Black coaches and programs to watch in women’s college basketball

The 2023-24 college basketball season ended with a Black coach, Dawn Staley, making history when she led the South Carolina Gamecocks to a 38-0 record and national championship.

What might be in store for Black coaches and their programs in 2024-25?

While Staley and the Gamecocks have their sights set on back-to-back NCAA championships, a national title isn’t a feasible goal for every program. Some coaches will chase their program’s first NCAA tournament berth or regular-season conference title, and other programs may be simply chasing a winning season. That doesn’t make them any less worthy of attention as they build their programs.

Here are eight coaches, and their programs, that Andscape has identified as teams to watch for the 2024-25 season.

South Carolina

Coach: Dawn Staley

After winning her third national championship since 2017, Staley and the Gamecocks are certainly in line to become the first repeat champions since UConn won four consecutive championships from 2013 to 2016.

South Carolina, which begins the year as the No. 1 ranked team in the country, lost a focal point of last year’s team in Kamilla Cardoso, who was selected in the first round of the 2024 WNBA draft. But it returns everyone else from last year’s title-winning team, a scary reality for the rest of the field.

The Gamecocks have also bolstered their frontcourt, adding 6-foot-4 junior transfer Maryam Dauda, 6-5 redshirt freshman forward Adhel Tac and 6-3 freshman Joyce Edwards, the No. 3 ranked player in the ESPN Class of 2024.

The national title will be South Carolina’s to lose.

Notre Dame

Coach: Niele Ivey

What Niele Ivey has accomplished since taking over as coach of the Fighting Irish is already an impressive feat – three straight 24-plus-win seasons, an ACC regular-season title, an ACC championship and three straight Sweet 16 appearances. It’s even more impressive when you consider she’s never carried a fully healthy roster in each of those seasons.

That won’t change, at least for the start of the year, because forward Maddy Westbeld will miss the start of the season due to a foot injury. Forward Kylee Watson continues to rehab after tearing her ACL in March. Guard KK Bransford announced Oct. 8 that she will sit out the season due to a leg injury.

The Irish have perhaps the best starting backcourt in college basketball with graduate guard Olivia Miles, returning from an ACL injury, and last year’s freshman phenom Hannah Hidalgo. Add a projected first-round pick in next year’s WNBA draft, guard Sonia Citron, and a strong transfer class with forwards Liza Karlen and Liatu King, and the Fighting Irish seem positioned to make a deep run in March.

Lamar 

Coach: Aqua Franklin

Under coach Aqua Franklin last season, the Cardinals were the Southland Conference regular-season champions. Lamar finished 24-7 overall and 17-1 in conference play with Franklin, who signed an extension in May, and was named the Southland Coach of the Year. The Cardinals played in their second-straight conference title game but lost to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, snapping a 14-game winning streak.

Lamar returns 10 players. Senior forward Akasha Davis and graduate guard Sabria Dean were selected as preseason All-SLC talents. The Cardinals will seek their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2009-2010.

FIU

Coach: Jesyka Burks-Wiley 

The 2023-24 season was a breakthrough for Jesyka Burks-Wiley and the Panthers, who finished the season 21-12 overall and 11-5 in Conference USA. It was FIU’s first winning conference record since 2012-13 and its first 20-win season since 2011-12. This season, the Panthers had two players named to the CUSA preseason team, senior guard Tanajah Hayes and junior forward Mya Kone who was named the preseason player of the year. In her fifth season with FIU, Burks-Wiley will try and steer the Panthers to a conference title, which hasn’t been achieved by the program since 2002.

UIC

Coach: Ashleen Bracey

One of the best program turnaround stories in the country has been taking place on the campus of the University of Illinois Chicago. In 2022, UIC was picked to finish dead last in the Missouri Valley Conference. It finished 2-25 overall with a 1-20 record in the MVC.

Enter Bracey. 

In her first season at the helm of the Flames, Bracey led UIC to a 17-win improvement and a winning season, the program’s first since 2013-14. In her second season, Bracey led the Flames to a second-straight winning season and a 10-10 record in conference. Bracey will look to take the next step with her program in 2024-25, either winning the team’s first winning conference record since 2013-14 or making it past the quarterfinals in the MVC tournament for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

Duke

Coach: Kara Lawson

Whether she had opted to take the Tennessee coaching vacancy this offseason or stay with a budding Duke program, Kara Lawson was going to be a coach to watch in 2024-25.

The Blue Devils showcased the kind of threat they’ll be this season when they, as a 7-seed, upset No.2-seeded Ohio State in last year’s NCAA tournament to advance to the Sweet 16. It was the team’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2018.

Though led by senior guard Reigan Richardson, a preseason All-ACC selection. Duke was defined by its youth a year ago. Nine of the Blue Devils on last year’s team were either freshmen or sophomores. Freshman Oluchi Okananwa was named ACC Sixth Player of the Year.

Lawson, in her fourth full season at Duke, brings in another top recruiting class this year with three freshmen in the Top 100 of espnW’s HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings for 2024, headlined by Canadian forward Toby Fournier (No. 10).

Duke, picked to finish third in the ACC, will seek its first conference regular season and tournament championship since 2013.

North Texas

Coach: Jason Burton

Jason Burton made quite the impression in Denton, Texas, in first year coaching the Mean Green. North Texas finished last season 23-9 and set a program record for conference wins and wins in a season. The Mean Green also earned a share of their first conference title since 1986. Burton was named the AAC Coach of the Year.

This season, North Texas was picked to finish second in the AAC, just behind conference juggernaut South Florida. The team is led by senior forward Tommisha Lampkin, who was chosen as the preseason player of the year. After a disappointing end to their season in the quarterfinals in the AAC tournament in March, North Texas will aim higher in 2024-25.

Norfolk State

Coach: Larry Vickers

Larry Vickers, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the last two seasons, has the Spartans positioned to continue their recent dominance in the conference. Over the last two seasons, Norfolk State is 24-4 in conference play. The team won back-to-back conference regular season and tournament titles and will look to three-peat in 2024-25. A year ago, Vickers led the team to its most single-season wins in its Division I era (27), a record the program had just broken the previous season.

The team is led by graduate guard Diamond Johnson, the MEAC preseason player of the year, senior forward Kierra Wheeler (preseason first team) and graduate guard Niya Fields (preseason second team).

Also keep an eye on: Vanessa Blair-Lewis (George Mason), Yolett McPhee-McCuin (Ole Miss), Carrie Moore (Harvard), Darnell Haney (Georgetown), Alex Simmons (Memphis).