Drury University Head Coach Steve Hesser Retires

[crazznewt]

https://youtu.be/1tvbwSGKrEY
This was less than one hour after the championship game.

[crazznewt]

https://youtu.be/2N9xgyXg1EE
Had Duke down 5 at the first media timeout of the second half. This is the season after Drury's All Americans graduated.

[crazznewt]

This was the 2013 regional championship with 2800 plus in attendance

https://youtu.be/P4yfyOtCFzA

[crazznewt]

Hesser had a lot of player turnover a couple years in a row a while back. I felt like that really affected the continuity in the program and that's when some bad losses happened. He almost always had his team in the hunt at the end of the season though.

His list of accomplishments on the Drury website is quite impressive.

[crazznewt]

https://youtu.be/N-AkKKjjnI8
This is the last game Bellarmine played at Drury. This was February 2, 2016. For the last five years Bellarmine was a member of the GLVC, they never played at Drury again. The all time record in the series stands at 11-11.

Hesser had his share of success against the most successful coach of the last decade in the GLVC.

[DUPanther]

Steve Hesser is one of the best basketball coaches in the country, at any level. He won big at every level he ever coached at. He could beat you with inferior talent and his teams were almost never out of a game.

It's a shame his final season was so messed up by COVID, but it' fitting that his final run included beating a really good SBU team on the road with only 7 players. Guarantee there's 14 other coaches in the GLVC who are glad they don't have to see him on an opposing bench any more.

On a side note, you'll never meet a man who has been as successful as he has who has less of an ego. He's just a simple, tough-as-nails Oklahoma guy. Not gonna be the same seeing someone else sitting in his chair.

[crazznewt]

You are right about Hesser winning with inferior talent. His unheralded team at Glendale High School beat a state championship bound Kickapoo team loaded with future D1 and NBA talent that many consider one of the best high school teams ever in the state of Missouri.
There are not many coaches inducted into STATE sports halls of fame in two different states.

He will be hard to replace.

[Mule4ever]

Who are the names being thrown about to be the next coach

[DUPanther]

New hire is Chris Foster, formerly at McKendree and Truman. For my money, after Davenport and Bellarmine left the league, he was the second best coach in the GLVC the last few years after Steve Hesser.

https://drurypanthers.com/news/2021/...asketball.aspx

[crazznewt]

That seems like a great hire and should be a smooth transition. Odd both Drury basketball head coaches coached at Truman.

[UMSLguy]

That seems like a great hire and should be a smooth transition. Odd both Drury basketball head coaches coached at Truman.

I think that is the forth head coach to come from Truman directly or indirectly, is you include other sports.

Definitely a good hire for Drury.

[bkingbroker]

Steve Hesser is one of the best basketball coaches in the country, at any level. He won big at every level he ever coached at. He could beat you with inferior talent and his teams were almost never out of a game.

It's a shame his final season was so messed up by COVID, but it' fitting that his final run included beating a really good SBU team on the road with only 7 players. Guarantee there's 14 other coaches in the GLVC who are glad they don't have to see him on an opposing bench any more.

On a side note, you'll never meet a man who has been as successful as he has who has less of an ego. He's just a simple, tough-as-nails Oklahoma guy. Not gonna be the same seeing someone else sitting in his chair.

[TSU_Mike59]

100% agree. I feel coaches who "pick their spots" to voice their frustration has to go over a million times better than the guys who just ride the officials for 40 minutes. Fans probably see that as unengaged (I hear it a lot from people who don't like Cuonzo Martin at Mizzou), but it's not. If you're an official who made a call, do you think you might have been wrong if Fran McCaffery is in your ear about it (yet again) or if a guy like Mark Few says something to you on your way by. The Few's and Hesser's of the day I think get that benefit of the doubt every time.