The two latest WNBA head coaching hires may be a sign of broader changes in women’s basketball.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Sparks announced that they have hired longtime Utah coach Lynne Roberts, who will make the jump from college basketball to the pros for the first time in her career. Her hiring comes a week after the Atlanta Dream hired Karl Smesko, Florida Gulf Coast’s coach of more than 20 seasons. Two of the preeminent offensive minds – in the college game – are now WNBA head coaches.
While it’s rare for WNBA franchises to turn to college coaches to fill vacancies, multiple league sources said they are being targeted more than in years past.
Part of the change is financial. Salaries for WNBA head coaches ranged from about $350,000 to just over $1 million a year in 2024, multiple league sources said, nearly doubling from five years ago. According to the USA Today salary database, Roberts made about $700,000 last season in Utah, while Smesko made about $450,000. It is safe to assume that their franchises have provided them with comparable salaries or salary differentials.
Hiring college coaches from mid-tier programs or less established Power 5 programs has always been more realistic (and cheaper) than hiring from the upper echelons of college basketball. With more comparable salaries (and the willingness of WNBA teams to pay buyouts), professional opportunities have become more attractive, especially amid changing dynamics such as conference alignment, the NIL, and high transfer rates in college athletics. The conflicting schedules — Roberts and Smesko leaving their programs with the season already underway — don’t appear to be such a deterrent anymore.
However, a WNBA franchise has not hired a coach without NBA, G League or previous WNBA experience (player, assistant or head coach) since the Chicago Sky hired Pokey Chatman in 2011 from Spartak Moscow following her tenure at LSU. The hiring of Roberts and Smesko could send signals to the rest of women’s basketball that the college-to-pro coaching route could be viable, depending on how well they do in the WNBA.
Their arrivals also underscore the changes in how the WNBA game is played, as increasing awareness of offensive efficiency through the 3 is key to success.
Roberts and Smesko are known for their offensive philosophies. Smesko placed a huge emphasis on 3-point shooting (since 2009-10 — first-year data available via Her Hoop Stats — FGCU finished in the top four in Division I in 3-point attempts each season). Over the past three seasons under Roberts, Utah has ranked No. 1 in 3-point field goal attempts, No. 2 in offensive margin and No. 3 in effective field goal percentage.
After attempting a league-low 14.9 3s per game last year, the Chicago Sky made a similar philosophical decision in signing Tyler Marsh. Natalie Nakase should bring modern offensive principles to the Golden State Valkyries, similar to what Nate Tibbetts did last season when he left the NBA for the Phoenix Mercury. (The New York Liberty led the league with 29 3-point attempts per game last season. The Mercury and Liberty set a WNBA record with 33 combined 3-pointers in a game last season.)
The WNBA continues to move, in more ways than one.
Will the Wings, Mystics or Sun be the next hires?
Three head coaching positions remain: Washington Mystics, Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun.
Recently hired Wings general manager Curt Miller called their ongoing search “global.” (More on Dallas developments later.)
The Sun replaces Stephanie White, who joined the Indiana Fever shortly after Connecticut announced their split. White recently confirmed that her top two assistants, Briann January and Austin Kelly, have interviewed for head coaching positions this cycle. It wouldn’t be shocking to see one of them end up as the Sun’s next head coach. If neither is promoted, one or both could follow White to Indiana.
After a decorated playing career that included nine seasons with the Fever, January will enter her third season as a WNBA coach. She is recognized around the league and currently coaches as an assistant for the Detroit Pistons G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise. Kelly had years of college experience before joining the Sun, including a stint as director of recruiting under White at Vanderbilt. His wife, Karima Christmas-Kelly, has been a Fever assistant for the past two seasons.
White said she hopes to keep them working together by bringing them to Indiana. “I’d like to keep Karima on board,” White said.
After parting ways with general manager Mike Thibault and coach Eric Thibault about a month ago, the Mystics are still searching. By January 1, they want to hire a coach and a general director, a person with knowledge of the process confirmed. Like Los Angeles and Atlanta, the Mystics management group has hired a scouting firm to identify potential candidates. The Washington Post was the first to report on their possible timeline and search firm. Coincidentally or not, this cycle has so far led to college coaching hires.
What’s next for Teresa Weatherspoon?
