About

Mike Mullins founded the Illinois Wolves traveling basketball program in 1999 with one-grade school team. As that team advanced age groups and had great success the Wolves became an elite high school age team and added more teams at the high school level. The Wolves staff is comprised of former or current high school and college coaches who are receiving no compensation, which holds true to the present day.

Since our inception, the Wolves program has had over 300 players in excess of $60 million in scholarships in 17 classes. This is a total from just 16 HS graduating classes which has seen players attend schools such as Duke, Michigan State, Gonzaga, North Carolina, Stanford, Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Marquette, Boston College, DePaul, Northern Iowa, Iowa, West Virginia, Butler, UW-Milwaukee, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Santa Clara, San Jose St, Pennsylvania, Rutgers, Belmont, Stetson, Wright St, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Miami of Ohio, American, Lafayette, Loyola, Eastern Michigan, South Dakota, Lipscomb, Northern Illinois, Albany, Buffalo, Valpo, U of Illinois-Chicago, Wofford, Kansas State, Nebraska, Penn, William and Mary, Colorado State, UC-Davis, and Central Michigan, Harvard, Brown at the D1 level. Others have received full scholarships at the D2 level from schools such as Mercyhurst, Lewis University, St. Michaels, Lemoyne, Quincy, Hillsdale, UW Parkside, Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, Northern Michigan and Spring Hill among others. While some received financial aid dollars from schools such as U of Chicago, Washington U, Augustana, Loras, Illinois Wesleyan and Carthage at the D3 level. NAIA schools such as Oklahoma Baptist, Olivet Nazarene, William Penn, Cardinal Stretch, and St. Xavier have also provided scholarship dollars as well. We hold a 97% college graduation rate for our former players.

Our players come from all backgrounds and from all parts of the state of Illinois. We are proud to have Evan Turner be 2nd pick of 2010 NBA Draft and Frank Kaminsky 9th pick in 2015 NBA Draft as well as 40 of our players sign professional contracts overseas. Wolves alums also have won an NCAA championship, an NIT title, and an NAIA title. Wolves alums have won Gold Medals for USA Basketball at U16-U17 & U19 as well a Silver medal at U21. We have been blessed to have a:

NCAA National Player of the Year & 2nd overall pick of NBA Draft Evan Turner Ohio State University/Portland Trailblazers
Evan Turner 2010; Frank Kaminsky 2015; Keita Bates Diop 2018 - 1st team All Americans & Big Ten Player of the Year Awards
2X All American and 2015 Big Ten POY & Big Ten Tourney MOP as well as 2015 NPOY Wisconsin Frank Kaminsky who currently plays with the Charlotte Hornets.
Illinois Mr. Basketball, USA 2 x Gold Medalist, All Pac 12, Stanford Chasson Randle from Rock Island High School and Real Madrid EuroLeague Champion 2018
NAIA National Player of the Year Ollie Bailey Oklahoma Baptist
McDonalds All American and NCAA National Champion Bobby Frasor University of North Carolina
IHSA HOF and 2X Academic All American-2X MVC DPOY in Bryan Mullins of Southern Illinois University
Sam Maniscalco Captain at Bradley University & University of Illinois. All MVC Academic and All MVC player
2X All-Big Ten & Illinois Captain Demetri McCamey
Winningest all-time player at Butler University and back to back Final Four appearance, Willie Veasley
Northwestern all-time leading, Hall of Fame, scorer 2X All-Big Ten & USA Gold Medalist John Shurna
Jared Brownridge Santa Clara University, West Coast Conference All-Conference 1st team 2015, 2016, and 2017. Jared is the all-time scoring leader in WCC games
Brett Bisping Siena University with over 1500 career points and 1000 rebounds.
Nate Taphorn, Jordan Ash, and Barret Benson being a part of Northwestern's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

-2021 Max Christie USA Basketball Gold Medal

The volunteers who donate their time and vacation hours to coaching the Wolves are irreplaceable. Past coaches such as Bob Frasor Sr, Ken Rice, Jeff Carpenter, Marty Gaughan, John Bryant, Frank Kaminsky Sr. Carl Maniscalco, and Ken Gryzwa. The Wolves have the best staff in travel ball, which strives in skill development and preparing young men for their best days ahead on and off the court.

ILLWolves Active Coaching Tree:

Brandon Bailey Maine Red Claws, NBA G League

Luke Yaklich U of Texas

Brendan Mullins Southern Illinois University

Bryan Mullins Head Coach Southern Illinois University-Loyola U Chicago- Final Four 2018

Willie Veasley North Dakota State

Aaron Anderson Southern Idaho

Bobby Frasor Brother Rice High School

Mike Davis Lakeview High School

Tony Young Marmion Academy

Dave Kleinschmidt Benet Academy

Ken Gryzwa DePaul Prep

Matt Collins York High School

DeAndre McCamey Glenbard East

The current coaching staff is as follows:

Dave Kleinschmidt, Director of Middle School Basketball as well as Director of Marketing.

Chris Conrad, Player Development Coach

U17 Mike Mullins and Dave Kleinschmidt
U16 Tony Young, Mike Mullins, and Dave Kleinschmidt
U15 Dre McCamey and Chris Conrad
U14 Eric Long

The players and their families who benefit from travel basketball and the forum for enhancement it provides are success stories that the Wolves organization is proud to be a small part of. We make a positive difference in young peoples lives.

Sincerely,

Michael P. Mullins
Illinois Wolves Director