Bio

Quinton Pippen had one of the biggest smiles in Grizzly Basketball history, but opponents who thought that smile was a sign of weakness were sorely mistaken. The 6-foot, 4-inch forward from Hamburg, Arkansas, was as competitive as they come, and that competitive fire helped form the foundation of the best team in program history.

“Quinton had a big smile, but he was competitive, and he was an assassin on the court,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Yancey Walker said. “He took and made several big shots in his time as a Grizzly, and he was a leader on the best team in the history of the program.”

Pippen came to the Grizzlies in 2009 after helping lead his Hamburg High School Lions to a second-place finish in the Arkansas Class 4-A state championships in 2008 and earning Class 4-A All-State honors in 2009. He caught the eye of Walker, in his first season as head coach of the Grizzlies, at an AAU event in Dallas, Texas.

“One of the first recruiting trips I took after arriving at Missouri State-West Plains was to that AAU competition in Dallas,” he recalled. “I liked how hard he played and how well he rebounded.”

But a family tragedy almost kept Pippen from coming to Missouri State-West Plains. “His mom passed away in July before he was to come up in August. He was trying to decide if he was going to come to school or not. He decided that it was in his best interest to come to school and get a degree while playing basketball, and I agreed,” Walker said.

It also was in the Grizzlies’ best interest, as he helped define a new level of excellence for the program. With his talents, and those of his teammates, the Grizzlies went on an 11-0 run to start the 2009-10 campaign. He turned in his first double digit scoring performance Nov. 9 against Northeast Mississippi Community College and continued to help pace the Grizzlies offensively throughout the remainder of the season.

As effective as he was scoring, however, he was just as effective in other aspects of the game. “We were playing a game at Fort Scott, Kansas, early in the season, and Quinton dove on a loose ball directly away from our bench. He hit his jaw and knocked himself out. I knew he was pretty tough on that day,” Walker said.

Pippen recorded his first double-double performance (15 points and 16 rebounds) Nov. 21 against St. Louis Community College-Forest Park in the State Fair Community College Tournament and had a season high 25 points against North Arkansas College Dec. 5. He finished the season averaging 11.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game and shot 41 percent from the field, 37 percent from 3-point range and 82 percent from the free throw line and helped guide the Grizzlies to a 20-10 record.

The 2010-11 started on a high note for Pippen. He was named the MVP of the Grizzly Tipoff Classic after posting 10-point and 25-point performances against Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and Iowa Western Community College, respectively, and he led the team in scoring in the next two contests against Northeast Mississippi Community College (22 points) and Fort Scott Community College (18 points).

That was just the beginning for what would become the best team in Grizzly Basketball history, and Pippen played an integral role in its success. “He made big plays for us at crucial times,” Walker said. Such as the time he grabbed a crucial free throw rebound in the second half against Butler County Community College to help the secure a 78-70 win for the team, or the time he made a key basket late in the Feb. 26 game against Moberly Area Community College that helped the Grizzlies take an 84-71 decision and completed their record-breaking 8-0 run through the Region 16 regular season.

He also knew how to step up to a challenge. “We were playing a game against Redlands Community College, and they had a player named Nurideen Lindsey who ended up at St. John’s University in New York,” Walker recalled. “He had had a pretty good first half scoring, but most of his baskets were in transition, not really in a half-court situation. After a layup, Nurideen walked over to me and said I needed to put someone else on him. I didn’t say a word back to Nurideen, I just looked at Quinton and said, ‘He thinks I need to put someone else on him.’ Nurideen barely scored the rest of the night. That’s Quinton Pippen.”

With the help of Pippen, the Grizzlies went on to complete the history-making year. They finished the season with a best ever 31-4 record, a national No. 1 ranking – which they held for five consecutive weeks at the end of the season, a 10-0 sweep of Region 16 in regular season and post-season action, a third Region 16 Championship, the program’s first NJCAA District 4 Championship, and the program’s first-ever trip to the NJCAA Division I Men’s National Basketball Championship in Hutchinson, Kansas.

“Quinton is one of the main reasons we had the success we did. He was a leader, and he was a competitor on the best team in school history. That speaks for itself,” Walker said.

Pippen finished the season averaging 13.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while shooting 43 percent from the field, 38 percent from 3-point range and 78 percent from the free throw line. He earned All-Region 16 honors and was named by the NJCAA as a second team All-American.

He graduated from Missouri State-West Plains in 2011 with an Associate of Arts in General Studies degree and transferred to the University of Chicago. After redshirting the 2011-12 season, he helped guide the team to the Great West Conference Championship in 2012-13 and was a second team All-Western Athletic Conference honoree in 2013-14.

He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Chicago in 2014 and currently lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he provides basketball lessons for young children and older children trying to improve their skills.

Missouri State-West Plains’ Career Stats

• 2009-2011
• Games Played 64
• Field Goals 261-605 • 43%
• 3-Point Field Goals 146-380 • 38%
• Free Throws  84-105 • 80%
• Total Points 752 • 12.7/game
• Total Rebounds 290 • 4.9/game
• Assists  82

 University of Chicago Career Stats

• 2012-2014
• Games Played 63
• Field Goals  274-698 • 39.3%
• 3-Point Field Goals  158-438 • 36.1%
• Free Throws  96-119 • 80.7%
• Total Points 802 • 12.7/game
• Total Rebounds 252 • 4/game
• Assists  166