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Baylor Women's Basketball

BREAKING: WNBA COTY Nicki Collen hired as Baylor's WBB Coach

May 3, 2021
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WACO, Texas - Baylor University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhoades announced Monday that former Atlanta Dream Head Coach Nicki Collen would be named the fifth Head Coach in Baylor women’s basketball history. Collen will be formally introduced Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at the Ferrell Center.

“Today is an exciting day for Baylor University and our women’s basketball program. Nicki is a passionate leader of young women and an elite basketball mind and teacher of the game,” said Rhoades. “She is a great mission fit who shares in our vision of Preparing Champions for Life by commanding excellence both on and off the court. Nicki’s professional experience will be invaluable to developing players for the next level. Her addition sustains our commitment to the women’s basketball program at the highest level. We welcome Nicki, her husband Tom and children, Connor, Reese and Logan, to the Baylor family.”

Collen comes to Baylor from the WNBA’s Atlanta franchise, where she spent the last three seasons at the helm for the Dream. Her rookie season in Atlanta resulted in a 23-11 season in 2018, where she earned WNBA Coach of the Year honors and helped the franchise to the WNBA Playoff Semifinals.

Prior to her arrival in Atlanta, she spent two seasons under head coach Curt Miller of the Connecticut Sun, helping the franchise improve from fifth in the East Division to second from 2016 to 2017, respectively.

“I am thrilled to be the head coach at Baylor University. I believe it is the top job in the country for women’s basketball,” said Collen. “I am excited to begin working with this extremely talented team and I am grateful for the unwavering support of President Livingstone and Mack Rhoades. The success of this program speaks for itself, and I will begin working today to ensure Baylor women’s basketball continues to be a program that excels at the highest levels.”

Collen’s collegiate coaching career spanned for nine seasons prior to her WNBA arrival. She spent two seasons as an assistant at Colorado State from 2000-2002, one season at Ball State from 2002-2003, one at Louisville from 2003-2004, three at Arkansas from 2011-2014 and two at Florida Gulf Coast from 2014-2016.

Her teams’ combined record in nine seasons as an NCAA Division I assistant was 214-74, good for a .743 win percentage. As an assistant, Collen guided four different squads to the NCAA Tournament, reaching the second round in three of those seasons.

She spent six of her nine seasons as an assistant under her husband, Tom Collen’s head-coaching tenures at Colorado State, Louisville and Arkansas. She also discipled under Tracy Roller at Ball State and Karl Smesko at Florida Gulf Coast, who has the third-highest active winning percentage in NCAA Division I. Collen helped the FGCU program to a 64-9 record and the school’s first NCAA Tournament win in her two-year tenure.

In her nine seasons at the collegiate level, Collen coached three All-Americans and saw three players selected in the WNBA Draft.

“We are excited to have Nicki lead our women’s basketball program, and we look forward to welcoming her into the Baylor Family,” said Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D. “I appreciate the work of Mack Rhoades and his team in identifying our next coach who understands our commitment to an elite program, aligns with Baylor’s Christian mission and appreciates how we prepare champions for life at our University. After visiting personally with Coach Collen, I can’t wait to see her and our student-athletes as they represent our great University both on the court and inside the classroom as well as throughout the Waco community.”

Collen’s collegiate playing career began at Purdue in 1993-94, when the Boilermakers made an NCAA Final Four run with a 29-5 overall record and a 16-2 mark in the Big Ten. Her sophomore season, Purdue made another deep run with an Elite Eight appearance to go with a 24-8 overall record. She transferred to Marquette, where she tallied 421 assists in her final two seasons, averaging 7.0 per game in her last 60 collegiate games. She helped the Golden Eagles to two-straight NCAA Tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998.

Nicki and her husband Tom have three children, Connor, Reese and Logan. 

WNBA ACCOLADES

• 2018 WNBA COACH OF THE YEAR

• JULY 2018 WNBA COACH OF THE MONTH

• AUGUST 2018 WNBA COACH OF THE MONTH

Discussion from...

BREAKING: WNBA COTY Nicki Collen hired as Baylor's WBB Coach

25,802 Views | 74 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by curtpenn
tallman1
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OK, let's go!
Celtic Bear
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Oh golly, not miss molly. Let's win anyway. Go Collen!
DanaDane
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We have a new leader. Time to roll the ball out and get after it!

We have a shot!
SJ8999
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OK that's respectable
1982Bear
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HC record is 38-52
Baylorkid
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I'm okay with this hire! She's a good coach
74Bear
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Unimpressive, period. What I would expect from Mack Rhodes.
Bruiser85
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74Bear said:

Unimpressive, period. What I would expect from Mack Rhodes.
Exactly.
Johnny Bear
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Bruiser85 said:

74Bear said:

Unimpressive, period. What I would expect from Mack Rhodes.
Exactly.

