NEW ORLEANS – Tulane University Athletics announced today a contract extension for Lisa Stockton that will keep the Green Wave women’s basketball head coach in Uptown through the 2023-24 season.
Stockton, who enters her 28th season with the Green Wave (31st overall), has posted a career record of 603-327 good for a .648 winning percentage. In addition, she is 540-300 (.643) during her time at Tulane, including a 247-175 (.585) mark in conference play.
“Coach Stockton is an outstanding leader for Tulane University, our athletic department, and certainly for our women’s basketball program,” Ben Weiner Director of Athletics Troy Dannen said. “Her commitment to achievement on and off the court stands equal to her commitment to the lifelong success of our student-athletes. This distinguishes a good coach from a great coach. Lisa is a great coach, and we are thrilled she will continue to lead the GreenWave.”
Stockton is one of two active coaches to take a Top 40 academic institution as listed in U.S. News and World Report to at least 11 NCAA Tournaments, joining only Tara Vanderveer of Stanford. In addition, 21 of her players have become members of Tulane’s 1,000-Point Club.
“I am so grateful to athletics director Troy Dannen and our president Michael Fitts for their continued support of our staff to lead the women’s basketball program at Tulane,” head coach Lisa Stockton said. “We look forward to building on the success of last season with the goal of winning an American Conference Championship.”
The 2020-21 campaign came with many challenges and hurdles for Stockton’s team. Despite all the hurdles presented by the pandemic, the Green Wave finished with an 18-9 overall record and a 12-6 conference mark.
The team’s .667 win percentage last season was the highest since 2014-15. The 12 conference wins were the most by a Tulane team in the American Athletic Conference and the highest mark since the Olive and Blue won 12 conference games in Conference USA in the 2009-10 season.
Taking the reins of a program that had never been to the NCAA Tournament and whose only postseason appearance came via the WNIT the year prior to her arrival, Stockton made her presence at Tulane felt right away. Her 1994-95 club went 19-10 overall and 9-3 in the now-defunct Metro Conference. The Green Wave’s league record was good for second-place in the final Metro standings – a high-water mark for the program – and Stockton’s team earned an at-large bid to the NCAAs.
Tulane’s trip to “The Big Dance” was the first of nine consecutive NCAA bids for Stockton-coached teams and the first of nine straight winning seasons. A year later, a 21-10 record in 1995-96 was the first of what has now become 15 straight 20-plus win seasons with the Green Wave including a school-record 27 wins in 1996-97 and again in 1999-2000.
{Press release courtesy of Tulane Athletics}
