Ron Hunter GSU’s new basketball coach
According to a Georgia State source with knowledge of the situation, IUPUI coach Ron Hunter will be Georgia State’s new men’s basketball coach. The school has called a Monday afternoon news conference to introduce Hunter. The story was first reported on the Wilmington (N.C.) StarNews website Sunday evening.
“Look at VCU, George Mason,” Hunter told the Indianapolis Star Sunday evening, naming other members of the Colonial Athletic Association. “In my opinion, it’s the best mid-major league in the country.”
Shortly after the firing of coach Rod Barnes Feb. 27, Georgia State athletic director Cheryl Levick said she wanted a coach who was a builder and could be a CEO of the program. Hunter has credentials as a builder. Hunter arrived at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis in 1994 when the school was competing in Division II.
His first season, he led the Jaguars to their first winning season in five years. In 1998, he led the school’s transition into Division I and has developed IUPUI into a premier team in the mid-major Summit League. He was twice named the league’s coach of the year and led the Jaguars to their first-ever NCAA tournament berth in 2003.
The Jaguars were 19-14 this season and 12-6 in their conference. Over the past four seasons, IUPUI was 51-21 in the Summit League and Hunter averaged 21.5 wins per season.
“We have to change the culture, just like we did here,” Hunter told the Star.
Hunter has also gained acclaim in the state and in college basketball circles for his commitment to humanitarianism. He is a partner of the non-profit Samaritan’s Feet, which provides shoes for impoverished children all over the world. According to his biography on the school website, he has raised more than 250,000 shoes.
The program did run afoul of NCAA rules when the school erroneously certified players as eligible, which required the team to vacate wins from the 2003-04 season and was docked one scholarship. The NCAA found that no coaches or athletes were knowledgeable of the violations, which were found in all 14 of the school’s teams.
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86 comments Add your comment
Give the A.D. a raise
March 21st, 2011
9:52 am
This is a great hire – Ron has been able to recruit and win in the basketball hotbed of Indianapolis – he is very community and charity minded – he also recruited and coached NBA player and Indy native George Hill of the San Antonio Spurs – Hunter is the best hire since Lefty Driesell
johnnybravo
March 21st, 2011
9:52 am
This is why you don’t hire female AD’s. He probably sounded cute during the phone interview. Terrible hire.
FormerHunterplayer
March 21st, 2011
10:04 am
As a former player now living in ATL, you guys will love him. His passion and enthusiasm for the program will bring attention immediately. Also, regarding his record, keep in mind we transitioned from D2 to D1 and were in the tournament in 5 years. We took some lumps early in that transition, but IUPUI has been a top 3 program in the Summit League the last several years. He’s a winner and a proven recruiter placing a kid in the first round of the NBA draft 2 years ago and has another kid ready for the league now. Give him a chance, you’ll be happy.
Bob
March 21st, 2011
10:06 am
He came from a school that couldn’t even agree on a name. Indiana or Purdue University, ok we’ll call it both. RETARDS.
Also is record is not that impressive, I hope they didn’t give him some outrageous salary like most coaches are paid.
Hoosier Aaron
March 21st, 2011
10:48 am
Bob, funny on the IUPUI name comment.
In Indiana, you will commonly hear it referred to as “ooey-pooey”.
Interesting, IPFW (Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne – also in the Summit League) has a coach that would’ve been a good hire as well. Dane Fife played at Indiana on the 2002 NCAA Runner Up team. Somebody will eventually come to get Dane and look like a genius.
William Satterwhite
March 21st, 2011
10:53 am
“Making one tournament is winning consistently?”
When you play in a league where the only way to get a bid is win your conference tournament, yes, one NCAA bid isn’t by itself a bad thing. It’s worth noting that the one NCAA bid was actually only his 4th best season at IUPUI in terms of overall record, the other years they lost in the conference tourney and a Summit League team has never (and likely will never) get an at-large bid.