Weatherspoon’s firing just 11 months after she was hired by the Chicago Sky surprised many — including Weatherspoon. Co-owner Nadia Rawlinson hailed her appointment as “the perfect choice to build on our culture of excellence and usher in an exciting new era”.
“It wasn’t a decision I saw coming,” Weatherspoon said Wednesday, speaking publicly about the firing for the first time.
Weatherspoon, replaced by Marsh on Nov. 2, has already moved on. She is one of six head coaches hired for the inaugural season of Unrivaled, a fledgling 3×3 winter basketball league that begins Jan. 17. However, she did not rule out a possible return to the WNBA next season.
“It remains to be seen,” Weatherspoon said. “One thing about me is that I don’t run from anything. I don’t have to hide from anything. I don’t have to answer anything. Because I know how hard I worked. And I know that the opportunity will come for me and I will be ready.”
A possible fit could be in Las Vegas, as the Aces still have an assistant coaching opening following the departures of both Nakase and Marsh. (They announced Ty Ellis as one of their new assistants.) Weatherspoon was a longtime teammate of Aces head coach Becky Hammon, and the two remain close friends.
The decision to join Unrivaled is not expected to preclude Weatherspoon or any other league coach from other potential WNBA coaching positions. The streak ends on March 17, more than a month before the start of WNBA training camps. The league’s two other coaches — Andrew Wade and Nola Henry — were also on WNBA teams last season and could return to the W this summer.
Smesko has been a target of the WNBA before
This college season, Smesko boasted the third-highest winning percentage among active college coaches behind UConn’s Geno Auriemma and LSU’s Kim Mulkey. So it should come as no surprise that teams have tried to lure Smesko away from FGCU before.
Over the years, Smesko has interviewed with Indiana, Illinois and Oregon State, among others. He turned down an offer from USC in 2017, according to Sports Illustrated. Smesko said he interviewed for a WNBA head coaching opportunity a few years ago, only to have it fall through “at the last minute.” (He declined to identify the team.)
“When the next opportunity came up, I wanted to hear about it,” Smesko said of the Dream. “Everything fits really well with what they’re looking for and what I think are my strengths as a coach.”
Will affect choice no. 1 Wings coaching search?
Don’t expect an immediate turnaround in Dallas. Although Miller said Sunday that the No. 1 pick has changed the trajectory of teams in recent years, the impact has rarely been fully felt in the rookie seasons of top picks. In the last decade, only one No. 1 pick (Jackie Young) was on a team that finished its first season above .500.
The Sparks fired Miller as their head coach after two years this offseason, but he almost came to the Wings two years early. He was a finalist for the Wings’ head coaching opening in 2023 before eventually taking the Sparks job, according to league sources. That previous relationship was important when Miller took over as GM years later.
Miller said he’s seeing “tremendous interest” in the head coaching position, which he expects to increase after the lottery results. The broad assumption is that the Wings would take Paige Bueckers from UConn, who could transform the franchise.
Assuming they keep the pick, the Wings will be the fourth franchise in five years to have a new head coaching pair with the No. 1 pick. 1 (the only exception was Christie Sides last season with the Fever). In the case of Sides in 2023, Tanisha Wright in 2022 and Vickie Johnson in 2021, each was hired before the WNBA draft lottery. The Liberty hired coach Walt Hopkins after securing the top pick in the 2020 lottery.
Why did Katie Smith go back to college?
Smith, a former Liberty head coach and longtime assistant with the Minnesota Lynx, took the assistant role at Ohio State as the next step in his career. The news comes despite Smith, a Hall of Fame player and W’s coach for a decade, widely considered a popular candidate to land one of the many openings this offseason. Smith was most recently the head coach of the Lynx. She was Liberty’s head coach for two seasons, but her tenure came during a period of drastic transition within the franchise as it moved from Madison Square Garden to the Westchester County Center and saw a significant decrease in resources.
Smith said the decision to return to college coaching, even as an assistant, had less to do with factors related to the professional league and more to do with her personal life.
“Time with the family. I got married a year ago, I have a seventh grader, a freshman at Ohio State, my parents are getting old,” she said. “Home is here in Columbus.”
She is a member of the Ohio State Athletic Hall of Fame, has a home in town and has remained with the program even though this assistant position is her first official role with the Buckeyes since graduating in 1996.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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