The ACC is one of the most powerful conferences in all of college sports, including women’s basketball. And last week, two ACC programs hired new head coaches for their women’s basketball teams:
Boston College
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee was named the Eagles’ new head coach after spending the last two seasons at Albany where they made the 2017 NCAA tournament. Bernabei-McNamee does not have the highest profile resume, but she was an assistant on the Maryland Terrapins team that won the national championship in 2006.
Click on the links below from BC Interruption, SB Nation’s Boston College blog.
Clemson
On Friday, Clemson announced that Amanda Butler was hired as their new head coach. Butler was most recently the head coach at Florida where she spent 10 seasons (2007-17) and accumulated a 190-136 record and four NCAA tournament appearances with the Gators. Before her time at Florida, Butler was the head coach at Charlotte for two seasons.
Clemson’s women’s basketball program has struggled mightily in since Jim Davis retired in 2005. The Tigers have failed to get a .500 season since 2003-04 when they made the WNIT. They did not make the NCAA tournament since 2002. Butler isn’t the biggest name in women’s college basketball coaching. But considering that she’s had success at an SEC program, that’s a plus for Tigers.
Longwood
We go to the mid majors where the Longwood Lancers of the Big South named Rebecca Tillett as their new head coach last Thursday. Tillett comes from the Naval Academy where she was their Associate Head Coach. While at Navy, the Midshipmen made two consecutive WNIT appearances in her four seasons there. Before her college career, Tillett was the head coach of the Forest Park High School girls basketball team in Woodbridge, Virginia for six years.
And here’s something interesting according to her profile at Navy, Tillett was a JV girls basketball coach and varsity assistant at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, Virginia during her last year at nearby William and Mary, where she played during her college days. Student athletes live busy lives, so I just wonder how Tillett was able to juggle all those commitments.