LACEY, Wash. – SMU men's basketball coach Tyler Velasquez has been promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach.
 
Fresh off their 2022 regular season championship, Velasquez enters his third year at Saint Martin's coming over in 2019 after Aaron Landon was announced as head coach. The dynamic duo of coaches have a longstanding history that extends before their appointment together with the Saints.
 
Landon and Velasquez met in 2011 when Landon was an assistant coach at former GNAC member Concordia University and recruited Velasquez. Velasquez transferred to Concordia from Cabrillo College and enjoyed two standout seasons as point guard of the Cavaliers. After graduation, Velasquez spent two years working as a video analyst for the Portland Trailblazers. In 2017, he reunited with Landon as an assistant at South Puget Sound Community College. The two had remarkable success as SPSCC, dominating the NWAC West Region and winning 48 games over the two seasons Velasquez was on staff. Their tenure together SPSS at featured three current Saints Hunter Sipe, Branden Bunn, and Tyke Thompson. 
 
Coach Landon had high praise for his new associate head coach, "Coach Velasquez has had an incredible impact on our student athletes and program over the past three years. He has elevated our program and made everybody around him better, including me. I'm extremely proud of him and grateful that Director of Athletics Steve O'Brien and President Dr. Bonds-Raacke made this happen." 
 
Velasquez, Landon and the Saints will being their 2022-23 conquest on November 11 hosting California State San Marcos in the SMU Conference Challenge.