4/9 Update: There is a very good chance this coaching search ends on Wednesday. The candidates we can confirm are still in the running are George Mason head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis, Buffalo head coach Becky Burke, and Missouri State head coach Beth Cunningham.
George Mason Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis
(Photo: 247Sports)
George Mason just had its best season in school history as it won the A10 for the first time.
Vanessa Blair-Lewis led George Mason to a 27-6 record for its most wins in school history and led the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
In the 2023-24 season, Mason finished 23-8 this season and 14-4 in Atlantic 10 play, the Patriots' first 20-win season since 2017-18. In every season since arriving, Blair-Lewis has increased the Patriots' win total, while the team set program records in regular-season wins and Atlantic 10 regular season wins with 23 and 14, respectively. She successfully led the Patriots to just the fourth ever postseason appearance as they received a bid to the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitational Tournament.
In 2022-23, Mason finished 16-15 and 8-8 in Atlantic 10 play, the Patriots' first winning season since 2017-18. In both seasons since her arrival, Blair-Lewis has led the Patriots to a win in the conference tournament. After winning just two games at home in 2021-22, Mason went 11-4 in EagleBank Arena this season, including a stretch of six consecutive games across November and December.
In her first season in Fairfax, Blair-Lewis led Mason to more than triple its win total from 2019-20, finishing 10-19. The Patriots also won three conference regular season games after not picking up a victory the season before while upsetting SEC member Florida at home. In the 2022 Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Tournament, the Patriots became the first 14th-seed to win an opening round game, defeating 11th-seed Saint Louis 65-50 in the opening round.
Blair-Lewis led Bethune-Cookman to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019 and had a 13-year stint as the head women's basketball coach of the Wildcats. The four-time MEAC Coach of the Year, Blair-Lewis led Bethune-Cookman to a 196-168 (.538) overall record and six winning seasons, rebuilding a program that had only had two winning seasons in the 19 seasons prior to her arrival.
Over the previous five seasons (2015 to 2020), she guided Bethune-Cookman to a 107-48 (.690) overall and 68-12 (.850) MEAC record. The Wildcats posted four 21+ win seasons, four MEAC Regular Season Championships, one MEAC Tournament Championship, and five postseason berths.
In 2019-20, the Wildcats finished 23-6 overall and 15-1 in MEAC play for its fourth regular season championship in the last five years. The team earned a bid to the WNIT before the remainder of the season was canceled due to COVID-19. In 2018-19, she led Bethune-Cookman to the MEAC Tournament Championship and its first NCAA Tournament berth in program history. The Wildcats defeated Norfolk State to clinch the program's first tournament championship since 1984 and earned a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Buffalo Head Coach Becky Burke
Her club tied the program's Division I era record for overall wins (22) and conference victories (14) while holding the D1 era's longest winning streak (seven games) as the team made a 14-win improvement from the previous season. U
(Photo: 247Sports)
Becky Burke has helped turn the Buffalo program around and is coming off a season that saw the Bulls win the WNIT in only her third season. In Burke's second season at the helm of the Bulls, Burke led UB to a 19-win season, a trip to the MAC Championship game and an appearance in the postseason WNIT. The Bulls won 10 games in league play, a seven-win improvement from the previous season, which is the highest improvement of any MAC school, while also finishing fourth after being picked eighth in the MAC preseason poll.
In her first season in Buffalo, Burke led the Bulls to a 12-16 overall record. Picked 10th in the Mid-American Conference preseason coaches poll, the Bulls closed the season strong and finished eighth, earning a spot in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals. The Bulls ranked in the top half of the league in field goal percentage (.438), three-point field goal percentage (.343), scoring defense (65.1), three-point field goal defense (.315), assists per game (13.8) and assist-to-turnover ratio (+1.0).
Burke spent two successful seasons as the head coach of USC Upstate. She took over the program in 2020 and immediately led the Spartans to five Big South Conference victories, their most in four seasons. In just her second year, Burke engineered one of the best turnarounds in the country, leading an Upstate team picked 10th in the preseason to the No. 3 overall seed and a first-round bye in the 2022 Big South Championship.
Prior to taking the reins at Upstate, Burke had an impressive two-year stint at the NCAA DII level as the head coach at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. She brought the Golden Eagles back to national prominence in just her first season at the helm of the program in 2018-19, leading the team to a 25-7 record, which was a 12-win improvement from the previous year. The Golden Eagles cracked the national top-25 that season and made their first NCAA Tournament since 2014 while leading the country in field goal percentage and the Mountain East Conference in defensive scoring.
Burke started the women's basketball program at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ. in 2015 and went on to be the head coach of the Eagles for two seasons. She led the team to a winning record in its inaugural campaign in 2016-17. In her second season at ERAU, the Eagles ranked nationally in the NAIA top-25 and compiled a 21-6 record, including 11-3 in the California Pacific Conference. Burke recruited and coached three all-conference performers in two seasons at ERAU.
Missouri State Head Coach Beth Cunningham
Beth Cunningham was introduced as Missouri State women's basketball head coach in 2022. Last season, the Lady Bears finished 36-9 and lost a second round WBIT matchup.
Year two under Cunningham saw the Lady Bears finish 23-10 overall and place third in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season standings with a 15-5 league record, securing a seventh-straight 20-win season for the program. Cunningham led her squad to the MVC Tournament championship game, and after coming up a few seconds short of the conference tournament title, the Lady Bears made their ninth consecutive postseason appearance with a bid to the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT).
In her first season at the helm of the Lady Bears program in 2022-23, Cunningham led her team to a 20-12 overall record, which secured MSU's sixth-straight 20-win season, and an eighth consecutive postseason appearance with a WNIT bid. Missouri State continued its history of dominance on the boards, ranking inside the top 30 nationally in three categories: eighth in offensive rebounds per game (16.2), 10th in rebound margin (+8.9) and 26th in total rebounds per game (41.5).
Cunningham, who owns an impressive 20-year collegiate coaching resume, arrived in Springfield from Duke University, where she spent two seasons as an assistant coach on coach Kara Lawson's staff. Prior to her stint at Duke, she spent eight seasons (2012-20) as an associate head coach at Notre Dame for Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw. She was part of one of the best stretches in NCAA women's history as Notre Dame compiled a 244-19 record in that span with seven straight 30-win seasons, six conference titles, five NCAA Final Four appearances and the 2018 National Championship. The Irish followed that up with a runner-up finish in the 2019 NCAA Championship, finishing the year with the No. 1 scoring offense in the country (88.6 points per game).
Before returning to her alma mater in the summer of 2012, Cunningham spent 11 years on the coaching staff at vcu, including one year as an assistant coach (2001-02), one as associate head coach (2002-03) and nine seasons as head coach starting in 2003-04. She is the Rams' all-time leader in women's basketball coaching wins with a 167-115 (.592) record and postseason appearances in each of her final five seasons. From 2008-12, vcu averaged better than 22 wins per season, including back-to-back 26-win seasons in 2008 and 2009, and the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in 2009.