Jody Adams Head Coach Jody Adams enters her sixth season at Wichita State University and has transformed the womens basketball program. Under the direction of the former National Champion point guard, WSU reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2013 while recording the program’s first-ever regular and post-season Missouri Valley Conference championships. Wichita State has set the highest two-, three-, and four-year win totals in program history while moving up the MVC standings in each of Adams five years as head coach. Behind the strength of her team’s effort, Adams was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2012-13. Adams instilled a defensive-minded approach that brought Wichita State from the cellar of the Missouri Valley Conference to a winning program that has made four consecutive post-season appearances. On top of her commitment to leading the Shockers to new heights on the court, Adams is a staunch supporter of programs that build awareness and funding for cancer research. She annually participates in the Champions for a Cause motorcycle ride with Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick and LSU head coach Nikki Caldwell, while also building on initiatives on campus and in the community. Under Adams, Wichita State made its first trip to the NCAA Tournament by winning the first MVC Championship in school history. The Shockers were regular season co-champs with Creighton and followed through on its No. 1-seeding in the conference tournament to dispatch Illinois State in the title game, 69-65. In addition to those championships, WSU crushed the school record for single season victories with 24. Sophomore Alex Harden blossomed, earning MVP honors for the conference tournament while also picking up the league’s Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-MVC recognition. Senior Jessica Diamond also earned first-team honors, becoming the first Shocker in a decade to do so in back-to-back seasons. Freshman Michaela Dapprich earned an All-MVC Tournament nod. Along with those individual accolades, WSU set program records for regular season MVC wins (15) and MVC road wins (7) while tying the school-record with a 10-game winning streak. The Shockers began MVC play 10-0 for the first time and earned the school’s first No. 1 seed in the Valley tournament. Adams directed WSU to a double-digit conference win total for the third-straight year, the first time the Shockers had done so. Wichita State ended the year with an RPI of 59, the program’s highest end-of-year rating. Defense was again the team’s strength as WSU set a school record for scoring defense (55.4) while posting the second-best field goal percentage defense (.390) and third-best shot-blocking total (153). The Shockers held 17 opponents to 55 points or less. The 2011-12 Shockers also made history by matching what was the program’s previous-best win total (20) and by securing WSU’s first-ever victory in the WNIT. Senior Haleigh Lankster became WSU’s first-ever MVC Defensive Player of the Year while junior Jessica Diamond earned First Team All-MVC honors. Lankster was named to the second team and Alex Harden gave Adams a third-straight player on the MVC All-Freshmen Team. In addition to the team’s WNIT victory, the Shockers put together a 10-game winning streak to match the school record. Wichita State amassed a 7-0 record to begin conference play and placed third with a 12-6 MVC mark. WSU entered the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed, equaling the program’s highest-ever seeding to that point. As the team enjoyed its historic win streak, WSU’s RPI showed an impressive spike. Wichita State entered the RPI’s Top 100 for the first time in nearly a decade, spent seven consecutive weeks on the list and reached as high as No. 67 on January 17. The Shockers returned to the WNIT, reaching the prestigious tournament for the second consecutive season – a feat accomplished just one other time in program history. On March 16, 2012, WSU rolled past Oral Roberts to win a WNIT game for the first time before falling at Oklahoma State, the eventual tournament champions, two days later. The 2010-11 squad played in the WNIT for the first time since 2000 while posting a 10-8 record in Missouri Valley Conference competition, the programs best conference mark since the 1999-2000 campaign. Lankster blossomed in her third season under Adams, earning All-MVC Second Team, MVC All-Defensive Team, and MVC All-Tournament Team honors. The team collected 17 wins, combining with 18 victories from the previous season to give WSU its second-best two-year win total in school history. One of those victories produced the largest margin of victory for a Shocker squad since moving into Koch Arena, a 95-55 win over Texas-Pan American on Dec. 19, 2010. The team also stopped several streaks, including double-digit losing streaks to conference opponents Creighton and Illinois State. Additionally, WSU swept Drake for the first time since 1995 and recorded a 5-game winning streak in conference play for the first time since 2003. Adams quickly molded her extremely inexperienced 2009-10 team into a competitive squad. The Shockers sped out of the gate to a 10-3 record, the best start in school history. That strong beginning formed a firm foundation, especially at home, where Wichita State set another school record with 14 home wins. Her team also made noise away from home, posting the schools first non-conference road victory since 2005. Overall, Adams led WSU to an 18-win season and boosted the Shockers RPI 58 spots from the previous year. After earning the No. 6 seed in the MVC Tournament, Wichita State bested Missouri State in a victory that marked two milestones. Not only was it the first MVC Tournament quarterfinal win for the Shockers since 2002 but also the third time WSU had beaten Missouri State, the first time a Shocker squad had ever beaten one team three times in the same season. The young team did not stop there. Due to their strong season and community support, Wichita State was selected as one of eight first-round host schools of the inaugural Womens Basketball Invitational (WBI). The Shockers hosted Akron on March 18, 2010 and used a thrilling second-half comeback to defeat the Zips. The 67-61 victory marked WSUs first-ever post-season win. Under Adams’ tutelage, guard Jessica Diamond was named to the MVC All-Freshman Team after finishing fourth among Valley freshmen in scoring. Diamond notched one of four MVC Newcomer-of-the-Week awards handed out to Shocker players in 2009-10. Meanwhile, point guard Marisah Henderson capped her tremendous two-year career under Adams with 385 assists, third on the Shockers all-time