Mizzou women's basketball adds Mike Nicholson to staff
Mizzou women's basketball has hired Mike Nicholson as an assistant coach on Kellie Harper's staff. Nicholson has over three decades of coaching experience, much of which was in the state of Missouri.
Mike Nicholson
Mizzou women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper has made her first staff hire of the offseason, adding longtime in-state coach Mike Nicholson as an assistant coach.
Nicholson replaces the assistant spot left vacant by Todd Schaefer, who departed for Ohio State after spending one season on Harper’s staff.
Nicholson most recently served as the chief of staff for Kansas State women’s basketball from the 2021-22 to the 2025-26 seasons. The Wildcats went 112-64 in the span, reaching the NCAA Tournament three times.
Before his time with the Wildcats, Nicholson was a decorated Division II assistant coach, serving as an aide at Central Missouri from 2014 to 2021. In his final season as an assistant coach (2020-21), Nicholson earned Division II assistant-coach-of-the-year honors from both the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and World Exposure Report.
Prior to Nicholson’s tenure with UCM, he was an assistant on a highly successful Missouri Western men’s squad for two stints — the first from 1997 to 2005, and the second from 2007 to 2013. The Griffons tallied two MIAA Tournament titles, five NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and 228 overall wins with Nicholson on staff.
Nicholson began his coaching career at Kansas City (then Missouri-Kansas City), spending six seasons on staff with the men’s team for the Roos. One of those seasons (1991-92), he helped set a record for most Division I wins in program history (21).