional season in 2001-02, Ellis was drafted 42
nd overall in the inaugural season of the NBA Developmental League by the Huntsville Flight. After one season in Alabama, Ellis traveled to Catalonia, Spain to play for Girona.
After a quick one-year stint in Spain, Ellis signed with Germany's Frankfurt Skyliners in 2003 and helped lead the team to a BBL championship while averaging 19 points per game in the ULEB Cup. In his final season with the Skyliners in 2004-05, he averaged 22.5 points in the Euro League. In the 2005-06 season, Ellis took his talents to Turkey's Besiktas in Istanbul where he was awarded Defensive Player of the Year. In August of 2006, Ellis had a quick 3-month stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves before moving to Italy in 2006-07 to play for the Basket Napoli club. The guard went back to Spain in 2007 to play for Seville's Cajasol Sevilla where he remained until 2010.
Arguably one of the most impressive achievements in his professional career was his four-year stint playing for the Georgia National Basketball Team in four consecutive summers from 2006-2009. He played with the team at the Division B Eurobasket 2009 and averaged 16.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists during the tournament. In the finals against Belarus, he averaged 13.5 points, and 3.0 assists and helped Georgia to move up to Division A.
In his final two professional seasons, he was a member of Spain's Estudiantes in 2010, before signing with Lucentum Alicante to finish his professional playing season.
Moving Up The Coaching Ranks:
Ellis' coaching career started in 2009 and 2010 where he spent two summers as an Assistant Coach for the NBA Summer League's Phoenix Suns. Ellis returned to Oklahoma to be an assistant coach for the NBA G-League's Tulsa 66ers in the Fall of 2012. After one season in Tulsa, Ellis was hired in the 2013-14 season by the Reno Bighorns and later was the lead Assistant Coach for the Grand Rapids Drive in the 2014-15 season. The following season in 2015-16, Ellis was an Assistant Coach for the Bakersfield Jam as well.
After traveling to Korea in the summer of 2015 to serve as a Player Development Coach and Consultant for the Goyang Onions, Ellis was promoted the following summer in 2016 to his first head coaching position with the NBA G-League's Northern Arizona Suns. During his first and only season coaching the Northern Arizona squad, Ellis led the team to a 10-1 record to start the season.
On July 5, 2017, Ellis was announced as the assistant coach for Team USA Basketball for the 2017 FIBA AmeriCup. Under the roster led by famous NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy as head coach, Team USA would go undefeated to win the FIBA AmeriCup that year. On October 23, 2017, before the start of the Northern Arizona Suns' season, Ellis was named an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns.
Where Are They Now?
In 2018, Ellis was named the first head coach for the recently relocated Stockton Kings in the NBA G-League where he has spent each of the last three seasons. Stockton's 54 wins under Ellis are tied for the fourth-most of any G-League team in the last two seasons. The five Stockton players that have received NBA contracts over that period place the team fifth in unique call-ups.
On top of his coaching duties, Ellis has spent time in China in 2018 and 2019 speaking at coaches' clinics and serving as a camp director for NBA China – Master Kong Elite Camp. In the summer of 2019, Ellis also served as a camp director for the NBA G-League's "Elite" Camp and "Next 40 Combine".
