UCLA Women’s Basketball has added Noelle Quinn as an assistant coach ahead of the 2026-27 season, the program announced Wednesday.
“We are so excited to welcome Noelle back home,” said The Michael Price Family UCLA Women’s Head Basketball Coach Cori Close. “She has won championships in college and the WNBA as a player, and she has helped capture a WNBA championship as a coach. Tactically and developmentally, she is elite! But I am most excited about who she is and how she will help us create champions from the inside, out. She is as fine of a human as any have met since being at UCLA. I could not be more thrilled to add her to our staff!”
Quinn, the fourth overall pick in the 2007 WNBA draft, played 12 years in the league and captured the 2018 WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm alongside fellow Bruin alumna Jordin Canada. As a rookie with the Minnesota Lynx, she set a single-game franchise record with 14 assists on the final game of the season. She averaged a career-high 10.2 points per game with the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2010 campaign. Quinn suited up for five WNBA teams during her playing career – Minnesota Lynx, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury – before taking up the clipboard and transitioning to the bench.
“I’m just honored to be on Cori’s staff, to be able to add value, but also to learn from a championship-level coach whose servant leadership is on full display every day,” said Quinn. “From how she coaches her team, to how she leads with her staff, how she pours into the community, she is one of the best leaders that I’ve seen and I’m just happy to be able to be in her hemisphere every day.”
The Los Angeles native was named assistant coach of the Seattle Storm ahead of the 2019 season. She was promoted to associate head coach before the 2020 season; Quinn won her second WNBA championship with the Storm in the condensed campaign before stepping into the team’s head coaching role in 2021. She stayed at the helm through 2025, finishing five seasons with a 97-89 (.522) record and capturing the 2021 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.
“It’s surreal for me to just be back in a place where I grew so much – not only playing the sport that I love, to just studying and being around the culture of excellence here,” said Quinn. “It is quite a dream come true, honestly, to come back in and be able to serve this community, serve Cori, the staff, the student-athletes, and the whole Bruin community. I’m from LA, so being an LA native and being able to once again be home, that’s fulfilling within itself, but the full circle moment comes back to what I learned here as an athlete. It is not about the name on the back of the jersey but the four letters across your chest, and what that stands for and means. That stuck with me throughout my entire playing career, and coaching career thus far, and it still resonates today.”
Quinn also currently serves as an assistant coach with Canada Basketball’s Senior Women’s National Team; she will join Team Canada for the Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Mexico from August 17-23.
A trailblazer and all-around collegiate contributor, Quinn achieved something no other Bruin basketball player, male or female, had ever done – total at least 1,700 points, 700 rebounds and 400 assists for a career. She was joined by Charisma Osborne (2019-2024) and Kiki Rice (2022-2026) on the short list of Bruins to reach those marks.
Quinn finished her career ranked in UCLA’s top 10 in 14 different categories, including points (4th), rebounds (8th) and assists (7th). She earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors as a freshman, junior and senior and earned Pac-10 All-Tournament honors in 2006 and 2007. Quinn was the leading scorer for the Bruins in the championship game at the 2006 Pac-10 Tournament, scoring the game-tying basket with five seconds remaining to force overtime in the eventual Bruin victory over Stanford.
A two-time honorable mention All-American, Quinn was selected by the Minnesota Lynx with the fourth pick of the first round of the 2007 WNBA draft. She was a member of four high school basketball state championship teams and one volleyball state championship team; Quinn also became the first player in her high school’s history to have her jersey retired.
https://uclabruins.com/news/2026/08/5/womens-basketball-adds-noelle-quinn-to-coaching-staff
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