Kim Mulkey despatched shockwaves by the ladies’s basketball world in late April by leaving Baylor College after 21 years to turn into the brand new girls’s basketball coach at LSU. Unsurprisingly, it did not take lengthy for some of the prestigious applications within the nation to discover a substitute. On Monday, Baylor introduced that present Atlanta Dream coach Nicki Collen would be the new head coach of the Girl Bears. She is going to formally be launched in a ceremony on Wednesday on the crew’s enviornment. 

“I’m thrilled to be the top coach at Baylor College,” Collen stated in a press release. “I imagine it’s the prime job within the nation for girls’s basketball. I’m excited to start working with this extraordinarily gifted crew and I’m grateful for the unwavering help of President Livingstone and Mack Rhoades. The success of this program speaks for itself, and I’ll start working at present to make sure Baylor girls’s basketball continues to be a program that excels on the highest ranges.”

As Collen famous, Baylor has had loads of success over the past twenty years, and there might be excessive requirements for her to uphold. The Girl Bears have made 17 straight NCAA Match appearances, advancing to at the least the Candy 16 in 15 of these years. They’ve additionally made 4 Remaining Fours and gained three nationwide championships, most not too long ago in 2019. 

Whereas this rent is huge information on the collegiate scene, it additionally has main implications within the WNBA world. Collen has served as head coach of the Dream for the previous three seasons, successful WNBA Coach of the Yr in 2018. Coaching camps for the 2021 season started simply over every week in the past, opening day is lower than two weeks away, and swiftly the Dream are and not using a head coach. It is price noting in addition they do not have a GM or crew president after firing Chris Sienko final month. 

Following the announcement, the Dream launched a press release thanking Collen and asserting Mike Petersen as interim head coach. 

“We’re grateful to Nicki Collen for her onerous work teaching the Dream over the previous three years,” the assertion learn. “We want her nice success at Baylor College. Presently, we’re thrilled to announce the promotion of Mike Petersen from assistant coach to interim head coach, who will work carefully with assistant coach Darius Taylor. They’re invaluable members of the Atlanta Dream household, and we sit up for their management of the crew this season.”

The center of coaching camp is clearly not a great time to begin a job search, and as of now it isn’t clear how lengthy Petersen will stay in cost. Atlanta has a preseason sport scheduled for Wednesday towards the Washington Mystics, and can host the Connecticut Solar of their common season opener on Might 14.