Sprtsfan44
March 21st, 2011
10:59 am
As someone who recently graduated from IUPUI in Indianapolis (for those who didn’t know) and covered the basketball team while I was a student there, I know Hunter will be a good fit for Georgia State. He had success at IUPUI and helped to make the basketball program better. He can help Georgia State become a bigger force in the Colonial and hopefully win a championship. Good luck Coach.
Tallcarl
March 21st, 2011
11:26 am
Peachy, please read the article again real slow, YOU WILL HAVE MANY QUESTIONS ANSWERED. Just saying.
Ken Sugiura
March 21st, 2011
11:29 am
for those who aren’t overwhelmed because he’s fairly anonymous, i’d say that the last time around, georgia state went for a “name” guy and that obviously didn’t work out very well. there are a lot of great coaches there; just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they can’t coach. georgia wanted the hot name after firing dennis felton and ended up with a relative nobody named mark fox. i think that worked out pretty well for them.
he’ll need time to make inroads into the atlanta and georgia high school and aau circles, but there’s no reason to think he can’t win.
Loonie
March 21st, 2011
11:29 am
It’s all about recruting. There are plenty of players in the ATL. Good luck to Coach Hunter. We miss the Lefty days when we were Cinderella taking down mighty Wisconsin! Take us back to the dance!
Dubious
March 21st, 2011
11:43 am
Wow I’m so excited –YAWN—yeah that ought to sell a lot of tickets and get people excited -dozens of big name proven coaches looking for work -a mid major conference with three teams in the big dance and one in the sweet sixteen ought to be able to get more than a former D-2 coach that no one ever heard of.
PC thats why
March 21st, 2011
11:48 am
Oh I see the important part of his resume was that he is a humanitarian that’s why GSU went after him -and look he won 19 games in the Summitt????? conference –where the heck is that -never heard of it. I’m sure Duke and the big boys are shivering thinking of going against a Summit league team –Oh scary–
johnnybravo
March 21st, 2011
11:50 am
Summit league? Hell I’d been more excited about Pat Summitt
Kobe
March 21st, 2011
11:54 am
Summitt mid major??? How bout lowest major –odds makers have GSU in the final 16 next year–final 16 teams to win a game during the season
Olsen
March 21st, 2011
11:56 am
Suspucios about anyone from north!!!
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
12:05 pm
Once again, Georgia State has mortgaged our men’s basketball program to Dan Parker and his pathetically weak coaching search firm. Ironically, Parker search has ZERO consultants with coaching experience. The firm’s highly touted delivery of Rod Barnes led to a long line of highly touted recruits and transfers that were simply volated when facing top tier Colonial programs. Heck, we could not even beat FAMU, Samford or the disgraceful Georgia Southern program.
I do not know Ron Hunter. I do know that he was at IUPUI and never made that program a power. Why would we allow Dan Parker to deliver this guy? It is a borderline joke. Why aren’t we speaking to Phil Cunningham (former GSU assistant under Lefty Driesell) at Mississippi State? Why aren’t we interviewing Mike Young (head coach at Wofford), who would double his salary at GSU? Why didn’t why bring in Donnie Tyndall (head coach at Morehead State), who would come running to lead the GSU program and recruited a myriad of Atlanta players when he was an assistant at Middle Tennessee State. His Morehead State roster even has metro Atlanta players and they just beat Louisville in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament.
None of these people were called upon. Instead, our program reached out to a search firm (Parker Search) who delivered us one of the losingest coaches in GSU history in Rod Barnes. Name one business that would call a search firm that delivered a high level executive that failed as miserably as Barnes? Only Georgia State University. This is MY GSU! What a joke!!!
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
12:10 pm
Ken, you obviously have no clue. Charles “Lefty” Driesell was a name guy. It is a fact that the search was led by Dan Parker. You are not reporting the truth. Ron Hunter could not beat Summit League competition at IUPUI, which is one of the top funded programs in that league. FACT! Now, he is supposed to lead our underfunded program to great heights against the likes of Old Dominion, VCU, George Mason and James Madison. Are you on drugs?
