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Bob Hoffman

Bob Hoffman

Bob Hoffman was named head men's basketball coach at Central in August 2019 and enters his seventh season leading the University of Central Oklahoma men's basketball program in 2025-26. One of the winningest coaches in college basketball history, Hoffman has added to his legacy with a resurgence of Broncho basketball.

In leading the program back to the national spotlight, Hoffman eclipsed the 600-win total for men's basketball and the 700-win total for both men's and women's combined. 

Hoffman has a career record of 720-402, including a 632-386 record as a men's head coach.

Hoffman led Central Oklahoma to the 2021-22 MIAA regular season title – the first since joining the league in 2012 – and he was named MIAA Coach of the Year following the regular season. He guided the team to the MIAA Men's Basketball Championship semifinals before earning an at-large bid to the 2022 NCAA Division II national tournament. UCO made its 18th national tournament appearance in 2022 and the 13th since joining Division II. 

Hoffman followed that up with another NCAA Division II national tournament appearance in 2022-23 as the Bronchos finished second in the MIAA regular season, made an appearance in the MIAA Basketball Championship finals, and earned an at-large bid to the national tournament. UCO went 26-6 this past season. The 26 wins rank third most in school history for any single season. 

In 2023-24, Hoffman led UCO to a third consecutive 20-win season, posting a 20-11 win-loss record. That marked just the third time in school history there were three consecutive 20-win seasons (1990-91 – 1992-93; 2006-07 – 2010-11; 2021-22 – 2023-24). The Bronchos reached the MIAA Basketball Championship Quarterfinals. 

Central Oklahoma went 19-13 in 2024-25, nearly reaching the 20-win mark for a fourth consecutive season. The Bronchos finished tied for fifth in the MIAA, then made an historic run in the conference tournament. Given the No. 8 seed due to Key Performance Index (KPI), Central beat No. 9 Emporia State in the first round, then upset the No. 1 seed Washburn in the quarterfinals. The Bronchos kept it going with a win in over Pitt State in the semifinals before falling at the buzzer in the MIAA Championship game.

Central went 24-7 in 2021-22, including a stout 14-2 record at Hamilton Field House. The Bronchos knocked off eventual national champion Northwest Missouri at Hamilton in January, setting the stage for the run to the conference title. Hoffman coached four All-MIAA selections.

Hoffman led the Bronchos back to the MIAA tournament in his first season following a one-year absence from the postseason for UCO. Central went 11-17 in the regular season, 8-11 in league play, and drew the eighth-seed in the tournament before falling in the first round.

The Bronchos went 13-11 in 2020-21 and made the MIAA Tournament for the second season in a row under Hoffman's coaching. Central finished fifth in the league standings with a 12-10 record, then went on the road and beat Missouri Southern at their place in the conference tourney. UCO fell to eventual national champ Northwest Missouri in the MIAA Championship Semifinals.
 
Hoffman came to UCO from Mercer, where he led the Bears of Macon, Ga. to 209 wins in his 11-year stint there. He has coached at multiple levels, winning an NAIA national championship as a women's head coach, winning nearly 250 games as an NAIA men's head coach, assisting at the Division I level, and leading teams in the ABA and the NBA's Development League.

An Oklahoma City native, Hoffman played his high school basketball at Putnam City High School in the early 1970s. He then moved on to play collegiately at Oklahoma Baptist in Shawnee, Okla., where he would spend the next four years scoring more than 1,000 points. To this day, Hoffman still ranks among the all-time scoring leaders for the Bison.
 
Hoffman accepted his first head coaching job at Piedmont High School and coached there from 1982-86 while simultaneously attending graduate school at Central Oklahoma, earning his master of education in 1985.
 
After working with OBU as an assistant coach for a couple years, he took is first head coaching position at the college level at Southern Nazarene in 1987.
 
At SNU, Hoffman averaged 29 wins per season, going 88-16 in a three-year stretch. He took a program that never had a winning season and won a national championship in 1989, earning Sooner Athletic Conference, District 9, and NAIA Coach of the Year honors for his efforts.
 
Hoffman then returned to Shawnee to become the head coach at his alma mater and would soon leave a mark on the program still remembered today.
 
Now a member of the OBU Athletics Hall of Fame, Hoffman led the Bison from 1990-99 and won 243 games along the way. He led OBU to the national tournament six times and had three teams win 30 or more games. The Bison finished second in the national tournament in 1993 and 1997, while finishing third in 1994. He reached the Sweet 16 in 1996 and the Elite Eight in 1999.
 
Hoffman was named SAC Coach of the Year in 1993, 1996, and 1997. He was the District 9 Coach of the Year again in 1993, and earned National Coach of the Year honors for the second time in his career in 1993.
 
He moved on from OBU in 1999 to Texas Pan American and won 68 games there over the next five seasons. He guided the program to its first winning season in over ten years, and its first tournament victory over 15 years while also helping UTPA to its first ever national ranking.
 
After spending a few seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma, and leading the American Basketball Association's Arkansas Aeros and the NBA Development League's Rio Grande Valley club, Hoffman would move to Mercer University in Georgia and again, leave his mark on a program.
 
Hoffman won 209 games at Mercer from 2008-19, including 119 conference games. He led the Bears to its first ever NCAA Tournament win in 2014 – a major upset of Duke in the opening round of March Madness. And he also became the first coach in NCAA history to win a tournament game in all four Division I postseason tournaments in a four-year span.
 
Hoffman directed Mercer to six postseason appearances over the past seven seasons. He was named Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year three times during his tenure at Mercer.

Hoffman was awarded the FCA John Lotz National Basketball Coach of the Year in 2014.
 
HOFFMAN BY THE NUMBERS
 
School Record
Southern Nazarene (Women), 1987-90 88-16
Oklahoma Baptist, 1990-99 242-79
Texas Pan-Am, 1999-2004 68-77
Mercer, 2008-19 209-164
Central Oklahoma, 2019-present 113-66
Men's Totals 632-386
Career Totals 720-402
 
HOFFMAN IN THE HALL OF FAME

– Oklahoma Baptist University Hall of Fame, Inducted 2001
– Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, Inducted 2004
– Macon Sports Hall of Fame, Inducted 2017
– Putnam City Athletic Hall of Fame, Inducted 2020
– Fellowship of Christian Athletes Hall of Fame, Inducted 2023
– Mercer Athletic Hall of Fame, Inducted 2024
 
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