Please try to curb the over enthusiastic optimism.
OntheRecord
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She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en

oso de esqui
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rrbiii said:

HC record is 38-52
. Notice how they refer to her assistant coach record in the press release.
chorne68
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I am totally not impressed. Her first year in Atlanta she took over the job and had a winning record but the next two years she had a losing record. I will support her and hope she does well but I think I will be disappointed.
4th and Inches
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rrbiii said:

HC record is 38-52
many players sat out in protest of the owner/covid... how good would we have been with Egbo, Richards and Smith sitting on the bench?
BUCANDOIT82
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End of an era. Kim, thanks for the memories!
BleedGreen&Gold
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OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en


What a great tweet by her! BTW, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't wokeness -- it's basic human decency.
Self Made Bear
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Just watched the Channel 6 story on her highlighting her accomplishments as an assistant coach. My bet is Bill Brock sticks around to tutor her.
BleedGreen&Gold
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chorne68 said:

I am totally not impressed. Her first year in Atlanta she took over the job and had a winning record but the next two years she had a losing record. I will support her and hope she does well but I think I will be disappointed.
Apparently she had several players sit out the last two season in WNBA due to issue with the Dream's owner, so that sort of explains that....
Mothra
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BleedGreen&Gold said:

OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en


What a great tweet by her! BTW, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't wokeness -- it's basic human decency.


Depends on the rights...
Space53
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Welcome to Baylor coach Collen. You have my support and I think your going to have a very good team this year.
BaylorB254
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Mothra said:

BleedGreen&Gold said:

OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en


What a great tweet by her! BTW, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't wokeness -- it's basic human decency.


Depends on the rights...
.

Go on...
BaylorB254
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OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en




What's the issue with being pro LGBTQ?
vanillabryce
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Hopefully she can recruit. I trust the Xs and Os will be there
gobears20
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Staff
Great Baylor Merchandise -> https://bit.ly/2M8DuHk
BayouCity
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BleedGreen&Gold said:

OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en


What a great tweet by her! BTW, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't wokeness -- it's basic human decency.

This is a "hate the sin, love the sinner" situation but it's pretty freaking close to crossing that line.

Everyone deserves to have basic rights to be whatever they want. However, changing your gender because you think that God got it wrong when he made you in his image isn't basic human decency. It flies in the face of everything that Baylor adheres to in their biblical mission.

Committing a sin, feeling the weight of that sin, and asking for forgiveness is human - living in that sin as a proud way of life is not what God wants for our lives.
EvilTroyAndAbed
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BayouCity said:

BleedGreen&Gold said:

OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en


What a great tweet by her! BTW, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't wokeness -- it's basic human decency.

This is a "hate the sin, love the sinner" situation but it's pretty freaking close to crossing that line.

Everyone deserves to have basic rights to be whatever they want. However, changing your gender because you think that God got it wrong when he made you in his image isn't basic human decency. It flies in the face of everything that Baylor adheres to in their biblical mission.

Committing a sin, feeling the weight of that sin, and asking for forgiveness is human - living in that sin as a proud way of life is not what God wants for our lives.


Then go root for Liberty.
BleedGreen&Gold
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No, it's actually just a "love your fellow human" situation, because we all sin, we all fall short in many ways -- but being born as LGBTQ cannot be a sin because God made it that way.

I'm so glad we hired a coach who is a strong proponent of LGBTQ rights and equality and is a Christian. Hoping she can push Baylor more in the direction of equality in this area, which Baylor has already been heading towards under Livingstone...
Mothra
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BaylorB254 said:

Mothra said:

BleedGreen&Gold said:

OntheRecord said:

She's outspoken pro-LGBTQ. Livingstone is trying to checkmate the BOR into wokeness. She will succeed.

https://twitter.com/nickicollen/status/1145887845044891650?lang=en


What a great tweet by her! BTW, supporting LGBTQ rights isn't wokeness -- it's basic human decency.


Depends on the rights...
.

Go on...

Not sure biological men playing WBB is a good thing, among others.
Michibear
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If we're throwing out random CNC tweets unrelated to basketball, this one has some good news for us . . . and everyone else.

Reverend
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Ugh.

I wish her the best.
Michibear
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More rando twitter stuff...

Self Made Bear
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whitetrash
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Michibear said:

If we're throwing out random CNC tweets unrelated to basketball, this one has some good news for us . . . and everyone else.




Anybody know if she went to Louie Giglio's megachurch in ATL (and if so, whether his wife the regent had anything to do with this)?
Michibear
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Self Made Bear said:

BleedGreen&Gold said:

I'm so glad we hired a coach who is a strong proponent of LGBTQ rights and equality and is a Christian. Hoping she can push Baylor more in the direction of equality in this area, which Baylor has already been heading towards under Livingstone...

Is she? I see her support for LGBTQ on her Twitter feed, but nothing about her being a Christian.
BleedGreen&Gold
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Self Made Bear said:

BleedGreen&Gold said:

I'm so glad we hired a coach who is a strong proponent of LGBTQ rights and equality and is a Christian. Hoping she can push Baylor more in the direction of equality in this area, which Baylor has already been heading towards under Livingstone...

Is she? I see her support for LGBTQ on her Twitter feed, but nothing about her being a Christian.
yeah her twitter page at the top..Head Coach WNBA Atlanta Dream
#DreamOn mom, wife, daughter, sister, Christian
BUbearinARK
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