Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1545007
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 6 5 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M W ith the season winding down, it was obvious that a change was coming to the Penn State wom- en's basketball program. The Lady Lions were about to miss the Big Ten Tourna- ment for the second season in a row and appeared no closer to making the NCAA tourney than they were when Carolyn Kieger was hired as head coach in 2019. It was also obvious who athletics direc- tor Patrick Kraft would most likely pur- sue in hope of reviving a program that had fallen on hard times after decades of success in both the Atlantic 10 and Big Ten. Tanisha Wright had been a big part of that success, a star player during the latter years of the Rene Portland coaching era who had gone on to a long career play- ing and coaching in the WNBA. Would the West Mifflin, Pa., native be interested in returning to her alma mater? Kraft was determined to find out. He called her after the season to gauge her interest in taking over a team that had gone 30-97 in Big Ten play under Kieger but was seemingly capable of much more. Kraft has taken a no-program-left-be- hind approach to PSU's athletic endeav- ors, determined to build winners all over campus. That resonated with Wright, and it synced up with her own passion for the PSU women's basketball program. She accepted his offer, and on March 24 she was introduced as the seventh head coach in Lady Lions history. "Pat's vision for Penn State athletics is something that really drew me to wanting to be back," she said. "What we're see- ing around Penn State athletics, all the success at all the different programs — women's hockey, men's hockey, women's volleyball, what's happening with foot- ball, different things like that — it's really what drew me. "And then there was the opportunity to stand here as the head coach of a pro- gram that I played for, that I bled for, gave so much to and that has given so much to me. To be able to impact young ath- letes in a positive way was important. That's something that really showed it- self throughout the process. This was the right time to be here." 'One Of The Greatest' The early 2000s were also a pretty good time to be a part of the PSU wom- en's basketball program. In 2000, the Lady Lions had finally broken through, making Penn State's first Final Four ap- pearance with an 86-65 thrashing of longtime nemesis Louisiana Tech in the regional final. They fell to Connecticut in the national semifinals a week later, but reaching the Final Four — in Portland's hometown of Philadelphia no less — was a high point for a program that had made 15 previous NCAA Tournament appear- ances without ever getting further than the Elite Eight. Wright showed up in 2001 and made an immediate impact. She ended up being part of four NCAA Tournament teams and won a pair of Big Ten titles during her tenure, excelling for the Lady Lions on both ends of the court. She was a three-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a prolific scorer, too, rank- ing eighth in program history with 1,995 Wright returned to Penn State in March after spending the past five years coaching in the WNBA. She was head coach of the Atlanta Dream and served as an assistant with the Las Vegas Aces and Chicago Sky. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS H I S T O R Y THE WRIGHT STUFF Former Lady Lion star Tanisha Wright draws on the program's proud history in her effort to rebuild M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M