Fresh off his first Coach of the Year honor and the most regular-season victories in James Madison history, women’s basketball Head Coach Sean O’Regan received a contract extension through the 2030-31 season, as announced Friday by JMU Director of Athletics Matt Roan.
“As we have settled into the Sun Belt Conference, Sean’s leadership has been paramount to the sustained success of our women’s basketball program, with two regular season titles and three straight title game appearances,” Roan said. “Most importantly, I want JMU Nation to know that Sean truly loves this place, is proud to be a JMU Duke and wants to build on an incredible foundation and lead this program to even greater heights. While other opportunities presented themselves, it became evident that his greatest desire is to make this program elite. I’m excited to continue working with him, and we should all be excited for him to continue to lead JMU women’s basketball and for his family to continue to be a major part of this community.”
O’Regan said, “I’m so thankful for Matt Roan, Jennifer Phillips, President Charlie King and our administration for the continued support. JMU has been home to me for a long time and I’m extremely glad to be locked in for more time here. I love this place and I love our program. Go Dukes!”
O’Regan holds a 209-80 record in his ninth season at the helm of the Dukes and ranks 18th among active women’s basketball head coaches with a .723 winning percentage counting exclusively Division I seasons. He also holds a 127-32 mark (.799) in conference games. If the 2020-21 CoVID protocol season and the 2021-2022 CAA ineligible seasons were discounted, O’Regan’s career ledger reads 181-55 overall (.767) and 108-18 in league games (.857).
The 2024-2025 Sun Belt Coach of the Year, O’Regan led JMU to a 27-4 mark in the regular season. After an overtime loss in the SBC title game, the Dukes were the second team out of the NCAA at-large picture, thus pitting them as a top seed in the WBIT. The opening-round win over Davidson tied the program record for season wins (regular season and postseason) with the fifth campaign of 29 victories, which includes O’Regan’s third season in 2018-2019 (29-6). JMU’s only losses this year came to three of the top 12 seeds in the NCAA Championship plus two overtime setbacks.
James Madison captured its fifth regular-season championship in O’Regan’s nine seasons this year. JMU went 18-0 in league play in 2024-2025, the fourth unblemished conference season in program history, with the other three coming in consecutive 12-0 CAA seasons from 1986-1989. It was the eighth undefeated league slate in Sun Belt history.
Peyton McDaniel earned 2024-2025 Sun Belt Player of the Year honors to become the fourth conference top player honor in O’Regan’s nine seasons. She averaged 16.0 points and 8.4 rebounds in the regular season. Kseniia Kozlova joined McDaniel as First Team All-Conference, while Ro Scott was Sixth Woman of the Year.
