“Chris, Kalisha, Cara and Faith will be a huge part in building our program. They all have collegiate and professional experience.” said Haynes “Success will come from the teaching and development of our players. They are great people, motivators, and are very knowledgeable about the game of basketball.”
Dunn joins LIU after an 11-year professional career overseas, playing in 10 different countries. In 2013, he was named Eurbasket.com All-Hungarian League Import Player and Player of the Year after averaging 19.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.7 steals per game while connecting on 53.1% from the field for Kaposvari KK. He later guided the UBC Magnofit Güssing Knights to the Austrian Bundesliga Championship and Austrian Cup in 2015 earning Finals MVP honors. He concluded his playing career in 2017-18 with an All-Star season for Kaposvari KK in Hungary.
Dunn was a four-year standout at West Virginia State; there he earned the 2003 WVIAC Rookie of the Year honor and closed out his career with an All-WVIAC Second Team honor and leaded the team to the WVIAC tournament title. He is the Yellow Jackets program-record holder in career assists and steals. Dunn ranks in the top-15 in NCAA DII history with over 700 career assists. He has served as a player development coach for the last eight years.
Pearson brings 17 years of coaching experience to LIU. She previously held assistant coaching positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Western Michigan University, SUNY Buffalo, North Dakota State, Loyola University-Chicago, University of Akron, and her alma mater, University of Minnesota.
She reunites with coach Haynes, having worked together at Western Michigan from 2012-14. They helped build the Broncos roster that produced the program’s first 20-win season in over a decade and advanced to the WNIT in 2015. Prior to WMU, Pearson served as the Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Buffalo for five seasons.
She was a 1,000 point score and top-10 rebounder for the Gophers. Pearson was a two-time All-Big Ten honoree and helped lead Minnesota to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1994. Prior to starting her coaching career she played professionally for three years in Spain, Luxembourg, Finland and Switzerland along with a stint with the WNBA’s Cleveland Rockers.
Keane joins LIU after spending the last two years as a graduate assistant at her alma mater, Michigan State. She oversaw the team’s managerial staff and scout team, assisting in scheduling, practices and assisted in player development and recruiting.
She was a prolific player for Michigan State from 2007-11, earning All-Big Ten honors in all four seasons. Keane was the sixth All-American and first player in program history to earn Big Ten Player of the year honors in her senior campaign, with 16.1 points, 5.0 rebounds to go along with 2.3 assists and 2.4 steals per game. She is also the first MSU player to earn both the Big Ten’s Player of the Year (2011) and Sixth Player of the Year (2009) awards.
Keane played six seasons professionally overseas in Croatia, Israel, Turkey and Australia after her collegiate career. She represented the Canadian National Team at the FIBA Americas Championship earning bronze in 2011 and silver in 2013.
Suggs comes to LIU after concluding her playing career at Duke under Haynes’ guidance. She was a two-year captain for the Blue Devils, appearing in the NCAA Tournament twice in her career.
She appeared in all 30 contests while making 16 starts her senior season. Suggs led Duke with team-high 13 charges taken on the year and recorded a career-high 16 points to go along with a season-high seven rebounds against Pittsburgh in the ACC Tournament. She served as a camp counselor for the Duke women’s basketball camp for three years and served as an intern for the Blue Devils women’s basketball social media as a senior.
https://liuathletics.com/news/2019/6/27/haynes-announces-womens-basketball-coaching-staff.aspx
