Manning Names 3 to TU Hoops Staff

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basketball coach Danny Manning announced the hiring of three staff members Thursday.

Brett Ballard, the head coach at Baker University, and Missouri State assistant coach Steve Woodberry will serve as assistant coaches, while San Francisco assistant coach Justin Bauman becomes Tulsa’s director of basketball operations.

 “I’m tremendously excited to have Brett, Justin and Steve and their families join our TU basketball family. They and their families are great additions to our university and the Tulsa community,” said Manning.

In two seasons at Baker (Kan.) University, Brett Ballard registered a 33-30 overall record, including a 21-12 mark this past season and a runner-up finish in the 2012 Heart of America Athletic Conference. Baker advanced to the school’s first Heart of America Athletic Conference championship game in 15 years and capped that with an NAIA national tournament berth, the first since 1996.

“Brett brings a wealth of experience in terms of understanding what it takes to run a program with his background as the director of operations at Kansas for a number of years and recently as a successful head coach at Baker University. He’ll definitely be a great asset to the University and our basketball program,’ said Manning.

Before his appointment at Baker, Ballard spent seven years on the basketball staff at the University of Kansas. He was the director of basketball operations for two years, and before that he served as the administrative assistant/video coordinator for four years. In 2003-04, Ballard was a student assistant for the Jayhawks after two seasons playing on the KU basketball team.

Ballard oversaw the academic progress of the Jayhawks, worked closely with the off-season strength and conditioning program, assisted with on-campus recruiting, team travel and team video. He was also the camp director for the Bill Self Basketball Camps. Ballard organized and directed over 2,500 campers and also coordinated and directed the Coaches Clinic, the Winter Clinic and the Wilt Chamberlain Special Olympics Clinic.

Ballard played two years for the Jayhawks -- 2001 and 2002 -- after transferring from Hutchinson Community College in his hometown of Hutchinson, Kan.

Ballard and his wife Kelly have two sons: Kaden and Brooks.

Woodberry coached the past six seasons at Missouri State, having joined the Bears' coaching staff during the summer of 2006.

In his tenure at Missouri State, Woodberry was a part of five winning seasons including three 20-win campaigns and three post-season tournaments, including two NITs. The Bears posted a 26-9 record and advanced to the second round of the 2011 NIT. The year before, Missouri State posted an overall 24-12 record in 2009-10 and was crowned champions of the Collegeinsiuder.com postseason tournament. That team won 13 more games then the previous season to match the fifth-best turnaround in the nation, according to the NCAA.

Woodberry played on four NCAA Tournament teams and two Final Four teams at the University of Kansas from 1990 to 1994 for Jayhawks' head coach Roy Williams.

Woodberry averaged 10.1 points per game and won Big 8 second team all-conference honors by the Associated Press, Big 8 coaches and Big 8 players as a junior despite not being a regular starter. He repeated second team selection from AP and the coaches as a senior and the players voted him to the all-league first team.

He was KU's MVP and top defensive player as a senior, leading the team in scoring with a 15.5 average. Woodberry finished with 1,240 points for his 138-game Kansas career, as the four teams on which he played with the Jayhawks were a combined 110-28.

After a brief time with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers following his days at KU, Woodberry began a six-year professional playing stint in Australia. He was the league's Most Valuable Player one year and was an all-league selection on two other occasions. Woodberry then played three seasons in Lithuania and then saw action in Greece, Finland and Sweden before retiring as an active player in 2005.

Woodberry, a native of Wichita, Kan., played on two state title teams at Wichita South High School and was named Kansas Naismith Player of the Year as a senior in 1990.

He and his wife, Bianca, have three children: sons Shaylen and Sherron and daughter Sanaa'. He also has two other children, Steven and Kaylen.

Bauman comes to Tulsa following four seasons (2008-12) at the University of San Francisco. He spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach and served as director of basketball operations in his first two years at USF.

In his two years as a full-time assistant coach, the Dons have posted a 39-29 record. This past year’s 20-14 record marked the first 20-win season for San Francisco in 30 years, since the 1981-82 campaign. The Dons made an appearance in the post-season College Basketball Invitational (CBI) in the 2011-12 season as well.

Before his appointment at USF, Bauman spent two seasons (2006-08) as the director of basketball operations at Florida Atlantic University

An alumnus of the University of Kansas, Bauman spent six years with the Jayhawks basketball program, including three years as a student manager and three seasons as a head manager/student assistant coach.

Bauman’s wife’s name is Stacy.