A year after the DU men’s basketball team went through a coaching search and later found Joe Scott, the women’s team will be going through the same process shortly. It was announced last Tuesday that Pam Tanner resigned after 13 seasons at the helm of the women’s basketball program.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to mold a program at the University of Denver for 13 years. I was fortunate to be able to teach and coach at such a fine institution,” said Tanner in a press release.
Tanner guided the Pioneers to a 190-181 record in her 13 seasons as head coach, including a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2001, and has been named conference coach of the year three times.
Denver entered this year’s season with high hopes, but finished with a disappointing 11-19 record overall and 6-12 in the Sun Belt Conference. Tanner and the Pioneers entered the year with back-to-back seasons of over .500 records and were looking to improve with four starters returning.
Tanner helped transition DU women’s basketball from NCAA Division II to Division I in 1998 and is the all-time winningest coach in program history.
The Louisville, Ky. native began her college career as a player at Illinois State University where she was the conference player of the year in 1988-89 and led the team to two conference titles. Tanner then became an assistant at the University of Tennessee in 1990 under legendary head coach Pat Summitt, who is looking to lead her Volunteers to an NCAA title tonight against Stanford. Tanner left in 1993 for San Diego State where she was an assistant from 1993-95 and then was hired at DU in 1995.
Tanner is currently looking for new job opportunities, and there are many out there in the women’s basketball job caracole. Schools like Santa Clara, North Texas, Idaho, Ball State and Murray State are just a few of the schools that currently have head coaching vacancies.
Denver Athletic Director, Peg Bradley-Doppes, is at the Final Four in San Antonio and will be looking to fill the void at head coach as soon as possible.