Look we wish Coach Hunter all the best. He is not going to win. I know it and you know it too. You can not say with a straight face that Mississippi state assistant Phil Cunningham would not win. He was the backbone of the Driesell staff. Everyone knows it! You can not tell me that Donnie Tyndall (morehead State) or Mike Young (Wofford) are not better suited due to their proven track record of winning at programs that had never won before.
You need to sell the Ron Hunter Kool-Aid to some clowns in Woodruff Park. This is a miserably weak hire! Furthermore, GSU used a search firm. They actually paid someone to deliver Ron Hunter. UNREAL!!!
GSUAlumBaseball81
March 21st, 2011
1:42 pm
@ PantherAlum
Sounds like you have some inside info and are in the know concerning this situation. I wish Coach Hunter all the best at GSU and I hope we didn’t make a hurried decision concerning this hire. We need a basketball coach in the same frame as Coach Frady who has turned the GSU baseball program into a winner!!! In fact, don’t be surprised if the baseball team goes far in the NCAA playoffs this spring! GO PANTHERS!!!
In the city
March 21st, 2011
2:23 pm
He’ll be able to recruit the hood—that’s all that matters at Ga State—-maybe he can find some prospects at the 5 points marta station.
Hoosier Aaron
March 21st, 2011
2:31 pm
“Low mid-major” isn’t real basketball?
The Horizon League was a Gordon Hayward half-court shot from winning the NCAA Championship just last year.
There are a lot of BCS Conference schools that would LOVE to have Brad Stevens as their coach next year.
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
2:48 pm
@ GSUAlumBaseball81: I’m a GSU basketball alum. I have no “inside” information outside of the fact that Dan Parker was involved in this search again. I also know that GSU did not take the time to speak to Mike Young, who is the Head Coach at Wofford College in nearby Spartanburg, SC. If Young can win at Wofford, he can certainly win here.
I was told that Donnie Tyndall, who has reached the NCAA Tournament in two of the past 3 seasons at Morehead State, wanted the job. I am 100% certain that former GSU assistant Phil Cunningham would have had interest. Instead of Cheryl Levick showing leadership and hiring a coach, she may have turned to a search firm that has failed us before. Anyone may go on to the Parker Search website. There is not one professional with any basketball coaching experience whatsoever!
With all due respect, Ron Hunter is not a guy that can get it done here. Georgia State is a SIGNIFICANTLY more challenging job than IUPUI. I’m beyond pumped about GSU baseball, by the way. The difference in Coach Frady and the need to identify a real basketball coach with Georgia ties is that the move from the Atlantic Sun (old TAAC) to the Colonial is beyond the imagination of most people affiliated with GSU sports in means of basketball. The move from the Atlantic Sun to the Colonial in baseball, volleyball, softball, etc. has been a move to a significantly weaker conference. Colonial baseball is apples and oranges compared to playing baseball programs in Florida like FIU, FAU, UCF, Stetson, & College of Charleston. Of course, only Stetson remains, but you add Jacksonville.
In means of basketball, we are hiring a guy that comes from one of the worst conferences in America and he was just another program. He has been to the NCAA Tournament once in 17 years. This is a disgraceful hire. Obviously, Cheryl Levick has no clue about what it takes to win in men’s basketball.
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
2:57 pm
Hoosier Aaron: Ron Harper coached an NBA level starter and still only reached the NCAA Tournament once. Harper also coached at a program with one of the largest men’s basketball budgets in that pathetically weak conference, The Summit League. How can you compare the Summit League to the Colonial? You are talking apples and oranges!
Save the propoganda for a crowd that doesn’t know any better. The Summit is not the Horizon League. The Horizon has programs like Cleveland State and Detroit. FYI: the Colonial has VCU, Old Dominion, Hofstra and George Mason among others like UNC-Wilmington.
