Greg Reports that Heath has hired one Asst.

[Brad]

Hipsher from Arkansas and formerly of Stetson joins his former boss in Tampa.  Former RMc hand Frank Burnell is also a candidate.  

Link

TAMPA - Former Stetson basketball coach Dan Hipsher, an assistant under Stan Heath at Arkansas the past two seasons, is the first assistant named to Heath's staff at USF.

Hipsher, 52, spent 11 years as a Division I head coach at Stetson and Akron before joining Heath at Arkansas. He was responsible for installing a motion offense that helped Arkansas to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

Heath has talked with his other two Arkansas assistants, Glynn Cyprien and Oronde Taliaferro, about joining his staff, as well as Frank Burnell, a USF assistant for four seasons under Robert McCullum.

[JoeBulls]

I would actually like to see him keep an assistant or two from Mac's staff.

Would be good for the transition.

[pioneerb]

Good hire for usf. It'll be hard to keep him on staff. He'll be a head coach soon.

[Guest BasketBull.]

link

A former head coach at three different universities.

Hipsher has 28 years of collegiate coaching experience to his credit, including 15 years as a head coach at Akron, Stetson and Wittenberg University. As a head coach, he compiled a career record of 238-182 from 1990-2004.

In his first season with the Razorbacks, he was involved in every aspect of the program, but especially so on the offensive end. His motion offense saw Arkansas increase its scoring from 71.6 points and sixth in the Southeastern Conference in 2005 to 74.7 points and third as the Hogs earned an NCAA Tournament bid. In conference play, UA went from 65.4 and ninth to 73.4 and third.

Hipsher has shown the ability as a head coach to maintain an already successful program as he did at Wittenberg or rebuild struggling programs as he did at Stetson University and the University of Akron. In four years at NCAA Division III Wittenberg (1990-93) <--[highlight]Sheriff, remember this place?, [/highlight] he was 97-18; in two years at Stetson University (1994-95), he was 29-27; and in nine years at the University of Akron (1996-2004), he was 112-137. He earned conference coach of the year honors at each school. He also coached for USA Basketball at Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1997 and represented the Mid-American Conference on the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Division I Congress for seven years.

At Wittenberg, a program jumpstarted in the 1960s by SEC coaching legend Ray Mears (Tennessee), Hipsher inherited a program rich in tradition that leads all of NCAA Division III basketball in victories. Hipsher’s teams carried on that tradition in his four seasons, winning North Coast Athletic Conference regular season titles each year, the tournament title twice and advancing to the NCAA Tournament three times. Wittenberg led the nation in scoring defense in 1992 (56.9 ppg) and Hipsher was named NCAC and Great Lakes Region coach of the year in 1990.

When he moved to Stetson for the 1994 season, the Hatters had suffered three losing seasons in the previous four years. He went 14-15 his first season, but took Stetson to the championship game of the Trans America Athletic Conference Tournament. After a 15-12 mark and TAAC coach of the year honors in 1995, he moved to the University of Akron, which had posted three straight records of 8-18, including a 9-45 record in conference play.

The Zips were a combined 11-41 his first two years, but beginning with the 1998 season won 17 or more games for three straight years and led the MAC in conference victories during that span. The 1998 squad went 17-10 and won the Mid-American Conference’s East Division with Hipsher earning MAC coach of the year accolades. He was also named Ohio’s college coach of the year by the Columbus Dispatch, edging Cincinnati’s Bob Huggins. The Zips were 18-9 in 1999 and finished 17-11 in 2000.

While Hipsher was at Akron, attendance for Zips games doubled at the James A. Rhodes Arena and his non-conference schedule included games against Alabama, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Purdue, Syracuse, Wyoming, Xavier and North Carolina, among others. The Zips led all of NCAA Division I in three-point shooting in 2001 (.433). They led the MAC in overall shooting in 1998 (.472) and 2004 (.466), and in free throw percentage in 2000 (.763).

Hipsher was a first-team all-state selection as a junior and senior at Fostoria (Ohio) Senior High School before playing at Bowling Green State University. He was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Academic team twice (honorable mention College Sports Information Directors of America All-American) and also lettered twice as a pitcher on the baseball team.

After graduating from BGSU with a bachelor’s in chemistry and biology in 1977, he worked as a graduate assistant at Miami University under Darrell Hedric, earning his master’s in education a year later. That year, Miami won the MAC title and beat defending national champion Marquette in the first round of the 1978 NCAA Tournament.

After two years as an assistant at Miami-Dade South Community College under Bruce Huckle, he returned to Ohio as an assistant at the University of Dayton. In his nine years (1981-89) under Don Donoher, the Flyers were 152-114 and earned two trips to the NCAA Tournament and three to the NIT. Hipsher also served on the NABC Recruiting Committee from 1984-1989.

Overall as a head coach and assistant, his teams have earned seven NCAA Tournament bids.

Hipsher and his wife, Sue, also a 1977 Bowling Green graduate, have two sons, Andy (26) and Bryan (24).

[The Sheriff]

I just received a letter from Wittenberg asking for an annual donation... amazing... not a bad school... just not enough women and too **** cold for my liking!!!

[Triple B]

I would actually like to see him keep an assistant or two from Mac's staff.

Would be good for the transition.

I'd like to see him retain whoever was responsible for working with the big guys down low .... Sol, McHugh, KG all had good progress while here. Need to bring in someone extraoridinary to work with the guards, though.

[Herman_Momart]

I would actually like to see him keep an assistant or two from Mac's staff.

Would be good for the transition.

I'd like to see him retain whoever was responsible for working with the big guys down low .... Sol, McHugh, KG all had good progress while here. Need to bring in someone extraoridinary to work with the guards, though.

I think Frank Burnell was responsible for working with the big men.  I assume this because i remember they would always show him doing rebound drills with McHugh and Kentrall on the Robert McCullum show.  

bring back big Frank.  

[Triple B]

I would actually like to see him keep an assistant or two from Mac's staff.

Would be good for the transition.

I'd like to see him retain whoever was responsible for working with the big guys down low .... Sol, McHugh, KG all had good progress while here. Need to bring in someone extraoridinary to work with the guards, though.

I think Frank Burnell was responsible for working with the big men.  I assume this because i remember they would always show him doing rebound drills with McHugh and Kentrall on the Robert McCullum show.  

bring back big Frank.  

I though it might have been him. I think he was also the one who came with Sol from the JC. Would be great if he kept him.

[JoeBulls]

I believe he is still working out of his office -- so that has to be a good sign.

[Bobcat99]

Dan Hipsher is an absolute menace. He has a punk kid and even his mother (Grandma Hipsher) likes to that ****. I can't decide if it's unbelievably hilarious or unbelievably scary that he's an employee of this university.

I have enough Dan Hipsher stories I've witnessed in person to fill several novels.