Andre "Drey" Ricks (born September 12, 1986) is a former

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

basketball player for

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

, and the founder of Rawimpact Clothing Brand & Rawimpact Basketball Training Academy.

Early life

Drey Ricks was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. Ricks is from a boxing family; Which consist of his uncle world champion Jimmy (Ringmaster) Paul, uncle, seven-time World Champion Thomas "Hitman" Hearns, and father Danny "MadDog" Paul. Ricks spent much of his adolescence in the legendary Kronk Boxing Gym, but was forbidden by his family not to become a boxer. Also a
Associated Press
August 4, 2018. Ricks played a year and a half of basketball at Detroit

Pershing High School John J. Pershing High School is a four-year public high school in Detroit, Michigan. It is in Conant Gardens in proximity to the residential areasAND1 Streetball Live Tour at

Calihan Hall Calihan Hall is a 7,917-seat multi-purpose arena in Detroit. It is home to the University of Detroit Mercy Titans basketball team. The arena opened in 1952. The building was dedicated on May 25, 1952, as the Memorial Building. The first basketba ...

. He averaged 16.0 points, 5.0 assists and 3.0 steals per outing as a junior and as a senior Ricks averaged 18.3 points, 6.0 assists and 4.0 steals and led Pershing to a 23–6 record as one of several

recruits on the team. Ricks played in the Detroit All-Star game and was named All-State in 2005. Ricks was ranked third best point guard in the state of Michigan by ''Prep Spotlight'', ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'', and the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' (commonly referred to as the ''Freep'') is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of ''USA Today''), and is operated by the Detro ...

''. He was ranked the #1 Ball Handler in the state of Michigan by ''Prep Spotlight Magazine'' and ranked one of the top players in the state regardless of class by

Rivals.com Rivals.com (stylized as ''rivals'') is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was found ...

and Scout.com. Ricks verbally committed to Western Michigan University as a sophomore in high school, after only playing a year and a half of high school basketball; Ricks was the youngest basketball player to commit to Western Michigan in WMU history.

College career

Ricks played four years at Western Michigan University. During the 2006 Western Michigan University Men's Basketball European Tour in Athens, Greece, Ricks logged his first career double-double with 22 points, 12 assists and 6 steals against the Greek U National Team. In 2007, Ricks scored 15 points and had 5 assists against the #11 ranked

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, Oregon, Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCA ...

. Ricks played a key role in Western Michigan's

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

West division championship. In 2007, Ricks was ranked fifth in the MAC conference in three-point shooting for all games. In December 2007 Ricks was named Division 1 MAC West Player of the Week by NCAA CollegeInsider.com. The following week Ricks was named Mid-Major Player of the Week after scoring a 29 points against unbeaten

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

, which was coached by Michigan Fab 5, hall-of-fame Coach Steve Fisher.. In 2008, Ricks made a crossover move against

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

University thats was selected by ESPN

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

's Top 10 Plays, coming in at number 5. He scored 16 points in 104 seconds, setting a new record for most points scored on ESPN nationally televised in under 3 minutes. Ricks finished in a tie for 12th in scoring 38 points in the ESPN Old Spice Classic tournament. In his tenth career start vs Temple University, he scored 17 points and had 4 assists. In WMU's victory over Pepperdine University, Ricks scored 19 points in the second half on his way to making all tournament. After having an amazing start of his collegiate career. Ricks career was cut short due to a torn ligament in his left wrist during summer team workouts that caused him to sit out and miss numerous games during the 2008–2009 season. Ricks graduated from Western Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. In 2021, Ricks was accepted into the

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (often abbreviated to The Cronkite School by its students and faculty), is one of the 24 independent schools at Arizona State University and is named in honor of veteran broadcast jo ...

graduate program at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. After graduating from WMU in 2009, Ricks was selected as youth camp counselor and coach of the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...

youth basketball camp at

The Palace of Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills, commonly known as the Palace, was a multi-purpose arena located in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Opened in 1988, it was the home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Detroit Shock of the ...

. During summer of 2010, Ricks was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzles to assist with summer NBA pre-draft workouts. Ricks was selected as a coach for the NBA Adidas youth Basketball camp in Rome, Italy in 2009. Ricks earned the name 'The Basketball Prophet', by the way he breaks-down and analyzes basketball film. He is known to see the smallest details almost impossible to catch with a naked eye.

Rawimpact Clothing Brand

In 2010, Ricks started the clothing brand Rawimpact that soon that spiraled around the world and became a house-hold name. The clothing line was worn by many marquee athletes and celebrity. In 2011, Ricks opened his Rawimpact flagship store in

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

, Michigan; the grand opening consisted of autograph signing from Ricks uncle and 7-time world champion boxer Thomas 'Hitman' Hearns. In April 2012, Ricks store Rawimpact was named business of the year by the City of Kalamazoo; soon after Ricks opened a second Rawimpact store located in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Rawimpact clothing brand was recognized by Western Michigan University and the

National Pan-Hellenic Council The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a coalition, collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities, commonly called the Divine Nine, and also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organi ...

for sponsoring a campus festival with record-breaking students attendance. Ricks clothing brand Rawimpact was recognized by the City of Detroit for being of the main sponsor of Summer Jamz 16. Through his brand, Ricks sponsored 50 underprivileged students to a Detroit Pistons game experience during the 2013 season. In 2014, Ricks clothing brand Rawimpact was featured on VH1 Love & Hip-Hop reality Show & BET's sitcom show The Game. In 2016, Ricks opened Rawimpact Basketball gym located in Las Vegas, NV focusing on youth development. In 2018, Ricks Rawimpact gym hosted various NBA summer league workouts with guest appearance from Jerry West the NBA's logo. Rawimpact Brand was recognized by Fox 5 news Las Vegas for making an impact in the City of Las Vegas in 2018. Durning the COVID-19 Pandemic, Ricks clothing brand Rawimpact sent over 1000 Rawimpact face mask and T-shirts to help the city of Detroit. In the spring of 2021, Ricks became a published author; writing a memoir "Started from Scratch". In 2023, Ricks open up a second Rawimpact basketball gym location.

Sports Analyst

In 2023 Ricks became TV and radio color commentator for WMU Men's Basketball Program; WMU games were featured on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

+ and other media outlets.

References

External links

*
Personal websiteAndre Ricks
at Western Michigan University {{DEFAULTSORT:Ricks, Andre Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Detroit Western Michigan University alumni Western Michigan Broncos men's basketball players 1986 births