Milwaukee Basketball Camps
Coaching Staff
Jake Williams
Assistant Coach
Jake Williams joined the Milwaukee men’s basketball program as an assistant coach in April of 2022.
Williams comes to Milwaukee following a successful two-year run as the head coach at Dodge City Community College in Dodge City, Kansas.
“Jake has taken two different programs to the national tournament,” head coach Bart Lundy said. “I got to know Jake when he was at USC Salkehatchie. He took a really tough job at Salkehatchie and made them a national contender and then did the same thing at Dodge City. I love his toughness and grit, and he has a lot of the attributes I really admire in a coach … he will be great for our players.”
This past season, he led the Conquistadors to an impressive 30-5 overall record, which included a 21-3 ledger in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play. The historic season for the program came to a close in the Elite Eight of the NJCAA Division I National Tournament, capping a list of accomplishments for the team.
Williams led the squad to its first KJCCC title since 2007, its first Region VI crown since 1982, and the first trip to the National Tournament since 1974, while also establishing a school record for victories in a single season with 30.
Before his time in Kansas, Williams spent three seasons as the head coach at the University of South Carolina Salkehatchie, compiling a 68-24 record. His run there included consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in program history, highlighted by a 27-4 mark in 2019-20. His players were honored with back-to-back-to-back Region 10 Player of the Year and All-American Selections, and his teams made trips to the Region 10 Championship in each of the three seasons as well.
That 2019-20 campaign included a Region 10 regular-season championship as well as a District 10 Tournament crown. USC Salk won its first ever Region and District Championship and had received the No. 7 overall bid and a first-round bye into the Sweet 16 before COVID-19 led to cancellation of the event.
His overall career record as a head coach stands at 112-38, a .746 winning percentage. He has helped 26 players move on to the NCAA Division I level over the past five seasons and recruited and coached six NJCAA All-Americans.
Prior to USC Salk, Williams served as an assistant coach at Northwest Florida State. In his two years in Destin, Florida, he helped 10 student-athletes graduate and move on to Division 1 programs.
Williams graduated from Middle Tennessee State where he majored in Health Education and Sport Management, and is a native of Ashland City, Tennessee. He and wife Justine were married in 2021.
Ben Walker
Assistant Coach
Ben Walker was hired as an assistant coach for the Milwaukee men’s basketball team in August of 2022.
“We would like to welcome Ben Walker and his family to our basketball family here at Milwaukee,” head coach Bart Lundy said. “Ben is a Milwaukee native that has proven himself to be a high-level coach. Ben was a hall-of-fame player at Creighton and went on to a successful pro career after college. That experience and the knowledge gained will be invaluable for our players.”
Walker most recently was at Tennessee State, serving as an assistant coach from 2018-2022. The veteran coach, who is originally from the Milwaukee area, brings over 20 years of experience at the NCAA Division I and junior college levels to the Panther bench.
“Ben will also be an exceptional role model for our guys off the floor,” Lundy said. “He will help us continue to grow the program on and off the court."
Prior to his time with the Tigers, Walker spent two seasons at South Dakota State, helping guide the Jackrabbits to back-to-back Summit League Tournament Championships. In addition to making two NCAA Tournament appearances, SDSU also claimed the 2017-18 Summit League regular-season championship.
The program went 46-24 overall and Walker worked closely with the development of two-time Summit League Player of the Year and Associated Press All-American Mike Daum.
Prior to his time at South Dakota State, Walker served as an assistant coach at Jackson State during the 2015-16 season, seeing the Tigers go 20-16 and qualify for the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
His junior college stops included a pair of successful programs, winning conference titles and making national tournament appearances at both Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa and Butler Community College in Kansas.
A 2001 graduate and standout player at Creighton (1997-01), he helped the Bluejays to an overall mark of 87-37 in his time on the court, advancing to the postseason every year. A four-year starter, he played in 124 career games, finishing his career in the top 10 in Creighton history for steals and rebounds. Walker earned Missouri Valley All-Defensive Team honors and helped the Bluejays reach the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and three straight NCAA Tournaments and was inducted into the Creighton University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.
His professional career included overseas stops in Qatar, Latvia, Australia and Norway. In Latvia, he was an All-Star selection and Most Valuable Player in 2005. Walker also suited up for the Sioux Falls Skyforce and Gary Steelheads of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and had tryouts with the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Walker and his wife Jana have one daughter, London, and sons Ben Jr. and Kobe.
Jose Winston
Assistant Coach
Jose Winston was named an assistant coach for the Milwaukee men’s basketball program in May of 2022.
“It’s been my absolute pleasure getting to know Jose since coming to Milwaukee,” head coach Bart Lundy said. “In the short period of time I have been around him, he has impressed me with not only what he knows basketball-wise, but his integrity, his demeanor, and his ability to relate to all types of people.”
Winston has most recently made his mark in the local high school coaching scene, but also played a role in Panther basketball of the past. Fans will remember Winston, who played for Milwaukee his final year in college and was part of the 2002-2003 team that helped the school claim its first NCAA Tournament berth.
“Jose obviously gives us a lifeline to our alumni and to the Milwaukee community who love him,” Lundy said. “He is one of those rare individuals who can cross all high school or grassroots basketball boundaries and everyone opens the door for him and shows him great respect – and that will be vitally important for our program.”
