One of Scott Nagy's top assistants at South Dakota State is leaving the school after five seasons on the coaching staff.

Assistant coach Austin Hansen is departing Brookings for an assistant coaching job at  Northern Colorado.

In a school press release, Hansen said:

I appreciate the opportunity coach Nagy and South Dakota State gave me to be a part of this program for five years.

I’m very grateful to have coached a tremendous group of guys that have worked hard to achieve a very high level of success for SDSU basketball.

The efforts of these guys have provided me with this new opportunity, and I couldn’t be more thankful to them. I wish them nothing but the best for continued success.

Hansen is a South Dakota native, winning the Mr. Basketball award his senior season at Brandon Valley High School in 1998, before playing for Nagy in Brookings from 1999-2003, becoming the first Jackrabbit to lead the team in scoring all four years.

He joined the SDSU coaching staff in 2008 after five years on the staff at Minnesota State in Mankato.  In the same press release, Nagy said:

I can’t express enough how much I appreciate Austin and the job he did for us.

If you track the progression of our team since he came here, you can easily see how important he has been to our program.

It’s very difficult for me to let him go, but I know he wants to stretch his boundaries, so I wish him nothing but the best.

He is a tremendous coach and has a great future.

Hansen will always be remembered by Jackrabbit fans as the man who recruited Nate Wolters to come Brookings out of St. Cloud.

The school plans a national search for Hansen’s replacement.

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