The women’s college basketball regular season is coming to a quick conclusion, meaning the coaching carousel will start spinning a little faster.
The 2025 offseason saw 61 programs make changes at head coach. If college football gives any indication, the 2026 coaching carousel could include even more changes. College athletics leaders were hesitant to make big changes last season with uncertainty around the House Settlement looming. Now, athletic directors have a sense of what the future holds.
Several programs will be moving on from their coaches in the annual rite of passage. Three coaches have already been let go, and one has announced he’d be retiring at season’s end.
With the Power 4 conference tournaments getting underway this Wednesday, here is where we stand on coaching openings in NCAA Division I:
NCAA Division I women’s basketball coaching openings
Boston College
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee was fired on March 1 head coach of Boston College’s women’s basketball team. Bernabei-McNamee had her worst season yet as the Eagles coach this year, going 5-25 overall and 1-17 in ACC play. What proved to be difficult for Bernabei-McNamee at Boston College was her ability to retain talented players in the transfer portal era. Many of the top players she recruited and developed went on to help other ACC programs.
Northwestern
Joe McKeown announced last March this season would be his last as coach at Northwestern. The 69-year-old has been a head coach in Division I women’s basketball for 40 years with previous stops at New Mexico State and George Washington. Knowing McKeown’s retirement is looming, Northwestern has been vetting candidates, multiple sources told USA Today Sports. Second round interviews with candidates will begin this week. Some of the best mid-major coaches in the country — from the Ivy League, Atlantic 10 and CAA — will be in the mix for this opening. Michigan native Carrie Moore, who won the Ivy with Harvard last season, is among the frontrunners.
Rutgers
Rutgers fired head coach Coquese Washington on March 2. Washington, 55, went 42-84 in four seasons with the Scarlet Knights, who never won more than five games in Big Ten play under her watch. This season’s 1-17 record in conference play was Rutgers’ worst in the Big Ten. The cash-strapped Scarlet Knights — who have an athletics deficit of $516.9 million since joining the Big Ten in 2014 — have had trouble competing at the top level of women’s basketball in this new landscape for college athletics.
VCU
