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USF begins national search for next women's basketball coach
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- USF begins national search for next women's basketball coach
South Florida has started its search for its next women's basketball coach.
Rob Higgins, the CEO of USF Athletics , announced on X the Bulls will not play in the WBIT and a national search for a full-time women's basketball coach is underway. Higgins said interim coach Michele Woods-Baxter will be considered as a candidate.
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Woods-Baxter was named interim coach when longtime USF head coach Jose Fernandez was hired by the Dallas Wings in October, days before the college season began. Woods-Baxter led the Bulls to a 20-12 overall record and a 13-5 mark in the American Conference.
The Bulls had solid non-conference wins over Duke, Harvard and Navy under Woods-Baxter, but fell in the quarterfinals of the American tournament by 11 points on Thursday.
Higgins met with the team on Friday morning.
"This is one of the best women's basketball programs in the country and we look forward to identifying the perfect leader to take us to championship heights in our next chapter," Higgins said.
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Under Fernandez, who coached the Bulls from 2000-25, USF became one of the signature mid-major programs in women's college basketball. He won 485 games and took USF to nine of the past 12 NCAA Tournaments. The Bulls won three conference titles under Fernandez and the 2009 WNIT championship. They advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament five times.
Fernandez's profile grew as USF kept winning. He is currently the president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and had been approached by WNBA teams and Power 4 programs several times before departing for the Wings in October. Fernandez has also worked with USA Basketball as a coach in many capacities and is a scout for Team USA this week at the FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico.
Woods-Baxter had been an assistant — and then associate head coach — under Fernandez since 2008. Before joining the Bulls, she was the head coach at Monmouth where she went 51-51 in four seasons. She's a native of Michigan and got her start in coaching in boys high school basketball in Florida.
Last summer, longtime USF athletic director Michael Kelly left for the U.S. Naval Academy and Higgins was named CEO of USF Athletics in September.
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With Fernandez leaving for the WNBA so close to the start of the season, there wasn't time for Higgins to conduct a search for a head coach. In February, USA TODAY Sports reported unless USF won the American Conference Tournament to punch its ticket to March Madness, Higgins would likely conduct a national search to make his own hire. On Wednesday, USF started putting out feelers to potential candidates.
USF is viewed by industry sources — coaches, agents and administrators alike — as the best women's basketball job in the American Conference and one of the best in the mid-major ranks.
If Higgins doesn't keep Woods-Baxter, here's who he might call:
Lindsay Edmonds, Rice head coach
Edmonds has never had a losing record in five seasons at Rice, her first stop as a head coach after spending eight seasons as an assistant at NC State. The Owls went to the NCAA Tournament in 2024, their first year in the American. This season, Rice is 27-4 — their second-most wins in program history, and are eying what would be their second NCAA Tournament bid in the last three seasons. Earlier this season, the Owls broke off a 22-game winning streak. The native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and graduate of App State also coached at James Madison under Kenny Brooks. She's proved her bonafides as a head coach at Rice and will continue to be a top candidate for many openings this year.
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Destinee Rogers, Arkansas State head coach
The 36-year-old has quickly turned Arkansas State into a winner, taking the Red Wolves to their first NCAA Tournament last season. Arkansas State went 24-9 this season, its most wins in a regular season in over a decade. While they won't play in the NCAA Tournament after losing in the Sun Belt semifinals, the Red Wolves will likely be invited to the WBIT. Rogers has a winning pedigree, as she helped Central Arkansas appear in March Madness as a player and then as an assistant coach. Rogers has displayed the ability to assemble talented rosters with the transfer portal — she has seven transfer players this season — and create a scheme and style that plays to her players' strengths. The Red Wolves rank in the top 10 nationally in 3-point rate, total 3-pointers made, offensive rebounds per game and turnovers forced per game.
Gabe Lazo, Tennessee assistant coach
A Miami native who played at FIU and got his start in collegiate coaching there, Lazo makes a lot of sense at USF because of his connections in a fertile recruiting area. Before joining the college ranks, Lazo coached a Florida-based AAU team to the Nike Nationals and was a three-time Coach of the Year at the high school level. Now an assistant at Tennessee, where he's signed multiple McDonald's All-Americans for Kim Caldwell, Lazo is widely regarded as one of the top recruiters in the sport. However, it should also be mentioned that Lazo is an ace scouter and has a strong acumen in X's and O's. In the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell gave Lazo – then an assistant for the Bulldogs – much of the credit for preparing the team in their upset of No. 6 Creighton. Purcell added Lazo's "work ethic is unmatched" and he's an "elite" player developer.
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Other names to watch:Georgia Southern head coach Hana Haden, McNeese State head coach Ayla Guzzardo, FIU head coach Jesyka Burks-Wiley, High Point head coach Chelsea Banbury, Charleston head coach Robin Harmony
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Candidates to know as USF begins women's basketball coaching search
