According to multiple sources and confirmed in interview with the Indianapolis Star’s Jeff Rabjohns, former IUPUI men’s basketball coach Ron Hunter will be named head men’s basketball coach on Monday at a 3 pm press conference.
Hunter has compiled a career record of 293-219 in 17 seasons with the Jaguars, and he accompanied them on their transition to Division 1 back in 1998. He led IUPUI to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003, a loss vs. No. 1 seed Kentucky. In the last four seasons, his teams have averaged better than 21 wins and sent 1st round pick George Hill to the NBA in 2008.
On his reasoning of taking the Georgia State job:
"Part of it is, I've been here 17 years and it's time. When you look at what VCU and George Mason have done, it's the best mid-major league in the country in my opinion. It's an urban campus, just like IUPUI, and financially, it's a great package, something I couldn't say no to."
IUPUI ran an uptempo offense averaging nearly 72 points per game and will be a bit of a shift from the defense-first, grind-it-out style under previous Coach Rod Barnes.
It has been well chronicled about how the program was seen as a whole and Hunter has thoughts on that as well:
"It's a great school. They've started football with Bill Curry (in 2008). With basketball, we're going to have to change the culture to a winning culture, just like we did here, and really, that's what I've been doing my whole career."
Andy Katz is reporting that the deal will be for five years and contain a two year rollover. Hunter is also well known for his charitable endeavors raising awareness for Samaritan’s Feet, whose goal is put shoes on children. Annually, he coaches one game completely barefoot. Hunter was named an ABC News Person of the Week for his efforts in the last three seasons.