Matthew Poland concluded his seventh season as the assistant coach for Illinois Wheelchair Basketball in 2024-25. Poland’s hire was announced in August of 2018.

During the 2024-25 season, the Illini women defeated the University of Arizona to win the 3rd Place trophy at Nationals. This past season, Poland coached one Academic All-American, five Honorable Mention Academic All-Americans, one First Team All-American, two Second Team All-Americans, and four All-Rookie team members.

In Poland’s seven years on staff, he has been a part of a second place finish with the women, four third place finishes, and two fourth place finishes at Nationals. In that time, he has also coached five Paralympians.

In his seven seasons, Illini student-athletes have been named to the Academic All-American team twenty times. Twelve more Illini have been named Honorable Mention Academic All-American. He has also coached eleven student-athletes on the NWBA All-Rookie Team, six First Team All-Americans, seven Second Team All-Americans, and Player of the Year twice (Kady Dandeneau ’20, ’22).

Once the Illini returned to the court in the 2021-22 season (sat out 2020-21 season due to COVID), Poland helped lead the women’s team to the National Championship game, where they fell to Alabama.

After obtaining his master’s degree, Poland was retained as the assistant coach, this time now working for both the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams. On top of being the assistant coach for both the men and women, Poland also oversees all video editing, live streams for games, social media, and is in charge of hiring and retention of the team managers.

After graduating from Wichita State, Poland was named the graduate assistant coach for Illinois Men’s Wheelchair Basketball (2018-20) while pursuing a master’s degree in Recreation, Sport, and Tourism.

During the 2017-18 season, Poland was named the head team manager for Wichita State. And in May of 2018, he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sport Management.

While as a manager for Wichita State, Poland was a part of the staff that saw four players reach the NBA (Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker, Landry Shamet, Austin Reaves). He was also a part of teams that won two conference regular season championships, one conference tournament championship, and three NCAA tournament games.

A native of Decatur, Ill., Poland got his start in collegiate basketball at Wichita State in 2015, where he was a student manager from 2015-18. During those seasons, Wichita State complied a 82-22 record.

Coaching Career