After just three seasons working in Provo, Utah BYU It's moving from Amber Whiting. The Cougars officially announced their “How to Say” Saturday afternoon.
Whiting had zero college coaching experience before being hired by his alma mater, BYU in 2022. She was a high school coach and led Burley High School in Idaho to the state championship. But its success never really translated into the university. One season with WAC, two seasons with Big 12, and Whiting didn't have a victory record in Conference Play, making it 45-51 overall.
This season, BYU went 4-14 with big 12 plays and finished 14th in a 16-team league.
BYU's previous coach was Jeff Judkins, who led the Cougars from his retirement after the 2001-2021-22 season. BYU went to 11 NCAA tournaments under his watch and went to Sweet 16 twice. After a year off, he is now an assistant in Utah.
Filling this job at BYU is difficult for several reasons.
First, it is unclear how much the university and its boosters are willing to gather around the women's basketball program and invest in competing in the Big 12 upper classes. There is support for men basketball. The money questions about BYU's women's basketball program are not just not. Will the cougar give this sport a slice of revenue sharing pie once the home settlement has passed? If so, how important is it?
The second obstacle is finding a coach who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ for Latter-day Saints. This means that BYU is the flagship institution of higher education. That's part of why BYU had to look to high school coaches when they had the opening last time.
BYU I said it publicly Athletics department coaches do not need to be LDS members. It took part in a press release in 2021 when the Cougars promoted Diljeet Taylor to the women's cross-country team head job. The university said in part: “In the past, head coaches across BYU track and field were often members of the church, but that was practice, but not policy.”
But of the head coaches at Varsity Sports, BYU's sponsor, Taylor has been the only outlier recently. Her husband is an LDS member.
“It's a tough gig and it limits the pool of candidates,” the longtime assistant coach told SB Nation.
“BYU is very unique. I have zero clues on what they do,” one agent added.
Also, what's unclear about this coaching search is who is doing it. Longtime BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe announced last month that he will be resigning at the end of the 2024-25 sports season, but has at least not been publicly selected. Will this employment be Holmoh's or will it fall to one of the EUs within him?
For anyone who will be the next BYU coach, one of his top priorities is clear. The Cougars must find a way to keep Delaney Give, who has blossomed on one of the sport's top freshmen this season. Gibb, a 5-foot-10 security guard from Canada, was named freshman of the year. Her 17.4 points per game was fourth and fourth of all freshmen across the nation, and she was one of nine players on average with at least 17 points per game, five rebounds and four assists. None of the groups were photographed from a 3-point land, about 39.5% of the Give.
That said, there are a handful of coaches who may make sense for BYU's work.
Adam Wardenburg
Before he returned to Division I coaching, Wardenburg was head coach of male and female teams in separate stints at Division III Southern Virginia University, which is not officially affiliated but is embraced and aligned with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In her only season as a women's head coach there, he was named D3Hoops.com Mid Atlantic Coach of the Year after leading the team to a 21-6 record. Wardenburg was the associate head coach of Utah Valley from 2023-24, and later became the associate head coach of the Air Force Academy over the past year. He also has past stops in Southern Idaho and Utah, the latter of which is his alma mater. Wardenburg adapts the bill as someone familiar with Utah and LDS cultures.
Morgan Bailey
Perhaps one of the best BYU players ever, Bailey was the Cougars WCC player in 2015 and helped him go to Sweet 16 in 2014. Bailey has helped Utah Valley play its first NCAA tournament in 2021, and UTES is looking at the crazy mooring this year again. BYU can do worse than hiring Bailey, an alumnus with legitimate college coaching experience.
Lee Comed
BYU can keep the search in-house and give it to Camado, the former embellished male player of the Cougars. Mountain West 2008 Player of the Year – Shots in Headjob. Camado spent season coaching with BYU men in 2018-19, but since then he was the first female assistant under Judkins, and later promoted to associate head coach under Whiting. As the proxy head coach for a short stint under Judkins, Camard went 3-0 with an impressive victory at Utah. Florida and West Virginia No. 22. Kamado graduated from BYU in 2009 and served on the LDS mission.
