Former CAK basketball standout Anna Hammaker transfers to Lipscomb

Anna Hammaker, a former standout at Christian Academy of Knoxville, has transferred to Lipscomb to continue her college basketball career.  

Hammaker spent the past two seasons at Kansas State and missed the 2016-17 season after the 5-foot-10 guard suffered a fractured kneecap while doing hustle drills in practice as the Wildcats were preparing for the NCAA tournament.

“Anna is a kid we got to know while she was in high school because we recruited her,” Lipscomb coach Greg Brown said in a school release. “We recruited her hard and offered then, and she chose Kansas State, which shows her caliber of play.

“We knew that she was that type of player, but most importantly we always felt that she had intangibles we were looking for and would be a great fit on campus. She comes in as a veteran not just on the floor, but off the floor as well. It will help us in recruiting that a Power 5-type kid came here.”

Hammaker will have to sit out this season due to transfer rules. She is listed as a redshirt sophomore and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

“Coach Brown had recruited me out of high school, which is how I became very familiar with the university,” Hammaker said. “Before basketball was involved, coming from a small Christian private high school, I had known some of my friends that attended and loved the university.”

Hammaker played 20 games as a freshman and averaged 1.3 points per game, shot 35.7 percent from the floor with one assists and six steals. 

“Kansas State was a great experience for me, and though I was injured and not 100 percent healthy the majority of my time there, I still got to learn and grow as a player within my circumstances,” Hammaker said. “Since this is my third year, I've learned that this game is truly more mental than physical. Being an upperclassman transfer and coming from a Power 5 school, I feel like it can give me a platform to be a positive, older, leader and motivator for the team.”

Dr. Cris Barnthouse, physician for the Kansas City Chiefs, performed the surgery, a procedure in which a bone graft from Hammker's hip was put into her kneecap.

"In practice, they were doing a ball drill where coach throws the ball on the floor and they dive on it," Anna's father Atlee, a former Major League pitcher and 1983 National League All-Star, told the News Sentinel in March of 2016. "When she got ready to load up to jump, when she came out of it, it popped. She split her kneecap in half."

Hammaker scored 2,805 points in five high school seasons at CAK and was a Class AA Miss Basketball finalist as a senior in 2015.

“Coach Brown never tried to convince me to come and play for him, his recruiting process was different than what I was used to. He was simple, he was honest, and he let the Lord lead. He shared with me his vision for the program, for the team, and for me."