list. In her first season, Adams guided the Shockers to their first double-digit win campaign since the 2005-06 season, with a roster of just nine players. WSU vastly improved in every major statistical category and finished tied with UNI for the second-biggest jump in the RPI of any Valley squad, finishing 17 places higher than it did at the end of the 2007-08 season. Her first Shocker squad also achieved numerous milestones, posting the first neutral court win for the school since 2004 and earning WSUs first road win for the program since 2007 with a thrilling two-point win at Bradley on the final night of the regular season. She also led the Shockers to their first win in the MVC tournament since 2002 with a record-breaking come-from-behind win over Missouri State, the first time a No. 10 seed won a game in the tournament. Senior Marcy Sudbeck became Adams first all-conference selection at Wichita State, after earning honorable mention honors following the 2008-09 season. She led the Valley with 11 double-double performances, and was the only MVC player to finish among the top five in the conference in both scoring and rebounding. Junior Marisah Henderson exploded onto the scene, and finished as the Valley leader and seventh nationally in assists under Adams guidance in her first season at WSU. Henderson earned Valley Newcomer of the Week honors twice throughout the season, and led the conference by tallying double-digit assists on six occasions. Adams first Shocker squad had just as much success in the classroom, posting the second-highest team semester GPA on record with a cumulative 3.47 as a team during the Spring 2009 semester. Sudbeck became the first womens basketball player in school history to earn second team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America status, while becoming the first WSU student-athlete to be named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team since 2004. The team was named to the Womens Basketball Coaches Association Top 25 Team Honor Roll for a second-straight year in 2009, with the 14th-best GPA nationally in 2008-09. Her teams were also involved in numerous community-based projects including a highly successful mentoring program that matches female community leaders in the Wichita area with Shocker womens basketball student-athletes who are interested in a similar line of work following graduation. A former point-guard and national champion at the University of Tennessee, Adams helped advance teams to the post-season in each of her two previous coaching stops, including a trip to the 2008 NCAA Tournament with Murray State in her first year as a Division I head coach. Her impact was felt immediately at MSU, leading the Racers to a 24-8 record in 2007-08, winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship before falling to third-seeded Duke in the first round of the NCAA Oklahoma City Regional. Adams experience helped groom two of the top scoring guards in the country in Ohio Valley Conference MVP Ashley Hayes and OVC Tournament MVP Amber Guffey, who both finished among the top 45 nationally in scoring. The Racers finished 21st nationally in scoring in 2007-08, while ranking as the 25th best three-point shooting team in the country as well. Under Adams, MSU also finished third nationally in free-throw shooting (.807) and committed the fifth-fewest turnovers (13.1 per game) of any team in the country, further proof of her commitment to the fundamentals of the game. The Cleveland, Tenn., native is no stranger to building a championship caliber program in the Missouri Valley Conference, after helping Southern Illinois turn its program around as an associate head coach for the Salukis from 2004-07. After finishing 10th in the MVC with just one conference win in 2004-05, she helped guide the Salukis to the sixth-biggest turnaround in the nation in 2006-07, winning nine more games than the previous season en route to a MVC regular-season championship and an appearance in the post-season WNIT. Heading the recruiting efforts at SIU, Adams wasted no time bringing in two MVC All-Freshman Team performers and first team all-conference member Carlai Moore, who won the Valleys Newcomer-of-the-Year honor following the 2006 season. The Salukis were also a Womens Basketball Coaches Association Top-25 GPA program in two of Adams three seasons in Carbondale, including a 3.32 team GPA following the 2006-07 season. Prior to her time with Southern Illinois, Adams served as an assistant coach and associate head coach on the staff at UMKC. Leading recruiting efforts for the Kangaroos, Adams earned one of the most prestigious honors for an assistant coach, being named 2003 AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year. Before her four-year stop at UMKC, Adams spent three seasons as assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. While serving as the recruiting coordinator for the Golden Gophers, Adams produced a recruiting class ranked among the top five nationally, including 2002 Big Ten Player of the Year Lindsay Whalen, the sixth-leading scorer in Big Ten history and current Olympic Team member. Adams has also served as an assistant coach at Wake Forest (1996-97) and Auburn (1994-96) after starting her coaching career as a student assistant at her alma mater Tennessee. She was the starting point-guard on the Lady Vols 1991 NCAA national championship team, and won four Southeastern Conference titles as a player from 1990-93. She was twice named to the SEC All-Academic Team, earning the Lady Vol Torch Award for academic excellence as well as the Lady Vol Coachs Award after being honored as a preseason All-American in 1993. She was also named to the ESPY’s Team of the Decade for 1990-2000. Prior to her stellar career as a Lady Vol, Adams was a high school All-American at Bradley Central High School under the late Jim Smiddy. For many years, Adams held the unique distinction as the only student-athlete to play for the two winningest coaches in their respective fields, as Smiddy held the all-time high school mark with more than 1,200 wins and Pat Summitt, who owns the collegiate womens basketball career coaching mark with more than 1,000 wins at the University of Tennessee. She earned the Tennessee Sixth Player Award following her freshman season in 1990, and gained international playing experience after competing on the U.S. Junior National Team and the U.S. Festival South Team. Adams earned her B.S. in human performance from Tennessee in 1994, and resides in Wichita. shockersbasketballcamps/head-coach-jody-adams.cfm
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 07:39:21 +0000
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