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

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The 2023-24 college basketball season concluded under Black head coach Dawn Staley, who made history by leading the South Carolina Gamecocks to a 38-0 record and a national championship.

What could possibly be in store for Black coaches and their programs in 2024-2025?

While Staley and the Gamecocks are focused on winning more NCAA championships, a national title shouldn’t be a possible goal for each program. Some coaches will likely be chasing their program’s first-place finish in the NCAA Tournament or a regular-season conference title, while others may simply be chasing a winning season. This doesn’t make them any less worthy of consideration when creating your programs.

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Here are the eight coaches and their programs chosen by Andscape as teams to watch in the 2024-25 season.


South Carolina coach Dawn Staley coaches her team against Clayton State in the course of the first half of an exhibition game in Columbia, South Carolina, on October 28.

Photo by Nell Redmond/AP

South Carolina

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Coach: Dawn Staley

After winning their third national title since 2017, Staley and the Gamecocks are definitely on course to turn into the primary repeat champions since UConn won 4 straight championships from 2013-2016.

South Carolina, which starts the yr because the No. 1 team in the country, lost the centerpiece of last yr’s team in Kamilla Cardoso, who was chosen in the primary round of the 2024 WNBA draft. But everyone else from last yr’s title-winning team returns, which is a scary reality. for the remaining of the speed.

The Gamecocks also strengthened their frontcourt by adding 6-foot-10 junior transfer Maryam Dauda, ​​6-5 redshirt freshman forward Adhel Tac and 6-3 freshman Joyce Edwards, the No. 3 player in ESPN’s class 2024.

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


Notre Dame Fighting Irish coach Niele Ivey during a game against the Ole Miss Rebels in the second round of the NCAA women’s tournament on March 25 at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana.

Joseph Weiser/Sportswire icon

Our Lady

Coach: Niele Ivey

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What Niele Ivey has achieved since taking on as head coach of the Fighting Irish is already a powerful feat – three straight seasons with over 24 wins, an ACC regular season title, an ACC Championship and three straight Sweet 16 appearances. What’s much more impressive is that whenever you consider that it never had a totally healthy lineup in any of those seasons.

That won’t change, at the very least initially of the yr, as forward Maddy Westbeld will miss the beginning of the season with a foot injury. Forward Kylee Watson continues her rehabilitation after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in March. Guard KK Bransford announced on October 8 that she can be sidelined for the season with a leg injury.

The Irish have arguably one of the best backcourt in college basketball with graduate Olivia Miles, getting back from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, and last yr’s freshman phenom Hannah Hidalgo. Add in a projected first-round pick in next yr’s WNBA draft, guard Sonia Citron, and a powerful transfer class with forwards Liza Karlen and Liatu King, and the Fighting Irish appear to be in a superb position to strike in March.


Lamar Aqua coach Franklin (left) talks with guard Jacei Denley (right) against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on March 14.

Lamar

Trainer: Aqua Franklin

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

Lamar returns 10 players. Senior forward Akasha Davis and graduate defender Sabria Dean were chosen as preseason All-SLC talents. The Cardinals will likely be searching for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009-2010.


Florida International Panthers coach Jesyka Burks-Wiley in the course of the Conference USA women’s tournament on March 14 at Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama.

Michael Wade/Sportswire icon

WHEW

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Coach: Jesyka Burks-Wiley

The 2023-24 season was a breakout season 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 conference winning record because the 2012–2013 season and its first 20-win season because the 2011–2012 season. This season, the Panthers had two players named to the CUSA preseason team: senior defender Tanajah Hayes and junior forward Mya Kone, who was named preseason player of the yr. In her fifth season at FIU, Burks-Wiley will try to lead the Panthers to a conference title, a feat this system has not achieved since 2002.


UIC

Coach: Ashleen Bracey

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One of one of the best program turnaround stories in the country occurred on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2022, UIC finished last in the Missouri Valley Conference. They finished 2-25 overall with a 1-20 record in the MVC.

Bracey comes in.

In her first season on the helm of the Flames, Bracey led UIC to a 17-win improvement and a winning season, this system’s first because the 2013-14 season. In her second season, Bracey led the Flames to their second straight victory and a 10-10 conference record. Bracey will look to take the following step for her program in the 2024-2025 season, either earning the team’s first conference record because the 2013-2014 season or advancing to the quarterfinals of the MVC Tournament for the primary time because the 2013-2014 season.


Duke Blue Devils coach Kara Lawson gives the signal against the UConn Huskies in the semifinals of the Portland Regionals on March 30 on the Moda Center.

Troy Wayrynen/USA TODAY Sports

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Prince

Coach: Kara Lawson

Whether she decides to take the Tennessee coaching job this offseason or stick with the growing Duke program, Kara Lawson will likely be a coach to watch in 2024-2025.

The Blue Devils showed what a threat they will likely be this season after they advanced to the Sweet 16 as No. 7 seed Ohio State in last yr’s NCAA Tournament. It was the primary Sweet 16 appearance in the team’s history since 2018.

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

Lawson, in his fourth full season at Duke, brings in one other top recruiting class this yr with three freshmen ranked in the highest 100 of HoopGurlz espnW’s 2024 recruiting rankings, led by Canadian forward Toby Fournier (No. 10).

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


University of North Texas coach Jason Burton in the course of the American Athletic Conference media day on the Westin Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas on October 14 in Irving, Texas.

Andrew Wevers/Getty Images

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North Texas

Coach: Jason Burton

Jason Burton made quite an impression in Denton, Texas, because the Mean Green’s first-year coach. North Texas finished last season 23-9 and set program records for conference wins and wins in a season. The Mean Green also won their first conference title since 1986. Burton was named AAC Coach of the Year.

This season, North Texas finished second in the AAC, just behind conference giant South Florida. The team is led by senior forward Tommisha Lampkin, who was named preseason player of the yr. After a disappointing end to the season in the quarterfinals of the AAC Tournament in March, North Texas will aim higher in the 2024-2025 season.

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Norfolk State Spartans coach Larry Vickers commented on the sport against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the primary round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on March 17 at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.

William Howard/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Norfolk State

Coach: Larry Vickers

Larry Vickers, the Mideast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year the past two seasons, has positioned the Spartans to proceed their recent conference dominance. Over the past two seasons, Norfolk State has gone 24-4 in conference play. The team has won regular season and conference tournament titles and will look to win three championships in the 2024-2025 season. A yr ago, Vickers led the team to probably the most wins in a single season in the Division I era (27), a record this system had just broken the previous season.

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The team is led by graduate defenseman Diamond Johnson, MEAC Preseason Player of the Year, senior forward Kierra Wheeler (Preseason First Team) and graduate defenseman Niya Fields (Preseason Second Team).

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

Sean Hurd is a author for Andscape, primarily covering women’s basketball. The pinnacle of his athletic development got here on the age of 10, when he was voted camper of the week at Josh Childress’ basketball camp.

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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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