Hunter was coaching an NBA player (George Hill) against the likes of Centenary, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, Oral Roberts, Southern Utah, Western Illinois, and Missouri-Kansas City. With all due respect, Georgia State (even with Rob Barnes) would have averaged nearly 20 wins per season playing these bottom-feeding programs.
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
2:58 pm
Ron Hunter does NOT equal Brad Stevens. Ron Hunter does equal a coach that is owned locally by Brad Stevens.
Dale Murphy for the HOF
March 21st, 2011
3:01 pm
I am a GSU graduate (15 years ago) who has continued to follow the program closely since I left. I think that Ron Hunter is a good fit for the Panthers. IUPUI is in a similar situation to GSU – a urban, largely commuter school that athletically is a significant drop from the top programs in the state. Hunter will face many of the same challenges in Atlanta that he has dealt with in Indianapolis.
For those who are making fun of IUPUI, I lived in Indiana for ten years and the few people who had heard of Georgia State had no idea that the Panthers were a D-I program.
Remember, GSU is one of the all-time losingest programs in D-I history (when I was a student they were last among schools with at least 10 years of D-I history with a .242 winning %), attendance is pathetic (announced average crowds of less than 1,000 this season), the alumni largely does not care about the program, and I’m amazed that the Sports Arena can qualify as a D-I facility.
I’m not trying to bash my alma mater but rather to be realistic about the situation and challenges they face.
Jee S. You
March 21st, 2011
3:49 pm
What PantherAlum said. That is all.
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
3:54 pm
First of all, Dale Murphy retired a few home runs shy of reaching the necessary numbers to be in the HOF. He was certainly my favorite players as a kid. Perhaps people in Indiana do not know Georgia State (highly unlikely considering the well covered time that Lefty Driesell was here), but every basketball fan (the entire state) knows that either Old Dominion, VCU or George Mason would easily crack the Indiana Hoosiers on any given day. Minus a miraculous run from Mike Davis, who most of the state of Indiana hated, those programs have more NCAA Tournament wins than the Hoosiers too over the past 5 seasons.
Quick name the best team in the Summit League. It is a very strong Oakland program. That is Oakland University near Detroit. Frankly, no one in Indiana outside of IUPUI and IUPU-Fort Wayne fans knows who Oakland is. Georgia State has to catch VCU, George Mason, Old Dominion, Northeastern and Hofstra in the Colonial.
Ron Hunter had more resources at IUPUI compared to his competitors in the Summit League. He had one of the largest budgets. He still only reached the NCAAs once. People painting this as a great hire at being completely disingenuous. We have a myriad of options at Georgia State due to the fact that our city is beloved in the South and GSU is one of the highest compensated mid0major jobs in the South. Our job doubles the payday for Donnie Tyndall (Morehead State) or Mike Young (Wofford). Unlike Hunter, those are examples of Southern coaches with Atlantaties and rosters who have won within small budget and/or academic stringent programs.
The real Ron Hunter has gone 106-53 in the Summit over the past 10 years. That seems pretty impressive when a pathetic coaches’ search firm writes it on paper. It is Cheryl Levick’s job to dig within the numbers. While Hunter has 0.667 winning percentage in a very very bad conference, his non-conference Division I winning percentage tells the real story. Over the past 10 years, Hunter has only had 2 winning records in his schedule against non-conference D1 opponents.
Ken, you are entitled to provide evidence to refute this. However, data shows that for the past decade against D1 opponents in IUPUI’s non-conference schedule Ron Hunter has only had 2 winning records over the course of 10 years! Hunter is 62-67 (0.482) against Division I competition in the non-conference. I am going on record that if a coach only has 2 winning records in the non-conference portion of his schedule over a whole decade, that coach is about to get “exposed” against the mid-major heavyweights walking the sidelines of the Colonial.
