Pacific Division Championships: 2002-03, ‘03-04, ‘05-06, ‘06-07, ‘07-08, ‘08-09, '09-10, '12-13
Canada West Championships: 2002-03, ‘06-07, ‘07-08, '10-11, '12-13
CIS medalists: 2008-09 (silver), '09-10 (silver), '10-11 (bronze)
Canada West Coach of the Year: 2001-02, ‘05-06, ‘08-09, '09-10, '10-11
CIS Coach of the Year: 2005-06, '09-10
Entering 2016-17 season
Overall record at UBC: 385-155 (.713)
Conference record at UBC: 251-84 (.749)
UBC’s Kevin Hanson is one of most decorated head coaches in U Sports and the Canada West.
In 2015-16 Hanson recorded his 250th conference victory and led his Thunderbirds to a fifth-place showing in the nation, last season also marked the CIS (now U Sports) Final 8 being played at UBC for the first time since 1972.
Hanson is just the third person in Canada West men’s basketball history to win at least 200 conference games as a head coach and is now in second place on the Canada West all-time coaching wins list.
Hanson became the winningest coach in UBC men’s basketball’s history. On Oct. 26, 2014, when he surpassed the great Dr. Peter Mullins with win No. 338 - a 77-69 triumph at Guelph.
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 CIS national-championship game.
In 10 of the last 16 seasons UBC has been the Canada West representative at the CIS (now U Sports) national championship. Hanson holds the highest all-time winning percentage in Canada West for active coaches at .746 in the regular season and .634 in playoffs. In CIS basketball, he is third all-time amongst active coaches with a winning percentage of .731.
He has been named the CIS Coach of the Year twice (‘06, ‘10) and the Canada West Coach of the Year on five occasions (‘02, ‘06, ‘09, ’10, ‘11) since he taking over at UBC. 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.
On Nov. 15, 2014, Hanson reached 600 victories at the post secondary level, after a combined 24 years at the helm of Langara and UBC.
The two-time UBC graduate has also been involved with Basketball Canada for several years, leading Canada’s World University Games team to a bronze-medal finish at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Korea. He was also the head coach of the 2005 World University Games team that finished fifth in Turkey and was the head coach of the 2011 Canadian team that won the silver medal in Shenzhen, China. Hanson was also 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 CIS national 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 CIS 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 defeated the seven-time defending national champion Victoria Vikes in two straight games 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.
Hanson graduated from UBC’s Faculty of Human Kinetics in 1988 and earned his Master’s Degree in Human Kinetics from UBC in 1994.
