North Texas women’s basketball head coach Jalie Mitchell announced the hiring of former Texas coach and standout Jamie Carey as associate head coach for the Mean Green.
Carey spent the past four seasons on the coaching staff for Texas, her alma mater, including the past two years as associate head coach in Austin where from 2002-05 she starred for the Longhorns.
“Jamie comes to UNT with an incredible basketball mind, a passion for reaching and teaching young women on and off the court, and a long list of experiences that will help our team in more ways than I can even count,” Mitchell said. “She is a winner. I love the fact that our guards will be able to learn from someone who has been there and done it in our sport on multiple levels.
“She is a shining star in our profession, and she exemplifies what this is all about, and that’s impacting our young women in ways that make them better people, better students and better players. With her Hall of Fame career, experience overcoming injury and time as a WNBA pro, Jamie is on her way to an amazing coaching career. We are grateful for the opportunity to have her join us here in Denton.”
At Texas, Carey’s responsibilities included instructing players at the guard position, coordinating the team’s offensive schemes and coordinating the team’s recruiting efforts. During her time on the Texas staff, the Longhorns compiled a record of 95-37 (.720) for an average of 24 wins per season. The Longhorns earned three NCAA Tournament appearances and advanced to a pair of NCAA Sweet 16s. Texas won 53 Big 12 Conference games during that stretch with two second-place finishes in the league standings.
“I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to join the Mean Green community and the women’s basketball family at North Texas,” Carey said. “I have always had a great deal of respect for Coach Mitchell and how hard her teams compete. I’m looking forward to starting to build relationships with the players and staff and getting to work.”
Carey has top-caliber experience at every level of basketball, including four years at USA Basketball as the assistant women’s national team director. She returned to UT in April 2016 after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Colorado.
Carey, herself one of the best players in Texas history, was responsible for the development of two of the top point guards in program history. Brooke McCarty was the 2017 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year and played for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings during the 2019 season. Sug Sutton was a two-time All-Big 12 Conference selection who was selected by the Washington Mystics with the 36th pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft. Sutton joins another of Carey’s pupils – Ariel Atkins – in Washington. Atkins, the seventh pick of the 2018 WNBA Draft, was a starter on the 2019 Washington team that won the WNBA Championship.
“Jamie has a great deal of insight and an attention to detail that comes across so passionately in her player development and impact offensively. Her work with some of the top players in the country will prove to be extremely valuable, especially as our young players continue to mature and elevate their game,” said Mitchell.
During her time at USA Basketball, Carey worked with all levels of the women’s national team program, helping to identify coaches and athletes for participation. She assisted with organizing logistics for trials, training camps and international competitions, supported the athletes and staff on-site internationally and assisted with practice for all national teams.
While working with USA Basketball, Carey was head coach at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs from 2011-14, directing the program to a 62-16 overall record, three Colorado Class 4A Great 8 State appearances and a pair of Pikes Peak Athletic Conference titles. She was the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in her final season.
Carey served as head coach at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colo., from 2008-10, helping the team to a Colorado Class 5A runner-up finish in 2010. Her five-year high school coaching record was 106-25 [.809].
The 1999 Miss Colorado Basketball was the 2000 Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year at Stanford University before concussions sidelined her for the next two seasons. After a year free of post-concussion symptoms, Carey transferred to the University of Texas, where she was a two-time All-Big 12 Conference selection.
A member of Texas’ 1,000-point scoring club, Carey still ranks 43rd in program history with 1,074 career points. Carey was the 2004 recipient of the Jim Valvano Comeback Player of the Year Award and, as a senior in 2005, was named an NCAA Woman of the Year nominee and earned the Big 12’s Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship.
Despite playing in just 96 games during her UT career, Carey’s name is found throughout the Texas all-time career records. She is the school’s all-time leader in three-point field goal percentage (.418) and ranks second all-time in minutes per game (31.4). Carey’s 193 made three-pointers ranks fifth all-time in school history, while her free-throw percentage of .801 is eighth all-time.
Carey was the 31st pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury and later signed with the Connecticut Sun. She played four years for the Sun, which advanced to the postseason each of those seasons, including an appearance in the 2005 WNBA Finals.
Carey holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Texas in 2004 and completed her master’s of education in sport management at UT in 2006. She was a two-time third-team CoSIDA Academic All-America selection and a two-time first-team All-District selection.
In 2019, Carey was inducted into the Horizon [Colo.] High School Hall of Fame. She has been selected for induction into the Colorado High School Activities Association Hall of Fame, Class of 2020.
Photo Courtesy North Texas Athletics
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