Wilkes University Athletics

Izzi Metz begins his twelfth season at the helm of the Colonel men's basketball program in 2025-26 after accumulating a 151-121 record over the past eleven seasons.

The Colonels reached the Landmark Conference semifinals for the second consecutive year in 2024-25, finishing the season 20-7 overall with a 13-5 record in Landmark play, the first 20-win season for the program since 2000-01. Metz mentored two all-conference selections and a D3hoops.com All-District Second Team honoree in Lucas Lesko.

Metz led the Colonels into the Landmark Conference in 2023-24, reaching the conference semifinals and finishing the year with a 19-8 overall record and an 11-7 record in conference play. Under his leadership, three Colonels earned All-Conference recognition with one on the First Team and two on the Second Team.

Metz transformed the Wilkes squad into a MAC Freedom postseason contender during their time in the conference. In 2018-19, Metz led the Colonels to their second appearance in the MAC Freedom Championship Game under his watch during a season where the team finished second in the conference regular season and 19-10 overall. The back-to-back 19-win seasons marked the most wins for Wilkes during a season since the 2000-01 campaign.

Metz led Wilkes to the top-seed in the MAC Freedom Championship in 2017-18 after finishing the regular-season with an 11-3 record in conference play. The Colonels then were awarded as the host of the ECAC Division III Championship advancing to the semifinal round. Metz was also named the MAC Freedom Coach of the Year and D3Hoops.com Atlantic Region Coach of the Year in 2017-2018.

Metz led the 2015-16 squad to a 8-6 mark  in league play, making a run to the championship game for the first time since 2011-12. He also has mentored 18 All-MAC Freedom selections over the past nine seasons including one Rookie of the Year (Trent Fisher 2021-22) as well as one All-ECAC selection (Marcus Robinson, 2017-18). The 2018-19 team saw a program record four players named to the All-Conference team. For five consecutive seasons from 2017-18 to 2021-22 Metz coaches a First Team All-MAC Freedom selection as Robinson (2017-18, 2018-19), Rob Pecorelli (2019-20), Drake Marshall (2020-21), and Trent Fisher (2021-22) earned the accolade.

Metz came to Wilkes after three years at Division I and Atlantic Coast Conference member Boston College, starting as the Director of Basketball Operations in 2011 before moving to an assistant coach role. While at Boston College, Metz was instrumental in assisting head coach Steve Donahue in all aspects of the program as the Eagles highlighted his last season with a win against then No. 1 and unbeaten Syracuse University in mid-February.
 
Prior to his time at Boston College, Metz served five successful seasons as head coach at Division III Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y. During his tenure as the head coach at Hobart, Metz compiled a 69-62 record and guided the Statesmen to a Liberty League regular season championship and ECAC Upstate tournament title in 2010-11. His team finished with a 21-7 mark, setting the school’s single-season record for wins.
 
In 2009-10, Metz was named Liberty League Coach of the Year as his squad finished 17-11. While at Hobart, Metz’s recruiting classes produced three Liberty League Rookies of the Year and a two-time unanimous All-Liberty League selection.
 
Metz also served as an assistant coach at Division I Cornell University under Donohue from 2001-06. As an assistant coach at Cornell, Metz played a key role in the program’s resurgence as the Big Red showed steady improvement during his stay earning back-to-back winning seasons in the Ivy League for the first time since 1986-87 and 1987-88.
 
A 1998 graduate of Hobart with a degree in Economics, Metz played basketball for the Statesmen. Following graduation he joined the coaching staff at Bishop Montgomery High School, just south of his native Los Angeles before moving onto Donohue’s staff at Cornell.
 
Metz became the tenth coach in the program’s 68-year history in 2014 and just the second in the prior twenty-nine years.

Metz and his wife Megan have two sons, Miles (11) and Eli (9).