|
| Kristen Dowling went 147-46 in seven seasons as the head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. |
After building a successful women's basketball program at the Division III level in Southern California, Kristen Dowling will try to do it again at the Division I level. Pepperdine named Dowling as the Wave's new head coach on Wednesday.
- From the archive: CMS wins fourth straight SCIAC crown (Feb. 2017)
- More SCIAC moves: Tufts picks up the Pace from Pomona
- More moves in Coaching Carousel
"Pepperdine Athletics exists to further our institution's Christian mission, to provide an enriching, rewarding experience for our student-athletes that results in graduation, and to compete for championships," Pepperdine Director of Athletics Dr. Steve Potts said in the school's release. "Kristen Dowling gives us a perfect fit for those objectives."
Dowling turned Claremont-Mudd-Scripps into the dominant program in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) after taking over the Athena's program in 2012. Dowling led Claremont to a 15-win turnaround from 9-16 in her first season to 24-4 record with a SCIAC title and an NCAA Tournament appearance in her second. That started a run of four consecutive SCIAC championships through 2017. The Athenas won 23 games in 2018 and 24 games last season and rolled up an 88-8 conference record the past six seasons.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps reached the NCAA Tournament's second round twice with wins over Trinity (Texas) in 2016 and Texas-Dallas in 2017.
Dowling was an assistant coach at Pepperdine from 2010-12, a graduate assistant from 2006-2008 and earned her master's degree from there. She takes over a Waves' program that went 22-12, 12-6 in the WAC and reached the third round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' coaching vacancy comes a couple one week after SCIAC champions Pomona-Pitzer lost its head coach. Jill Pace left the west coast to become the head coach at Tufts where she will replace Carla Berube. Berube was the fourth Division III coach to land a D1 job this offseason, taking over at Princeton in May.
From D-III to D-IThe list of women's basketball coaches to go directly from D-III to D-I head coaching jobs since 2000 has grown by four players in this offseason alone. Click on the links to see stories on each coach's jump. |
||||
| Coach, D-III school | D-I school | Year | Best year there | Current job |
| Lisa Stone, UW-Eau Claire | Drake | 2000-01 | 25-8, 2001-02 | D-I St. Louis (26-8 in 15-16) |
| Candace Crabtree, Rowan | Drexel | 2000-01 | 19-10, 2000-01 | Out of coaching |
| Richard Barron, Sewanee | Princeton | 2000-01 | 21-7, 2005-06 | Maine men's head coach |
| Tammy Smith, Muhlenberg | Lafayette | 2001-02 | 14-16, 2007-08 | Out of coaching |
| Julie Goodenough, Hardin-Simmons | Oklahoma St. | 2002-03 | 8-20, 2003-04 | D-I Abilene Christian (26-4 in 15-16) |
| Mary Hegarty, Chapman | Long Beach St. | 2003-04 | 19-9, 2004-05 | Out of coaching |
| Kristin Hughes, Case | Colgate | 2004-05 | 12-18, 2004-05 | Out of coaching |
| Stefanie Pemper, Bowdoin | Navy | 2008-09 | 25-8, 2017-18 | Navy |
| Scott Rueck, George Fox | Oregon St. | 2010-11 | 31-4, 2016-17 | Oregon State |
| Aaron Roussell, Chicago | Bucknell | 2012-13 | 28-6, 2018-19 | Richmond |
| Greg Todd, Transylvania | Morehead St. | 2013-14 | 24-11, 2018-19 | Morehead State |
| Nancy Fahey, Washington U. | Illinois | 2016-17 | 10-20, 2018-19 | Illinois |
| Loree Payne, Puget Sound | Northern Arizona | 2016-17 | 13-18, 2018-19 | Northern Arizona |
| Marc Mitchell, FDU-Florham | St. Peter's | 2017-18 | 6-24, 2018-19 | St. Peter's |
| Scott Hemer, SUNY Geneseo | Canisius | 2017-18 | 11-19, 2018-19 | Canisius |
| Michael Meek, George Fox | Portland | 2018-19 | ||
| Trevor Woodruff, Scranton | Bucknell | 2018-19 | ||
| Lauren Sumski, Rhodes | Lipscomb | 2018-19 | ||
| Carla Berube, Tufts | Princeton | 2018-19 | ||
| Kristen Dowling, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | Pepperdine | 2018-19 | ||