Katherine Bixby, who has directed nearby Johns Hopkins University to three NCAA Division III Tournaments, has joined the Loyola University Maryland women’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach, Greyhounds Head Coach Danielle O’Banion announced today.
“Coach Bixby’s transition to Loyola from Johns Hopkins makes sense on so many levels,” O’Banion said. “She is a proven winner and excellent basketball mind who effectively recruits and retains high-achieving players. Our program’s upward trajectory continues with her addition.”
Bixby earned her 100th win at Johns Hopkins in the 2023 Centennial Conference semifinals and leaves Loyola’s Charles Street neighbor with a 100-36 record since 2017-18. Prior to moving to Baltimore, Bixby was the head coach at Dickinson College where she was 41-35 from 2013-17, posting 34 of those wins in her final two seasons at the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, school.
In nine seasons as a Division III head coach –including the 2020-21 campaign when no games were played – Bixby compiled a 141-71 (.665) overall record.
She led the Blue Jays to their second-straight NCAA Tournament in 2022-23, guiding Johns Hopkins to a 21-7 record. Combined with a 22-5 mark in 2021-22, Bixby led the Blue Jays to 43 wins in the last two seasons, their most since 2010-12.
Johns Hopkins parlayed an 11-game winning streak midway through Centennial Conference play during 2022-23 into a 17-3 record in the league. The Blue Jays advanced to the conference title game before losing to Gettysburg College. Olivia Parisi was named to the D3Hoops.com All-Region V Second Team following the season in which she and Michaela O’Neil earned All-Centennial Conference recognition; Parisi was also a Second-Team Academic All-American
The Blue Jays returned to the floor after a year-long layoff in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, posting strong 2021-22 that saw them finish 22-5, including an 18-2 mark in the Centennial Conference. They advanced to the Centennial Conference Championship game and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Jays produced the Centennial Conference Player of the Year in Diarra Oden, who also earned WBCA All-America honors, was a finalist for the prestigious Jostens Trophy and was the Centennial Conference’s nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
Bixby guided the Blue Jays to one of the most successful seasons in program history during her second season at the helm. Johns Hopkins finished the year with a 23-5 record and set a program record with an 18-2 mark in conference play. The Blue Jays earned the number-two seed in the conference tournament and followed that up with an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, which marked the first tournament appearance for Hopkins since the 2012 season. Bixby was named the conference coach of the year and both Lexie Scholtz and Lillian Scott were named First Team All-Centennial. Scholtz earned First Team Academic All-America honors form CoSIDA while Scott was an Honorable Mention All-American by the WBCA.
In her first season as head coach of the Blue Jays, Bixby guided Hopkins to a 17-10 overall record and a 15-5 record in conference play. Hopkins qualified for the Centennial Conference Tournament, making Bixby the first coach in league history to lead two different teams to the conference tournament in consecutive seasons. Bixby added another 17-win season to her resume in 2019-20 as the Blue Jays finished with a 17-9 record and advanced to the Centennial Conference semifinals.
Prior to her arrival at Johns Hopkins, Bixby guided the Dickinson women’s basketball team from 2014-17 and turned around a Red Devil program that had won just 31 games in the four years prior to her arrival. She led Dickinson to a three-year record of 41-35, including a 34-18 mark over the last two years. In addition, the Bixby-led Red Devils posted a 30-16 record in Centennial Conference play in the last two seasons and advanced to the Centennial Conference Semifinals in each of those years. Bixby guided Dickinson to 18 wins in her final season, the most for the program since the 2006-07 season.
Bixby got her coaching career started at Ithaca College, where she had earned both her bachelor’s (2011) and master’s (2012) degrees. During her two seasons on the Bombers’ coaching staff, she helped guide the team to a pair of Empire 8 titles, one trip to the Elite Eight, another to the Sweet 16 and a two-year record of 53-8.
Bixby was a four-year standout for the Ithaca women’s basketball team and earned Honorable Mention WBCA All-America honors as a senior. She still ranks fifth in points (1,335), third in assists (366) and third in three-pointers (141) at Ithaca and is the only player in program history with more than 1,300 points, 350 assists and 125 three-pointers.
In addition to her individual exploits for the Bombers, Bixby helped lead the team to a four-year record of 73-38 and two trips to the NCAA Tournament during her playing career.
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