The University of Akron Athletics
Former Zips Cager Joins WMU Coaching Staff
June 22 | Men's Basketball
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - Western Michigan men's
basketball head coach Steve Hawkins announced on Friday that former
University of Akron standout Andy Hipsher has joined the WMU staff
as an assistant coach.
"We're very excited about the hiring of Andy Hipsher to become the newest member of our Bronco basketball family," Hawkins said. "He has a background of working with great coaches and is going to bring loads of enthusiasm to our program."
Hipsher joins the Broncos after spending the past season as an assistant coach at Utah Valley State under head coach Dick Hunsaker. In 2006-07, the Wolverines compiled a 22-7 record, the best mark by a Division I independent school since Notre Dame went 23-6 during the 1985-86 season.
"I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity to join a coaching staff as good as the one coach Hawkins has assembled here at Western Michigan," Hipsher said. "This program has been very successful under coach Hawkins and I'm just looking to come in and do whatever he asks me to do to keep the Broncos at the top of the MAC."
Prior to joining the staff at UVSC, Hipsher spent three months as the video coordinator at UNLV for Lon Kruger and two years as a graduate assistant at Texas Tech for Bob Knight.
Hipsher's father, Dan, was head coach at Akron for nine seasons (1995-96 through 2003-04), and Andy played under him for five of those campaigns (1999-2000 through 2003-04).
Andy ranks among the best players to wear a Zips uniform, ranking 27th all-time in scoring (1,136 points), fifth all-time in assists (344) and ninth in blocked shots (48). He was twice named to the Academic All-Mid-American Conference Team (2002-03 and 2003-04), earned Preseason All-MAC recognition in 2002-03 and was named to the MAC All-Freshman squad in 1999-2000.
"We first got to know Andy as a player and you couldn't help but notice that he was fierce competitor," Hawkins said. "Since then, he's been busy working with coach Kruger, coach Knight and coach Hunsaker, plus he's a coach's son and grew up talking basketball around the dinner table with his dad."
Hipsher fills the position vacated by Jeff Dunlap. Dunlap took a position as the director of basketball operations at the University of Alabama.
Portions of this article are courtesy of WMUBroncos.com.
