David Deets - Assistant AD for Athletic Performance - Men's Basketball Support Staff

David Deets

Title:
Assistant AD for Athletic Performance
Email:
dad3129@utulsa.edu
Phone:
918.631.2353

David Deets serves as associate athletic director of student wellness and performance, a position he was promoted to in February 2024. He came to Tulsa as the director of athletic performance for men's basketball for the 2017-18 season and after four seasons was promoted to assistant athletic director for athletic performance.

Deets, who is a native of Newcastle, Okla., came to Tulsa from Mississippi State, where he spent two years as the director of basketball performance for head coach Ben Howland and the men’s basketball team. With the Bulldogs, Deets designed and oversaw a half-million dollar renovation of the weight room with state-of-the-art equipment and technology to turn it into one of the top basketball performance centers in the nation.

He helped develop and transition a pair of newcomers from the prep level in Quinndary Weatherspoon (2016) and Lamar Peters (2017), who each landed on the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team. Weatherspoon also went on to earn second-team SEC honors last season.

Deets, who became a master strength coach in 2013, is well-respected across the country for his innovative approach to strength and conditioning. He’s been a featured speaker at national conferences and was one of just seven individuals worldwide to be part of Nike Basketball’s SPARQ program, which develops testing measures for basketball.

Prior to his time in Starkville, Miss., Deets spent a year as the director of rehab and strength and conditioning for the Tuttle Public School District near Oklahoma City. Before that, he spent three seasons at Arkansas and helped design a new weight room. He was instrumental in the development of JaCorey Williams, Moses Kingsley and Bobby Portis, who was named 2015 SEC Player of the Year.

He also spent five seasons with head coach Mike Anderson at Missouri, where he helped with the renovations of the Sally O. Nichols Weight Room, while he also mentored four National Strength and Conditioning All-Americans. Deets’ off-season regimen with the Tigers was key in Missouri’s three NCAA Tournament runs and Big 12 Tournament title in 2009.

Upon graduating from Northeastern State, Deets was a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State in 2000. After a year with the Cowboys, he was named the head strength and conditioning coach at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La. There he oversaw all aspects of the strength training program for the school’s 14 intercollegiate sports. Deets then made stops at TCU and Oklahoma State before landing at Missouri with Coach Anderson prior to the 2006-07 season.

Deets earned a degree in health and human performance from Northeastern State in 2000. He has two daughters, Emery and Violet.