At Edmond North High in Oklahoma, his Huskies went 65-10 in his three seasons, reaching the 6A championship all three times and winning twice. As a senior, Warlick averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds per game.

His journey since then has felt like a stop-and-start matter of finding a fit.

First, he backed out of his letter of intent to Wyoming when head coach (and former WSU assistant) Jeff Linder left the Cowboys to be an assistant coach at Texas Tech.

Warlick linked up with a strong program at Saint Louis, but things played out differently than he’d hoped. The 6-foot-5 wing/forward had an injury he thought would end up resulting in a redshirt, but instead he averaged 10.1 minutes over 25 games for the Billikens.

ROBERT CASEY, Weber State Athletics

By the time the 2025-26 season was about to arrive, with the Billikens citing personal reasons, Warlick realized things weren’t working.

“I was really good in high school, along with EYBL, with points per game, rebounds per game, stuff like that. I was successful, but going to college I had a lot of people trying to mess with my game,” Warlick said.

His game developed as someone who grew up first, then adapted as others caught up with him.

“I was a 5 (center) growing up a lot of the time, when I was younger,” Warlick said. “So once I got to like my sophomore year, it started to change. I was still the same height, so I started getting in guard work, get on the perimeter to shoot shots.”

The result was a player with a guard’s handle who felt comfortable inside the perimeter, boxing out and directing the game with his back to the hoop.

That’s where Weber State comes in.

Former Big Sky MVP and guard Kellen McCoy was Warlick’s AAU mentor for six years. McCoy was the director of Team Griffin in Oklahoma and was Warlick’s head coach in his 17U year.

There was some contact with Warlick and Weber’s previous coaching staff out of high school, but it didn’t seem like it was in the cards for either side, timing-wise.

This time, though, Warlick was in on WSU from the transfer portal.

“He’s probably the reason I’m here today,” Warlick said of McCoy.

He was the fourth player to publicly commit to head coach Kaleb Canales in April. It was clear early that Weber State wanted him to lead with his strengths, including mixing it up inside.

“I feel like they knew a lot of my game coming in,” Warlick said. “(Other coaches) not wanting me to post up as much, ‘that’s not what the game is now,’ this and that. But I feel like I’ve been around the right people here and they’ve encouraged me to get into those dribble-downs, turn my back more, not shying away from that.”

If Weber State’s 3-0 run over D2 teams in exhibitions was instructive of anything, it was how important Warlick seems to be for the Wildcats, especially offensively, as they gear up for a regular season that begins Monday at Oregon State.

He started all three games next to Dyllan Thompson, with both looking equal parts 3 and 4, in traditional position labeling. Warlick led WSU in minutes in all three games, averaging 28 minutes per outing.

The Oklahoman averaged 13.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists over the three games, capped with an 18-8-4 effort against Colorado Mesa that helped WSU break out of a first-half offensive funk and win going away.

“He’s a really good passer; he can really play-make from his position,” Canales said in June. “Really good feel for the game, knowledgeable, really tough. … Warlick unlocks some of the things we can do offensively because of his size.”