UBC Seasons: 25
U SPORTS Record: 566-192 (.747)
Conference Record: 378-115 (.767)
- 4x U SPORTS Medalist (2008-09 - Silver, '09-10 - Silver, '10-11 - Bronze, '19-20 - Bronze)
- 6x Canada West Champion (2002-03, ‘06-07, ‘07-08, '10-11, '12-13, ‘19-20)
- 8x Pacific Division Champion (2002-03, ‘03-04, ‘05-06, ‘06-07, ‘07-08, ‘08-09, '09-10, '12-13)
- 2x U SPORTS Coach of the Year (2005-06, '09-10)
- 6x Canada West Coach of the Year (2001-02, ‘05-06, ‘08-09, '09-10, '10-11, '16-17)
- 3x Team Canada Head Coach, World FISU Games (2011 - Silver, 2003 - Bronze, 2005)
*As of March, 2025
Kevin Hanson is one of the most decorated coaches in not only the Canada West, but all of U SPORTS. In 25 seasons with UBC, his 378 conference wins are the most in Canada West history.
2024-25:
Hanson's 25th campaign at the helm of the Thunderbirds was a strong one, as the 'Birds finished the regular season 15-5, including a 9-2 record after the calendar flipped to 2025. That earned them the third seed in the Canada West playoffs, which began with 74-72 and 87-79 wins over two nationally-ranked teams in Winnipeg and Manitoba. The latter of those two performances came on the road to book UBC's place in the Canada West Final for the first time since 2020. There, the T-Birds fell to Calgary, coming away from the conference playoffs with the silver medal. UBC hosted the 2025 U SPORTS Final 8 in March, in a historic weekend in Vancouver where both men's and women's tournaments were hosted by the same school. The T-Birds placed sixth at nationals.
The T-Birds stumbled a bit out of the gate in 2023-24, with a record of 4-4 after the first month of the season, despite Hanson earning his 350th career Canada West regular season win in the team’s home opener. They turned it up from there, however, finding their form as the year went on with a fantastic December and January that powered them to a 14-6 record in the conference. That was good for a 4th place finish in the Canada West standings. Signature wins included a weekend sweep of the nationally-ranked Manitoba Bisons, and a 107-75 blowout victory over Calgary on the final day of the regular season. Sadly, the season ended in heartbreaking fashion as the Thunderbirds were upset 86-76 by UNBC in the first round of the Canada West playoffs.
The 2022-23 season started off with a bang. The 'Birds secured a hard-fought August 79-72 victory against a storied UNLV Runnin' Rebels team in a packed War Memorial Gym on August 16th. Then in late October, just prior to the start of their Canada West season, UBC secured a 79-73 home victory over Simon Fraser University in the Buchanan Cup. During that same preseason, after a preseason victory over the Brock Badgers 81-79 in Calgary, the veteran coach recorded his five hundredth career U SPORTS win. The ‘Birds ended the Canada West season with a conference record of 13-7, which meant a fifth-placed finish and a 5 vs. 12 play-in matchup with the Mount Royal Cougars. UBC dominated that matchup by a 103-87 score. A day later, the 'Birds followed that up with a convincing 11-point upset victory over hosts Alberta in the quarterfinals, which put UBC into the Final 4 against their Island foes from Victoria. UVic defeated UBC 91-83 in the semifinals en route to a 2023 Canada West championship.
After a two-year break due to the global pandemic, the T-Birds returned to the court in 2021-22 for a strong season that saw them post an overall record of 19-5, along with a 16-2 conference record. UBC opened the Canada West Playoff Tournament with a 77-72 victory over the MRU Cougars, but were then edged by the Saskatchewan Huskies in a close 88-87 battle.
On January 9, 2020, thanks to a 109-102 Thunderbirds defeat of the Trinity Western Spartans, Hanson earned his 314th coaching victory to become the all-time regular season wins leader in Canada West men’s basketball history. The T-Birds went on to become Canada West champions before capturing bronze at the U SPORTS Final 8 in Ottawa.
