Barry Hinson Named Director of Basketball Operations for Kansas Men's Basketball
May 18, 2010
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self announced Tuesday that Barry Hinson is the KU Director of Basketball Operations. Hinson replaces Brett Ballard who accepted the head basketball coaching position at Baker University in March.
“We brought Barry on board last year and he has done a great job for us in a variety of duties,” Self said. “When Brett left to go to Baker, which was a great move for him and his family, the obvious was to elevate Barry to that position.”
Hinson joined Kansas Athletics in 2008 as the director of external relations for men’s basketball and has been part of KU’s two Big 12 regular-season championships and one Big 12 Tournament title. This past season, KU went 33-3 and was ranked No. 1 for 15 weeks.
“As director of basketball operations the thing I’m most excited about is I get to be back on the bench,” Hinson said. “I can’t coach but at least I’m one step closer by being back on the bench.”
Before KU, Hinson was the head coach at Missouri State for nine seasons. In his 11 years overall as a head coach, Hinson’s teams have posted 10 winning seasons.
While at Missouri State, Hinson guided the Bears to eight winning years, with four postseason NIT teams. He also had three of the 10 best RPI ratings ever to not make the NCAA Tournament, including being left out in 2006 with a 21 RPI. Hinson was the last coach at Missouri State to coach the team when it was known as Southwest Missouri State before it became Missouri State. Hinson finished as the fourth winningest basketball coach in school history with a 169-117 record.
Hinson’s Bears racked up three 20-victory seasons, went to the finals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament three times, made the postseason four times and had eight winning campaigns and seven MVC regular-season finishes. Most impressive on Hinson’s resume is that 23 of the 26 players who completed their eligibility as seniors for the Bears with Hinson received undergraduate degrees from Missouri State. Thirteen of Hinson’s pupils went on to play pro basketball in the NBA or overseas. The latest to join the latter group is Blake Ahearn, a 2007 graduate who finished his Missouri State career as the all-time NCAA Division I record holder in both single season and career free throw percentage. Hinson’s 2005-06 team finished 22-9 and had the 21st-best RPI in the nation at the end of the season. Missouri State beat Stanford and Houston in the first two rounds of the NIT before losing at Louisville in the quarterfinals of the event.
Hinson, a native of Marlow, Okla., made MSU his first coaching venture outside his home state after having held six coaching positions in Oklahoma since his 1983 graduation from Oklahoma State University with a degree in secondary social sciences. Hinson moved up as head coach at Oral Roberts in 1997 after spending four years as an assistant coach to current Kansas head coach Bill Self. Hinson had records of 19-12 and 17-11 in two years as ORU head coach and tied for two Mid-Continent Conference regular-season titles. Prior to ORU, Hinson spent eight years as a high school coach, including six seasons as head coach at Tulsa Bishop Kelley. He had a year each as an assistant at Stillwater High School and Edmond Memorial High School and three seasons as head coach at Stillwater Junior High.
Hinson and his wife, Angie, have two daughters. Tiffany was married in 2004 to Niles Thomason and the couple lives in Colorado. Ashley is a 2006 graduate of Missouri State and lives in Springfield, Mo.
