Debra Gore-Mann (left) introduces women's basketball Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Azzi (right) as USF's new women's basketball coach.
The University of San Francisco has hired women’s basketball
Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Azzi to head its
women’s
basketball program.
Azzi brings a wealth of basketball experience and a
determined work ethic to the Hilltop, which has suffered in recent years
after
winning three straight West Coast Conference championships from 1995-97
and
making back-to-back-to-back appearances in the National Collegiate
Athletic
Association tournament.
A 2009 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and Bay Area
Sports Hall of Fame member, Azzi was an Olympian on the gold medal-winning U.S.
national team in 1996, played five seasons in the Women’s National
Basketball
Association, helped to found and played in the American Basketball
League, played
professionally overseas, and is an icon of Stanford University’s women’s
basketball program.
A four-year starter and three-time All-Pac-10 Performer and
the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1990, Azzi led the Cardinal to a pair
of Pac-10
titles in 1989 and 1990, and a national championship in 1990.
USF is her first coaching assignment.
“Azzi’s passion for the game, along with her professional
reputation both in and around the sport of basketball, will prove to be a
great
asset to the program and our student-athletes,” said USF Athletic
Director Debra Gore-Mann.
Azzi, who has been asked to coach at the collegiate or
professional levels every year since she retired in 2003, chose USF
because it
was the first opportunity that “felt right.” She plans to rebuild the
women’s
basketball program around three pillars: trust, work ethic, and caring
for each
other.
“Together we’re going to build something really, really great
here at USF,” Azzi said.
USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. welcomed Azzi saying
she clearly supports the university’s commitment to excellence on the
court, in
the classroom, and in the community. “Jennifer Azzi has been for many
the face
of women’s basketball and now she will be that for USF. I am delighted
to have
such a polished, experienced, and articulate professional at the head of
our
women’s basketball program.”
