Cody Fueger enters his fourth season as an assistant coach for the Utah Valley men’s basketball team. Fueger was head coach Mark Pope’s first coaching hire at UVU and in just three seasons with the Wolverines, he has played a key role in the program’s unparalleled success.
Fueger has helped the team make one of the nation’s biggest three-year jumps in the KenPom.com rankings as the Wolverines moved from a 343 ranking during the 2015-16 season to an impressive No. 92 ranking at the end of the 2017-18 season—a jump of 251 spots. The No. 92 ranking is the best end-of-year ranking in UVU history.
Coach Fueger has been instrumental in the international and national recruiting for the Wolverines. He has had tremendous success working on the development and advancement of UVU’s guards/wings as four of his guards earned WAC postseason honors in 2018, including Kenneth Ogbe (First Team All-WAC), Jake Toolson (WAC All-Newcomer Team), Conner Toolson (Second Team All-WAC), and Brandon Randolph (Second Team All-WAC). With the addition of Akolda Manyang to the WAC All-Defensive team, UVU was the only team in the league to have five players receive WAC postseason honors.
Fueger also serves as the team’s game plan coordinator and develops the offensive in-game strategies for the Wolverines. He most recently helped UVU to a school-record 23 wins during the 2017-18 season, including a school-record 16 wins at home where the team has the fourth-longest home win streak in the nation at 14 games.
In each of his three seasons in Orem, Utah Valley has broken the single-season scoring record in each of those three years. The Wolverines tallied a school-record 2,657 points (78.1 ppg.) this past season.
The success of the team has translated into bids to the College Basketball Invitational in each of the last two seasons. The team hosted its first-ever postseason national tournament game this past season, picking up an 87-65 win over Eastern Washington in the first round of the CBI. During the 2016-17 season, UVU won a pair of games to make a first-ever trip to the Final Four of the CBI.
During Fueger’s time at UVU, the Wolverines picked up two of its biggest road wins in program history as the team defeated crosstown rival BYU, 114-101, at the Marriott Center in Provo on Nov. 26, 2016. The Wolverines also became the first team in WAC history to sweep the New Mexico State/UT Rio Grande Valley road trip during the 2016-17 season. The Wolverines defeated New Mexico State 84-72 before downing UTRGV, 88-68. The win over New Mexico State was historic on numerous levels as the Wolverines snapped NM State's 39-game conference home win streak and ended the nation's third-longest home win streak at 23 games. UVU was the only team to defeat NM State at home in 2016-17 as the Aggies finished the season with a 16-1 record at the Pan American Center. NMSU's last WAC home loss dated back to a 68-60 loss to Nevada in 2012.
Over the past five years, Fueger has also spent time with the Utah Jazz as the team has hired him on multiple occasions to help with the organization’s pre-draft workouts and free agent mini camps. Fueger was one of only three coaches selected from around the world to help out the Jazz at the free agent mini-camp in 2017. The other coaches were from Florida State University and University of Arizona. He coached over 30 free-agent invitees through workouts, drills and games. He was able to get an inside look at how the Jazz evaluate players and run their organization. He has assisted with the training and evaluation for the Jazz in both 2017 and 2014. In 2014, Coach Fueger put over 50 draft invitees through a series of work outs for the Jazz brass to make evaluations.
“Coach Fueger is one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the nation,” said Utah Valley head coach Mark Pope. “He has the passion, hunger, and drive that defines great coaches. He’s going to be a tremendous head coach. We’re lucky to have him on our staff at UVU.”
Fueger is entering his 16th year of college basketball. He came to UVU in 2015 after working for head coach Dave Rose for two seasons at BYU. The Cougars reached NCAA Tournament in each of his two seasons on staff.
Prior to his time in Provo, Fueger also spent time working for head coach Stew Morrill at Utah State (2012-13), UC Riverside (2011-12), Lousiana Tech (2007-11) and Utah (2002-07).
Fueger began his coaching career working for Hall of Fame head coach and mentor Rick Majerus as Utah’s video coordinator and student assistant/manager from 2002-07, which included a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2005. While at Utah he also worked with 2005 National Player of the Year and the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, Andrew Bogut.
Fueger graduated from the University of Utah in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He also has a Master’s in parks, recreation and tourism-sports management from Utah, earned in 2007. A Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, he and his wife Danielle have two children, Isabella and Andrew.
Fueger’s Coaching Career
Utah Valley 2015-present
BYU 2013-15
Utah State 2012-13
UC Riverside 2011-12
Louisiana Tech 2007-11
Utah 2002-07