Winston has most recently been the boys basketball head coach at Brown Deer High School, a position he has held since July of 2019. He has also served as the player development coach with Nike Phenom University since March of 2018.
Prior to that, he made his name at Kenosha St. Joseph High School, where he revived a program that had won 12 games in the three seasons before his arrival. He won 95 contests in eight seasons and helped the Lancers finish among the top four of the Metro Classic on five different occasions. That tenure was highlighted by the 2012-13 team that went 18-7 and won a regional title in Division 4.
Winston is also well-known for his basketball playing ability in the Milwaukee area, having been named Wisconsin’s “Mr. Basketball” in his playing days back at Milwaukee Vincent High School. He led Vincent to three consecutive state titles (1996/1997/1998), going an amazing 92-11 in that span. Ranked as the fourth-best point guard and 42nd-best player in the country, Winston spent his first three seasons at Colorado. A three-year starter with the Buffaloes, he played in 95 straight games and set a new CU single-season assist record with 194 in 2000-2001. In three years, he scored 285 points and recorded 440 assists and 179 steals.
He capped his collegiate career by returning home to play for the Panthers and head coach Bruce Pearl in 2002-03. Winston helped the Panthers to a 24-8 overall record that season and the program’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Mike Winans
Director of Operations
Mike Winans has been named to the position of Director of Basketball Operations heading into the 2021-22 school year.
Winans comes to the Panthers from Harvard and will work directly with head coach Pat Baldwin on coordinating team travel, budget, practices and other program functions.
Winans spent the past four seasons as a member of Tommy Amaker's staff at Harvard, helping the Crimson claim Ivy League championships in two of the last three competition seasons. He was responsible for video coordination and assisting in basketball operations for the team.
A 2011 graduate of North Central College in Naperville, Ill., with a degree in Marketing, Winans played basketball for four seasons, serving as a team captain as a senior while also winning the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) championship in 2011. He was also a two-time all-academic honoree.
Winans grew up in Mount Prospect, Ill., and is married to Dr. Alina Winans.
Michael Cooper
Director of Player Development
Michael Cooper joined the Milwaukee men’s basketball program as the Director of Player Development in May of 2022.
Cooper spent the past two years as an assistant on head coach Bart Lundy’s coaching staff at Queens University of Charlotte, helping the Royals to an outstanding two-year stretch.
“Michael spent the past two seasons with me at Queens and I actually first got to know him when we played Northern State in the Final Four four years ago,” Lundy said. “He is unbelievable with the players and extremely organized. He will help to elevate each and every one of our players to a higher level. He is a rising star and we are very fortunate to get him here in Milwaukee.”
The program went 46-10 in those two years, capped by the 2021-22 campaign in which Queens posted a 30-4 record and advanced all the way to the Southeast Regional Championship game. This winter, the team reached as high as No. 4 in the national poll and finished ranked in the Top 25 of the NABC national poll.
Cooper arrived at Queens in October 2020, following two seasons as a graduate assistant coach at Southern Arkansas University. In two years on the staff at Southern Arkansas, the Mulerider's were 32-26 and appeared in the Great American Conference Championships in back-to-back seasons.
Cooper, a native of Monticello, Minnesota, spent four years as a student assistant at Division II Northern State of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) prior to joining the staff at SAU. While assisting the Wolves men’s basketball program, Cooper directly helped the staff in scouting reports, individual workouts, NCAA Recruiting, digital media and game video, and day-to-day practice and game responsibilities.
During his four years in Aberdeen, South Dakota, NSU compiled an overall record of 102-31 (.766) with an NSIC record of 68-20 (.772). The Wolves won back-to-back NSIC Tournament Championships in 2017-18 and 2018-19, while also appearing in the NCAA Tournament both years as well. The Wolves finished the 2017-18 campaign as NCAA National Runner-Up after claiming the Central Region title behind a South Dakota collegiate single-season record 36 wins (36-3 overall record).
Cooper graduated Northern State in the fall of 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology along with an associate degree in Biotechnology. He earned a Master’s degree in Kinesiology from SAU in May 2020.
Jason Newkirk
Director of Recruiting
Jason Newkirk joined the staff of the Milwaukee men's basketball program prior to the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
Newkirk comes to Milwaukee following one season as the assistant coach at Colby Community College in Colby, Kansas. In his only year, the Trojans went 20-12 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NJCAA Region VI Tournament.
Prior to his stop at CCC, Newkirk spent three seasons in Charlotte, N.C., as the head men’s basketball coach and director of basketball operations at the Standard of Excellence Post Graduate Academy (SOE). While there, he was directly involved in character building and player development for the postgraduate players from the inaugural season on. He was an integral part in helping develop each of his student-athletes, who continued on to play at the NAIA, DI, DII, DIII, and JUCO levels.
In addition to Newkirk’s experience coaching postgraduate basketball with SOE, he spent 10 years with the Chicago-based Full Package Athletics AAU program. His responsibilities included skill training (Grades 4-12/collegiate and professional athletes), coaching teams and running camps.
Newkirk grew up in South Carolina. His college playing career included two seasons with the Raiders of Oakton Community College (Ill.). He spent his final two campaigns at Olivet Nazarene University, where he graduated with a degree in marketing management.