How bad must the Summit be for Hunter to go 15-3 in conference but fail to post a winning record against non-conference D1 competition. This guy has gobbled up wins in a bad league. It is a disgrace for posters from Indiana to pretend that the Summit is anything close to the Colonial. IUPUI is a city campus. The city is a cow pasture compared to Atlanta. Guess what, Pittsburgh is a city campus. So is DePaul. For a matter of fact, DePaul has more tradition and wins than Pitt. The fact of the matter is Pitt has more vested in their basketball program than DePaul.
When you compare apples to apples, IUPUI is one of the leaders in budgets (spending) for men’s basketball in the Summit. Georgia State is NOT close to a leader. Hunter is now being asked to lead our program which frankly is NOTHING like Georgia State. So many other guys like the aforementioned Young at Wofford or Tyndall (morehead State) would have been able to quickly identify with this situation.
This is another SAD day in GSU men’s basketball. We have another AD who refuses to do his/her due diligence in a search. Ken, why are we paying Dan Parker who does not have one person on staff with any basketball experience.
gsuDNA
March 21st, 2011
4:35 pm
Seems like a good choice. Welcome to GSU!
relax
March 21st, 2011
4:55 pm
No matter what this guys track record, he is our new coach and will be for awhile…I for one am giving him a chance to prove he can win for us and cant consider a good/bad hire until he prove to be a winner or a loser for this program
Hammer22
March 21st, 2011
5:00 pm
PantherAlum, join PantherTalk. Nice to hear your insight on the regular.
RidgeRunner
March 21st, 2011
5:18 pm
Hammer, you do not need PantherAlum, you need people who can discuss not rant and do a verbal prance.
Panama
March 21st, 2011
5:30 pm
Dont you hate when people switch decaf for regular in office coffee pot and dont tell anyone?
PantherAlum
March 21st, 2011
5:46 pm
RidgeRunner: We need an Athletic’s department that does not famr out the responsibility of identifying a Head Men’s Basketball coach to a search firm that in fact has ZERO consultants with any professional athletics experience. This guy has gathered wins in one of the worst conferences in America. Now, he comes to the Colonial without any ties to this city or state. There were at least two proven head coaches with a myriad of ties to our city. Look at Wofford’s (Mike Young) roster and record. Look at Morehead State (Donnie Tyndall). This is gross mismanagement of a very important hire.
Hoosier Aaron
March 21st, 2011
7:44 pm
PantherAlum: I have lived in Indiana my entire life. I live and breath Indiana Basketball…high school and college.
Please do your homework on George Hill. He graduated from Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis. He lead the state of Indiana in scoring. Pretty much overlooked by the “Big Schools”…although he played against the likes of Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Eric Gordon…he was not considered to be in their league. He BECAME an NBA caliber player while playing for Coach Hunter at IUPUI. He was NOT Eric Gordon or Greg Oden.
I would venture a guess that you didn’t even know Brad Stevens until last year. When Shelvin Mack (Lexington KY) received a recruiting letter from Butler – he said the first thing he did was Google to find where it was located.
Personally, 75% of my family have graduated from Butler. I know just a little bit ’bout it….and Brad Stevens.
Hoosier Aaron
March 21st, 2011
8:42 pm
And while you’re digging deeper into Coach Hunter’s non-conference winning/losing percentage, you might find that 4 of those losses this year were to Ohio State, Gonzaga and twice to San Diego State. Watch next weekend to see a couple of these teams still playing.
Well, what about last year you ask? Good question.
Kansas State, Notre Dame, Indiana State, Princeton and Memphis…if you watched any of the NCAA tournament this year, you might’ve seen pretty much all of these teams playing.
GSU to the PAC 10
March 21st, 2011
11:10 pm
Transition 3-pointers?? THIS I gotta see!!
Color me impressed!
English
March 24th, 2011
8:37 am
Just win baby!