“Obviously, Billy brings a wealth of experience and contacts
to enable us to better recruit the East as well as the Midwest,” says
Huggins. “I’ve always had tremendous respect for Billy as a player
and for the last 30 years as a coach. It’s great to bring him back to
West Virginia, where he started his coaching career at Morris
Harvey.”
Hahn spent the majority of his coaching career at Maryland,
where he was an assistant to Gary Williams for 12 seasons from
1989-2001. While at Maryland, the Terps went to the NCAA tournament a
school-record eight straight years, including the 2001 Final Four. In
2002, the season after Hahn left for a head coaching job at La Salle,
the Terps won the national championship with many of Hahn’s recruits.
For his work, Williams and the Maryland basketball program presented
Hahn with a championship ring.
While at Maryland, the Terps finished fourth or higher in the Atlantic
Coast Conference regular season standings in eight consecutive seasons,
and established then-school records for overall victories (28 in 1999)
and ACC victories in a season (13 in 1999).
Hahn was promoted to associate head coach in 1997 and served as one of
Maryland’s primary recruiters and was the lead scout in addition to
his on-the-floor coaching and administrative duties. He recruited and
coached three NBA Lottery picks (Walt Williams, Joe Smith and Steve Francis) and was named one of the top 10 recruiters in the eastern
United States by Eastern Basketball.
“Bob and I go way back,” says Hahn. “When I was the head
coach at Ohio and he was the head coach at Akron, I used to schedule him
every year. I did the same thing when I was at La Salle and he was at
Cincinnati. I knew to play Bob’s teams, you had to be tough-minded and
prepare a certain way to be successful against him. By playing Bob and
his teams, it made our teams better.
“Now I’ve come full circle, back to West Virginia where I
got my start some 30 years ago. This is a dream come true. I’ve always
respected Bob and we’ve always maintained a professional relationship.
Now I have the chance to join him on his staff and that’s really
special. I’m excited and really looking forward to the opportunity.”
Hahn began his coaching career in 1975 in West Virginia as an
assistant coach to Rich Meckfessel at Morris Harvey College. He then
served as an assistant coach to Dave Pritchett at Davidson for one year
before moving on to serve as an assistant coach at Rhode Island for Jack
Kraft from 1977-80. During his time at URI, the Rams went to the NCAA
tournament in 1978 and NIT in 1979.
In 1980, Hahn began a six-year stint as an assistant coach at Ohio
University under Danny Nee. At Ohio, the Bobcats won the Mid-American
Conference championship in 1983 and 1985, advancing to the NCAA
tournament in both of those years. The Bobcats also went to the NIT in
1986.
Hahn was named head coach at Ohio University in 1986 and coached
the Bobcats for three years until 1989, leading them to the MAC
championship game in 1988. During his career there, he recruited and
coached the school’s all-time leading scorer in Dave Jamerson. Hahn
recruited and coached Paul Graham, the MAC player of the year in 1989.
After serving as an assistant at Maryland for 12 years, Hahn
served as head men’s basketball coach at La Salle for three years from
2001-04. In recent years, Hahn has been a director of the Hoop Group, a
New Jersey-based recruiting and camp service, and also has served as a
college basketball television analyst.
Hahn has coached 19 NBA players during his career: Sly Williams,
Paul Graham, Dave Jamerson, Tony Massenburg, Jerrod Mustaf, Walt
Williams, Keith Booth, Joe Smith, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Laron Profit,
Terence Morris, Obinna Ekezie, Steve Francis, Chris Wilcox, Lonny Baxter, Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Steven Smith and Rasual Butler.
Hahn, 53, earned his bachelor’s degree in distributive
education with a minor in business administration from Maryland in 1975.
While there, he was a three-year varsity letterwinner under Lefty Driesell on three of the best basketball teams Maryland has fielded. He
was a freshman in 1971-72 when the Terps won the National Invitation
Tournament; he was a key reserve on the team that lost what is
considered to be the greatest game in ACC history (Maryland’s 103-100
overtime setback against NC State in 1974). He captained the team his
senior year.
Hahn is one of only two players in Maryland basketball history
to play and coach in the NCAA tournament. He was also a part of two of
the winningest teams in school history. He played on Maryland’s
1974-75 team that finished with a 24-5 record (.828 winning percentage)
and coached the 1998-99 team that won a then-school record 28 games and
went 28-6 (.824 winning percentage).
A native of Mishawaka, Ind., who attended Penn High, Hahn and
his wife, Kathi, have been married since 1976. They have two children, a
son, Matthew (29), an assistant basketball coach at Vermont, and a
daughter, Ashley (23), a kindergarten teacher in Maryland.