Ryan Martin joins men's basketball coaching staff

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GREELEY -- If he had to pick just one, Northern Colorado head men’s basketball coach B.J. Hill would quickly respond: “Ryan Martin.”

The question?

What former player has played as big of role as anyone in you getting where you are today?

Hill announced Martin’s hiring Thursday as one of his assistants, and he’s set to move to Greeley this weekend and get right to work after spending two seasons as a graduate assistant at UMKC.

Martin played for Hill from 2003 to 2005, when Hill was an assistant coach at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, and he later transferred and played a pivotal role for a Wichita State team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 in 2006.

One of Martin’s assistant coaches while he was with the Shockers was a guy by the name of Tad Boyle, who was Hill’s former boss at Northern Colorado before vacating that position last month to take the same post at Colorado in Boulder.

Boyle did a majority of the wooing of Martin while he was at WSU, and the relationships built during that recruiting led Hill and Martin to today’s announcement.

Hill was hired as Northern Colorado’s 18th head coach just less than a month ago, and he pulled the trigger Thursday on the first major addition to the program by bringing his former player into the fold.

“I’m extremely excited to welcome a guy like Ryan,” Hill said. “He’s going to be a great addition to our staff. It’s kind of a unique situation, because I recruited and coached Ryan, so he obviously knows me. But the thing that excites me about him is his work ethic, his energy and the fact that he knows our system already.”

Martin joined the Kangaroos in August 2008 after spending the 2007-08 season as an assistant coach at Coffeyville. He helped lead the Ravens to a 24-9 overall record that year in southern Kansas, while assisting in team practices and game-day coaching responsibilities. He also worked closely with the staff in scouting and the recruitment of student-athletes.

His coaching career began as soon as his playing career ended with the Shockers. He served as an intern at WSU in 2007 before coaching at Hoops Mountain Central in Wichita that summer. There, he worked closely with post players, and eight of those players went on to play collegiate basketball.

In summer 2008, Martin coached the KC Pump-n-Run AAU team, which has placed numerous players on top-tier collegiate programs, including Brady Morningstar (Kansas), Travis Releford (Kansas), Michael Dixon (Missouri) and Dominique Morrison (Oral Roberts).

“Ryan’s going to step right in and do great things for us,” Hill said. “The guys are really going to gravitate toward him because he’s got a tremendous personality, and he’s going to be a tremendous asset to our program while he’s representing us in the community and on the recruiting trail.”

Martin is clearly a rising star on the collegiate coaching circuit, and his addition to the Northern Colorado coaching staff figures to pay big dividends for Hill and the Bears for the foreseeable future.

It’s Martin’s addition to the Coffeyville roster way back in 2003, though, that Hill points to as one of the turning points of his coaching career.

“It’s kind of an interesting situation,” Hill said, “He was a big-time player for us at Coffeyville, and he was a guy that caught a lot of team’s eyes when he was ready for the next step. (Boyle) spent some time getting to know him, and that led him to get to know me.

“Ryan’s one of those guys that I knew that if I ever became a head coach I’d want him to join me. There’s just a nice comfort level between he and I because of our history. And in kind of a weird way he’s kind responsible for me being here.”

Anderson accepts marketing position with Northern Colorado Athletics

Former Bears assistant coach Terry Anderson has joined Northern Colorado’s marketing and promotions staff. He will assist Randy Hash, that department’s director.

“I am very excited to be able to explore another aspect of athletics,” Anderson said. “This experience will broaden my understanding of how an athletic department works as a whole. I believe this opportunity is going to help my be more well-rounded and prepared for any future endeavor I might take on in the athletic realm.”