A new challenge awaits long-time women’s basketball coach and Seton LaSalle graduate Kathy McConnell-Miller after she was named Tuesday head coach at Carnegie Mellon.
Her ties to women’s basketball in western Pennsylvania and around the nation go all the way back to high school when she helped Seton LaSalle win a state championship as a player in 1984.
Her coaching career started after she graduated from Virginia where she played four years. She began her coaching career at Pitt in 1991 as an assistant coach and later served in the same capacity at Rutgers and Illinois.
She was head coach at Tulsa from 1999-2005, leading the program to a 91-88 record in six seasons after it won 23 games in three years prior to her arrival.
She left Tulsa in 2005 to become head coach at Colorado, where she served five seasons and led the team to a top-25 national ranking. She was an assistant with the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock before returning home to serve as associate head coach at Pitt under her sister, former Penn State and Olympics star Suzie McConnell-Serio, from 2013-18.
Overall, six of the eight McConnell siblings attended college on a basketball scholarship.
After leaving Pitt, she coached the Trinity High School girls for five years.
“Kathy has had outstanding success at all levels of the game, and I couldn’t be more excited to welcome her to the Carnegie Mellon family,” CMU athletic director Josh Centor said in a statement. “We have aspirations to become one of the top Division III women’s basketball programs in the nation, and with Kathy’s leadership, expertise and character, we believe she’s the one to lead us there.”
“A sincere thank you to Dr. Centor, the search committee and my fellow coaches for entrusting me with leading our student-athletes in their pursuit of excellence in the classroom, on the court and in the community,” McConnell-Miller said in a statement. “Carnegie Mellon is a world-class institution, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the Tartan family, building relationships and working to continue a strong competitive tradition.”
She will assume her duties May 31.
