ohio hired its alumnus away from wittenberg university in springfield, ohio. hunter was the head coach at wittenberg for 13 seasons, leading the tigers to the program's second ncaa division iii men's basketball tournament championship, in 1977, and garnered nabc division iii national coach of the year the same year. he was the first coach in ncaa history to win a national championship in his first season at a school. in total, hunter won six regular season ohio athletic conference championships and six ohio athletic conference tournament championships during his tenure at wittenberg. before moving to western carolina university, he was an assistant coach and an associate head coach under herb sendek at north carolina state university. on march 4, 2018, hunter announced that he was stepping down as coach of western carolina.