After a history of success transforming programs alongside current UB head coach Felisha Legette-Jack at Hofstra and Indiana, it was announced Wednesday that Cherie Cordoba will now join her staff at Buffalo as the team’s new assistant head coach.
"She’s been the assistant who was with me when I won the most games in my career, so I’m excited that she is willing to take on the challenge and come to Buffalo and help us continue this transformation," coach Jack said. "She’s a guard coach who played on the Austrailian national team, and I think that we certainly could use her help."
While with the Hoosiers from 2006-08, Cordoba (formerly Cherie Hogg) helped guide the team to 37 combined wins over the two seasons, with postseason WNIT wins in both seasons. During Legette-Jack and Cordoba’s two years at Hofstra, the Pride advanced to the 2006 WNIT and Hofstra ranked in the CAA’s top three in nearly every statistical category.
Cordoba came to Hofstra after two years as an assistant coach at her alma mater, UNLV. She played a large role in several areas of the Rebel program, including scouting, recruiting, compliance, academic liaison and summer camp. She was also the Director of Summer Camps at UNLV. Cordoba served as an assistant coach at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., in 1994-95.
Prior to Cordoba’s tenure as a UNLV assistant coach, she played professional basketball overseas in her native Australia, as well as Holland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. While playing in Australia, she helped the Adelaide Lightning to a national championship in 1996. In 2000-01, she helped the Rhondda Rebels in Wales, United Kingdom to a 37-1 record and the National League, National Playoff and National Cup titles. Hogg followed that season by helping Puig Den Valls in Ibiza, Spain, to a 30-2 record and the Premier Division championship in 2001-02.
Her professional playing career also included coaching stints with youth programs affiliated with her professional clubs in Holland and Australia, and Cordoba served as a police officer for the South Australian Police Department from 1997-2000.
Cordoba enjoyed a stellar playing career at UNLV that culminated with the Rebels’ appearance in the 1994 NCAA Tournament. Just the fourth player in school history to record 100 assists and 100 steals in the same season, Cordoba still holds UNLV single season marks for steals (129), three-point field goal percentage (.456) and the single-game record for steals (11). She ranks ninth in career assists at UNLV (319). Cordoba was an honorable mention all-league selection as a junior and first team pick as a senior.
A 1994 UNLV graduate with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training, Cordoba was the 1992 California JUCO Player of the Year at Lassen Community College in Susanville, Calif. She began her basketball career as a member of the Australian "train-on" teams from 1986-88 and earned an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship in 1988.
Joining her in Buffalo will be her husband Jai, her daughter Jet and son Kruze.
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