TCU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Chris Del Conte announced the hiring of Raegan Pebley as head women’s basketball coach on Tuesday. Pebley becomes the seventh head coach in the history of the women’s basketball program.
Pebley (pronounced Pee-blee), regarded as one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the country, comes to TCU after spending the last two seasons at Fresno State, where she led the Bulldogs to Mountain West tournament titles and berths into the NCAA Tournament in each of her two seasons.
"We are excited to welcome Raegan Pebley to the Horned Frog family," said TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini Jr. "Her energetic coaching style will be an asset to our women’s basketball team."
Fresno State compiled a 46-20 (.697) overall record under the direction of Pebley, including a 26-8 (.765) mark in league play, while four Bulldogs earned All-Mountain West honors, including back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year selections.
"We’re very excited to welcome Raegan Pebley to the TCU family as our head women’s basketball coach," Del Conte said. "Raegan is a true rising star in the coaching ranks and did a phenomenal job in leading Fresno State to back-to-back Mountain West championships after starting the women’s basketball program at Utah State.
"Raegan is a perfect fit for the TCU and Fort Worth communities. With our postseason appearance this year and a new basketball facility for the 2015-16 season, Raegan was the ideal candidate to continue the momentum in our women’s basketball program. We’re very proud to now call Raegan, her husband Keith, son Joseph and daughter Harper our newest Horned Frogs!"
"I feel so fortunate for my time at Fresno State with people who supported us and the success we were able to have, and now someone needs to pinch me," Pebley said. "What a blessing to work at a place like TCU. It is so rare in this profession that one can blend proximity to family with an excellent University and athletics department like TCU.
"I share the vision for what TCU women’s basketball can accomplish. No doubt it is going to take tremendous grit on everyone’s part, but we eagerly take on the challenge of competing for championships in the Big 12."
Pebley’s Fresno State squads featured one of the top defensive units in the country, as the 2012-13 Bulldogs ranked third in the NCAA in steals with 12.9 per game, doing so while only fouling 12.1 times per game to rank No. 7 nationally for the fewest fouls committed per game. The Bulldogs allowed a paltry 62.4 points per contest in the two seasons under Pebley.
The Orem, Utah, native faced a tall task in her first head coaching position, starting the Utah State women’s basketball program after its reinstatement in 2003 following a 25-year hiatus.
Pebley led the Aggies for nine seasons, building the program from scratch into back-to-back WNIT berths, marking the first postseason appearances in school history.
Pebley garnered WAC Coach of the Year accolades for the 2010-11 season after the Aggies advanced to their first WNIT, where they toppled Arizona, and was a WBCA National Coach of the Year finalist in 2012 after Utah State registered its first-ever 20-win season and returned to the WNIT.
In her nine seasons at Utah State, 12 Aggies earned all-conference honors, including Ashlee Brown, who was named the WAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, marking three straight student-athletes to earn the league’s top defensive award under Pebley over the last three seasons.
Before taking over the Utah State program, Pebley served as an assistant coach at George Mason from 1997-99 under Jim Lewis and Debbie Taneyhill and at Colorado State from 1999-01 under Tom Collen.
At CSU, the Rams went 48-17 in her two seasons with the team reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and the semifinals of the WNIT in 2000.
A standout at the University of Colorado, Pebley was selected with the 21st overall pick of the 1997 WNBA Draft, where she played two seasons with the Cleveland Rockers and Utah Starzz.
During her collegiate career at Colorado, Pebley helped lead the Buffs to a 106-24 overall record and four conference championships while earning all-conference accolades twice. CU earned two Sweet 16 appearances during her career, including a trip to the Elite Eight during her freshman season, as the Buffs won a school-record 30 games (30-3 overall). Colorado had won 25-straight games that season and finished the year ranked No. 5 nationally.
Pebley, whose maiden name is Scott, is one of nine players in CU history to score over 1,000 career points (1,045) and collect over 700 rebounds (701). Pebley played under legendary head coach Ceal Barry at Colorado, who in 2004 became the 24th coach ever in women’s NCAA history to reach 500 career wins.