In 2018-19, the Thunderbirds won 17 of 20 regular season games for the second year in a row. UBC went the distance in a pair of best-of-three series to advance to the Canada West final, where the team fell to Calgary. At the U SPORTS Final 8, the T-Birds battled to a fifth-place finish with a record of 2-1.
The 2017-18 campaign saw fifth-year forward Conor Morgan earn Canada West Player of the Year recognition for the second time in a row.
Hanson was an assistant coach with the Canadian national team that, with UBC stars Morgan and Grant Shephard, won silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. It was Canada’s first basketball medal at the Commonwealth Games, and the squad was named Team of the Year (Summer Sport Performance) at the 41st Canada Sport Awards in Ottawa in September.
At the end of the 2016-17 campaign, Hanson was recognized as the Canada West’s Coach of the Year. It was the sixth time he achieved this feat, tied for the most in league history. Hanson previously merited the honour in 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In 2006 and 2010, he was named the U SPORTS Coach of the Year.
The 2016-17 edition of Hanson’s T-Birds went 19-1 in league play, improving their regular season record for the third-consecutive season. In addition to the coaching honour, UBC team members also earned three other major conference awards: Player of the Year (Morgan), Defensive Player of the Year (Jordan Jensen-Whyte), and the Ken Shields Award nomination for excellence in basketball, academics and community involvement (Phil Jalalpoor).
In 2015-16, Hanson recorded his 250th conference victory and led his Thunderbirds to a fifth-place showing at the U SPORTS Final 8 national tournament, which was played at UBC for the first time since 1972.
Since arriving at UBC in 2000, Hanson has turned the men’s basketball program into a national power, guiding the T-Birds to consecutive appearances (2009 and 2010) in the U SPORTS championship game.
Hanson was also well recognized before coming to UBC and is a four-time BCCAA Coach of the Year (‘92,’ 94, ’99, ’00), was twice presented with the CCAA Coaching Excellence Award (‘94 and ‘99), and was also named Basketball B.C. Coach of the Year in 1992 and 1994.
The Regina native came to UBC in 2000 after nine years behind the bench at Langara College in Vancouver. Hanson guided the Falcons to five BCCAA provincial championships and two CCAA national championships in 1997-98 and 1998-99. The Falcons, 261-74 under his direction, represented B.C. at the nationals seven of his nine years as head coach.
The two-time UBC graduate has also been involved with Basketball Canada for nearly two decades, leading Canada’s World University Games team to a bronze-medal finish at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Korea. In the same position in 2005, Hanson led Canada to fifth place in Turkey. He was the head coach of the 2011 Canadian roster that won the silver medal in Shenzhen, China. In 2017, Hanson served as Team Canada head coach at a Summer Universiade for the fourth time.
Hanson was one of three final candidates for the senior men’s national team head coaching position in 2004. In the summer of 2006, he was a guest coach at the senior men’s national team camp and was head coach of the B.C. under-19 boys that won a gold medal at the 1997 Canada Summer Games.
His post-secondary coaching experience began with the assistant position at Vancouver Community College in 1987-88, at Simon Fraser University in 1988-89 and at UBC in 1990-91, when the Thunderbirds were Canada West champions and consolation champions at the U SPORTS tournament.
As a player, Hanson was named Langara’s outstanding male athlete and a CCAA all- Canadian in 1984. After joining the T-Birds the following season, he was twice named the team’s most inspirational player (‘86,’ 87) and was a U SPORTS national tournament all-star in 1987, the year the ‘Birds won silver. In his final game at War Memorial Gym, Hanson captained the ‘Birds to one of the biggest victories in the team’s history when UBC swept seven-time defending national champion Victoria in the best-of-three Canada West final.
In 2009, Hanson was honoured with a Distinguished Alumni Award by Langara College for his outstanding achievements as both a player and coach for the Falcons. He was also part of Seaquam Secondary’s inaugural 2009 Wall of Fame class for achievements in basketball. In 2018, Langara College established a scholarship in Hanson’s name to support Falcons student-athletes.
Hanson graduated from UBC’s Faculty of Human Kinetics in 1988 and earned his Master’s Degree in Human Kinetics from UBC in 1994.
