Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Rutgers officially introduces Coquese Washington as next women’s basketball coach

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Rutgers has officially introduced the next head coach of the women’s basketball program. Coquese Washington held her introductory press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Washington was named the next head coach of the program after C. Vivian Stringer announced her retirement. She spent 27 seasons as the leader of the Scarlet Knights before stepping down.

Washington played college basketball at Notre Dame and went on to play in the WNBA, suiting up for 4 organizations from 1997-2003. She played for the Portland Power, New York Liberty, Houston Comets and Indiana Fever.

“I’m not usually an overly emotional person, but I have to admit my heart is in my throat right now,” Washington said Tuesday. “The last 24 hours has been an incredible outpouring of connection. An incredible outpouring of giving to me and my family, opening their arms and welcoming us to this community. I could not be more thrilled to join this place.

“Being at Rutgers is an unbelievable privilege.”

Washington spent 12 seasons as the head coach at Penn State, bringing B1G experience to Piscataway. During her time in State College, the Nittany Lions were 209-169 with 4 NCAA Tournament appearances and 3 WNIT bids. Penn State had 7 seasons finishing .500 or better and hit the 20-win mark 5 times.

Penn State won 3 consecutive B1G regular season titles under Washington from 2011-12-2013-14. She was named the B1G Coach of the Year in 2011.

Since her time at Penn State ended following the 2018-19 season, Washington spent the 2019-20 season as the associate head coach at Oklahoma and returned to Notre Dame from 2020-22, where she was also the associate head coach.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB