Arkansas ABA team hires former Oklahoma assistant

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ The Arkansas Aeros announce that former Oklahoma assistant Bob Hoffman will coach the American Basketball Association team in its first season. <br/><br/>The ABA, which has more

Monday, July 17th 2006, 8:13 pm

By: News On 6

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ The Arkansas Aeros announce that former Oklahoma assistant Bob Hoffman will coach the American Basketball Association team in its first season.

The ABA, which has more than 60 teams, is expanding to Little Rock and northwest Arkansas this year. The Little Rock team is called the Little Rock Rivercatz.

Hoffman was the women's head coach at Southern Nazarene for three seasons and guided the team then known as the Redskins to the 1989 NAIA title.

He became the men's coach at Oklahoma Baptist in 1990, and during his nine seasons, the Bison twice finished as the NAIA runner-up, in 1993 and 1997.

He spent five seasons as the men's coach at NCAA Division One Texas-Pan American, going 69-76, before joining Kelvin Sampson's staff at Oklahoma in 2004.

After Sampson became the coach at Indiana earlier this year, Hoffman was not retained as an assistant by new Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel.