Jon-Michael Nickerson was added to Head Coach Jason Gardner's coaching staff in April 2014 as an assistant coach. Nickerson comes to IUPUI from Memphis where he served as a Graduate Manager for the Tigers during Gardner's time as an assistant coach.
Nickerson helped Memphis to a 24-10 mark this past season, ultimately having been drawn to the Tigers' program by Head Coach Josh Pastner. The Millbrook, Ala.-native began his coaching career at Excel Christian (Ga.) Academy, where he served as boys basketball coach and athletics director. He guided Excel to a 26-win season and the program's first-ever GHSA state tournament Elite Eight appearance. He was voted Coach of the Year and his squad was pegged Team of the Year by the Northwest Georgia Tip-Off Club in 2012-13. He helped Excel to a 14-12 mark in his first season, representing the program's first season over .500 in the school's 23-year existence.
The 29-year old Nickerson took a circuitous route to the coaching ranks, beginning with a three-year professional baseball career before playing basketball collegiately at Kennesaw State. The 6-foot-6 lefty was drafted in the 16th round of the 2003 MLB June Amateur Draft and played professionally in the minor leagues until 2005. He went 9-1 in his first professional season with the GCL Marlins and was the Marlins' youngest-ever Organizational Pitcher of the Month in July 2003. Earlier that season, he became the youngest and first-ever rookie pitcher in the Marlins organization to throw a complete game no-hitter, knocking off a GCL Braves team that featured future major leaguers Martin Prado and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. He was later promoted to Class A Greensboro by season's end.
He spent the next two seasons in Class A before retiring at the start of spring training in 2006.
From there, he attended KSU on a basketball scholarship where he was a four-year starter for the Owls, making 115 appearances and 87 starts in his career. He finished with 795 points and 473 rebounds in his career, including averaging a career-best 10.1 points and 5.6 boards per game his junior season, earning Team MVP honors. He was also named Atlantic Sun Player of the Week in the first week of December that season. He earned his degree in Health & Physical Education from KSU in 2010.
Nickerson prepped at Stanhope Elmore (Ala.) High School where he averaged 27 points per game as a senior and led the squad to the state finals.
Nickerson is expected to work specifically with the Jaguars' big men.
