Andy Winters completed his seventh season at the helm of the Otterbein basketball program in the 2025-26 season. Winters earned his 100th career win as a head coach on Jan. 28, 2026 with an 86-70 win over Baldwin Wallace University.
Winters led the Cardinals to its best since in over 20 years during the 2025-26 campaign, posting a 23-6 overall record and spending the final seven weeks of the season nationally ranked in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. Otterbein peaked as high as No. 17 and ended the season in the No. 22 spot. He oversaw three All-OAC selections, the OAC Freshman of the Year, and guided Julian Heckman to NABC and D3hoops.com All-Region honors. He was named the OAC Co-Coach of the Year and later was recognized as the NABC District 7 Co-Coach of the Year.
The 2025-26 team finished second in the OAC standings and advanced to the OAC Tournament Championship game. Otterbein would receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they would defeat Wisconsin-Platteville in the opening Round of 74, 57-52, giving the Cardinals their first NCAA Tournament win since 2002.
In 2023-24, Winters guided Otterbein to its first top-three finish in the Ohio Athletic Conference standings in 19 years. The group finished 17-9 overall and beat a pair of nationally-ranked teams along the way - No. 23 Illinois College to win the Smokey Ballenger Classic and then a notable upset of No. 1 ranked John Carroll in the final week. Three Cardinals were named all-conference and another four landed Academic All-OAC for their work in the classroom.
Otterbein went more than a decade without having a first team All-OAC representative but has since landed a spot in four consecutive years behind standouts Cam Evans (2022-23, 2024-25), Jack Clement (2023-24) and Julian Heckman (2025-26). In addition, the program has enjoyed three OAC Freshman of the Year selections by way of Dallas Patrick, Julian Heckman and Dominic Theado under his tutelage.
Winters immediately got the Cardinals back into the OAC Tournament during his inaugural campaign, bowing out to national title contender Mount Union. Otterbein then experienced a huge turnaround under its taskmaster in 2021-22, posting a 17-8 record to mark the most single-season victories for the program in over 15 years. Six of those losses were to teams ranked in the national poll, with the Cards going an impressive 9-3 in games decided by two possessions or less.
Winters came to Otterbein after spending five years as the lead assistant at nearby OAC rival Capital University, including the 2016-17 season as interim head coach. He was part of a 2018-19 breakout year for the Crusaders, who turned around a 12-14 record into a 21-8 campaign en route to sharing the OAC regular-season championship. Capital, reaching as high as No. 16 in the national rankings, hit the 20-win plateau for the first time in a decade while earning top-seed honors in the OAC Tournament.
Capital then made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012, winning an opening-round game before admirably bowing out to powerhouse/host Augustana College, 85-79. His coaching efforts went into developing a pair of 1,000-point scorers, including OAC Player of the Year and All-American Austin Schreck.
Winters memorably stepped in to serve as interim head coach at Capital during the 2015-16 season after Damon Goodwin took a hiatus to battle leukemia. He was the youngest NCAA head basketball coach (25) at the time, helping guide Capital to a four-win improvement from the previous year and keep intact a run of consecutive tournament berths since Goodwin’s hire in 1994. Capital went from 8-18 to a 12-14 record and, of those losses, seven were by two possessions or less.
Winters spent one year at Ohio Dominican University prior to his stint at Capital, helping the Panthers achieve their most conference wins since joining NCAA Division II. A 2013 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, he was a standout player himself on the hardwood by leading the Battling Bishops to a pair of NCAA appearances and serving as a host in the Big Dance for the first time since 1988. He was inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan Hall of Fame in 2023.
A four-year starter at point guard, Winters was a 3x All-North Coast Athletic Conference selection, a member of the NCAC All-Decade Team, broke all of OWU’s assist records, participated in the NABC All-Star Game and ended his senior season with first team All-American honors. He was also voted the Regional Player of the Year by the NABC, D3Hoops.com and D3 News after ranking top-five nationally in assists.
Winters, a member of the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC), obtained his master’s in business administration at Capital in the spring of 2018 and also taught various health and sport sciences courses. He earned a bachelor’s of education degree in history while at Ohio Wesleyan, and is a 2009 graduate of nearby Bishop Watterson High School.
Andy and his wife (Katie) reside in nearby Worthington with their young son, Max.
Head Coaching Record:
| Year |
Overall |
OAC |
OAC Tournament |
| 2015-16 * |
12-14 |
8-10 |
0-1 |
| ----- |
----- |
----- |
----- |
| 2019-20 |
8-18 |
5-13 |
0-1 |
| 2020-21 |
2-7 |
2-6 |
0-1 |
| 2021-22 |
17-8 |
11-6 |
0-1 |
| 2022-23 |
14-12 |
8-10 |
0-1 |
| 2023-24 |
17-9 |
11-7 |
0-1 |
| 2024-25 |
14-12 |
9-9 |
------ |
| 2025-26 |
23-6 |
13-3 |
1-1 |
| Otterbein Record |
95-72 |
59-54 |
1-6 |
| Career Record |
107-86 |
67-64 |
1-7 |
* Interim head coach at Capital
