On Monday, August 29th, Anderson University Athletics announced that the Men’s Basketball Head Coach, Owen Handy, had resigned and Assistant Coach, Carter Collins, would serve as the Interim Head Coach for the 2022-2023 season.
Collins will be entering his sixth year at AU, coaching under Handy for the past five years. Collins said, “The most important thing that he [Handy] did while he was here was making strides in the program.” Collins sees this as an opportunity to continue making sure the Men’s Basketball Team has a high-quality experience at AU.
Sophomore of the team, Tatem Ivanyo said, “I was pretty surprised to hear the news and I am sad to see him [Handy] go, but I think that he has left the program in great hands and in a great spot to be successful in the coming years. I thought that he was a great coach and definitely has left a lasting impact on me. Coach Handy taught us many valuable lessons from resiliency and determination to working as a team and caring for one another.”
“The guys are going to have to get used to a new coach and a new coaching style,” Collins said. “Coach Handy and I were very similar in some ways and also polar opposites in some other ways.” He said he could see himself making tweaks to the offensive and defensive strategy, instituting new drills, and introducing new practice formats.
Although this is a new role, Collins pointed out that he has been working with the basketball team for the past five years. “So even though I haven’t been the head coach, I’ve still been an active voice in the practices and so they [the team] will have some level of expectations as to what I will be like as their coach,” he said.
Ivanyo said, “I feel very confident in Coach Collins ability to lead our team and I am excited to see what the season holds. He has shown to be a great assistant coach and he has already demonstrated that he has a ton of confidence in us.”
In recruiting, Collins said they look for high quality athletes who have talent on the court, but the main reason for the team’s recent success is that their players are also quality students, campus members and community members. This season, Collins notes the team is returning with experience, but they are also welcoming six new freshman and one sophomore transfer.
“Working for Coach Handy was great,” Collins said. “I learned a ton from him. He pushed me to grow, and he not only pushed me, but he gave me the opportunity to make that growth in terms of giving me more and new, different responsibilities every year that I was an assistant for him. I’m definitely very grateful for the time that I had under Coach Handy and he was a really good coach for me to work with.”