IUPUI head basketball coach Matt Crenshaw finalized his coaching staff on Monday with the addition of former Purdue standout Roy Hairston as an assistant coach. Hairston joins Antwain Banks and Tommy Strine on the Jaguars’ staff while Aaron Evans will move back to the Director of Operations role. This marks Hairston’s second stint with the Jaguars as he was previously on the IUPUI staff from 2016-2018.
“I’m definitely excited to bring Roy back to IUPUI. He’s highly respected in the state of Indiana by high school and AAU coaches. He has deeply rooted relationships in the state and throughout the Midwest that compose our recruiting base,” Crenshaw said. “He has an incredibly high basketball IQ and is a true teacher of the game.
“He’s going to oversee our skill development program since that’s one of his areas of expertise. Our players will immediately benefit from his ability to develop their games. Roy’s a really hard worker and he’ll also serve as our co-offensive coordinator.”
Hairston brings more than 20 years of experience to the IUPUI sidelines, having trained the best of the best at the high school, collegiate and professional levels. In his previous stint on the IUPUI staff, he helped develop a group of big men that included Matt O’Leary, Aaron Brennan, Evan Hall and Elyjah Goss, all of whom made tremendous gains during their careers. O’Leary earned Academic All-America honors in 2017 while Brennan emerged as the program’s top scorer the following season. Goss closed his IUPUI career as the program’s all-time leader in rebounds while Hall also finished ranked among the program’s all-time leaders in boards and blocked shots.
Hairston has a long history on the AAU circuit, having coached and trained with EG10 (Eric Gordon All Stars), working with a group of players that included Trevon Bluiett, Gary Harris, Collin Hartman and VJ Beachem. He also trained a number of future NBA players at St. Vincent’s Sports Performance, including No. 1 NBA Draft pick Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Mario Chalmers, Gordon Hayward, Jeff Teague, Marquis Teague and Carl Landry.
In 2011, he coached in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas as an NBA D-League Select Assistant Coach after winning the D-League Conference and League titles with the Iowa Energy with a 37-13 record.
Hairston has also had coaching stops at the University of Indianapolis, Marian University and Park Tudor and Cathedral High Schools. He helped Park Tudor to a 2014 IHSAA Class 2A state title.
As a player, Hairston won championships at every level, beginning with a high school championship at Henry Snyder (N.J.) High School in 1990 and a junior college championship while at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College. He later won back-to-back Big Ten titles in his two seasons at Purdue and captured multiple European league titles during his 10-year international playing career.
At Hutch, Hairston helped the Blue Dragons to the 1994 NJCAA National Championship and was named the national Player of the Year. He finished his junior college career as Hutchinson’s all-time leading scorer (1,687 points) and was later named to the NJCAA Hall of Fame.
Hairston will begin duties immediately and will be involved in all facets of the IUPUI program.
Hariston named Assistant Coach at IUPUI; Evans moves to DBO spot
