South Dakota State Athletic Director Fred Oien announced the hiring of Austin Hansen as the new men's basketball assistant coach on Thursday. Hansen comes home to South Dakota State after five years at Minnesota State-Mankato and after a stellar playing career at SDSU.

"We're thrilled to get Austin back here," said SDSU head coach Scott Nagy. "Having a coach on staff that played for me will benefit us all, and it will also help us in recruiting, because he played for me and he can tell kids what that is really like."

Hansen graduated from SDSU in 2003 with a degree in health, physical education and recreation and started with the Mavericks as a graduate assistant in 2003. He then joined the staff as a full-time assistant in 2005 after earning a master's degree in sports administration.

In his five years on the Maverick bench, the Valley Springs, S.D., native helped guide the Mavericks to a 116-37 overall record (.758 winning percentage ), including a school record 28 wins in 2007. He also helped lead them to four straight NCAA tournament appearances from 2005-08 , three North Central Conference regular season championships from 2006-08 and to an NCC/Wells Fargo Finals championship in 2006.

Long before making his mark as a coach, Hansen did it on the court for the Jackrabbits from 1999-2003 , as the only player in South Dakota State men's basketball history to lead the Jackrabbits in scoring all four years on the team.

With Hansen on the court, the Jacks advanced to four North Central Regional Tournaments and won the North Central Conference regular and postseason titles in 2002.

Hansen finished his Jackrabbit career with 1,815 points, which ranks third on the SDSU all-time charts, and his 37-point performance against Morningside on Dec. 29, 2000, still ranks as the ninth best single-game performance in school history.

A three-time All-North Central Conference and twotime all-regional selection as a Jackrabbit, Hansen sits atop the SDSU record book in all-time three-point field goals made in a season with 85 in 2003 and in a career with 235. Hansen's threepoint prowess allowed him to become the only Jackrabbit player ever to score 400 or more points in four consecutive seasons .

In addition to his scoring skills, Hansen's 225 career steals ranks third all-time at SDSU, and his 280 career assists ranks eighth all-time .

Hansen also excelled off the court, earning Academic All-NCC honors three times and academic all-region honors twice.

Hansen fills the vacancy left when Jackrabbit assistant coach Deryl Cunningham resigned his position to take a similar position at Indiana State University.