Andrea Hudy leaving KU men’s basketball for Texas Longhorns
Update (3 p.m. Friday): Texas has announced Hudy’s hiring.
Longtime Kansas basketball strength coach Andrea Hudy is leaving to take a job with the Texas Longhorns, KU coach Bill Self confirmed to The Star through a text message on Thursday night.
A second source close to the program also confirmed earlier that Hudy was leaving. Neither KU nor Texas has announced Hudy’s job change.
When reached, a Texas official said the school could not confirm any hiring as of Thursday night. Sources close to the Texas program said an announcement may come as early as Friday.
Hudy, whose official title at KU was assistant athletic director for sport performance, had been with the Jayhawks for 15 years after being hired in September 2004 by then-athletic director Lew Perkins.
It’s a significant loss for KU’s athletic department. Hudy is considered among the top in her field, and in 2013 she was named the National College Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. She also received the “Impact Award” from the NSCA in 2017 — an honor that is given each year to an individual whose career has greatly contributed to the advancement of the industry.
She also was at the cutting edge when it came to using new technology in the weight room, as she was the first college strength coach to implement SpartaTrac force plate technologies in 2012. Sparta is now used by more than 80 professional sports organizations across the world.
Another of Hudy’s strengths, according to KU’s players, was her ability to help keep them fresh and healthy late in seasons, even if they had high workloads.
Self has been effusive in his praise for Hudy in the past, frequently calling her the best strength coach in college basketball.
Hudy, a native of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, came to KU after spending nine years as men’s and women’s basketball strength coach at UConn. Prior to that, she was a four-year letter-winner in volleyball at Maryland before graduating in 1994.
Whether coincidental or not, Hudy’s departure comes three months after Kansas Athletics announced that it would change the structure of its sports medicine staff, launching a new model where those roughly 40 employees are now employed by Kansas Team Health: a collaboration between the athletic department, The University of Kansas Health System and LMH Health in Lawrence.
As part of that switch, KU Athletics’ medical staff members — including strength and conditioning coaches like Hudy and Zac Woodfin (football) — became employees of KU Health System while fully reporting to medical professionals.
Texas does have an opening for a men’s basketball strength coach, as Daniel Roose — who spent the last four years in that position — decided this offseason to return to VCU.
This story was originally published August 15, 2019 at 9:35 PM with the headline "Andrea Hudy leaving KU men’s basketball for Texas Longhorns."
