Joe Cipriano was an American college basketball

College basketball

College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....

 player and coach. He played in college under coach Tippy Dye

Tippy Dye

William Henry Harrison "Tippy" Dye is a noted former college athlete, coach, and athletic director in the United States. As a basketball head coach, Dye led the University of Washington to their only NCAA Final Four appearance...

 at Washington, and he played in the 1953 Final Four

1953 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

The 1953 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 22 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 10, 1953, and ended with the championship game on March 18 in Kansas City, Missouri...

 in Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

.

Cipriano coached at the University of Idaho

Idaho Vandals

The Idaho Vandals are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Idaho. They participate in NCAA Division I - FBS in the Western Athletic Conference ....

 from 1960 to 1963, where his teams went 43–35 (.551), and his most notable player was future NBA

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 star Gus Johnson

Gus Johnson (basketball)

Gus Johnson was a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association . He spent nine seasons with the Baltimore Bullets, and a final season split between the Phoenix Suns and the Indiana Pacers of the ABA...

, the tenth overall selection in the 1963 NBA Draft

1963 NBA Draft

The 1963 NBA Draft was the 17th annual draft of the National Basketball Association . The draft was held on April 30, 1963 before the 1963–64 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. A player who had finished his four-year college...

. He then coached at the University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a public research university located in the city of Lincoln in the U.S. state of Nebraska...

, where he ran the Cornhuskers' program from 1964 until his death from cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

in 1980 at age 49, and compiled a record of 253–197 (.562).