USC’s new head women’s basketball coach, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, has completed her coaching staff for the coming 2013-14 season. In addition to retaining assistant coach Evan Unrau, who joined the USC staff in 2012, Cooper-Dyke has added Brandy Manning as associate head coach and Jualeah Woods as an assistant coach to her Women of Troy staff.
Manning comes to USC from Arizona, and Woods — a former Trojan — joins USC from San Diego State.
"One of the things I really wanted was to bring in some strong recruiters and people who were really strong teachers of basketball, because I really like to teach basketball," Cooper-Dyke said. "Brandy is so well-rounded in his ability to coach Xs and Os and recruit. He is just phenomenal at teaching, motivating and recruiting. Jualeah is just a great person. She’s been at San Diego State for years. I love her personality and her ability to recruit, especially on the West Coast. She’s a really strong recruiter and I really feel like she’ll help make this staff great. Evan has done such a fantastic job in her one year here, too, so I’m really excited about how this staff has taken shape."
Brandy Manning joins the Trojan staff after serving one season as an associate head coach and four seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Arizona. Highly regarded as a standout coach, scout and recruiter, he also served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for one season at Central Florida. Before that, he coached a Murray State and Louisville.
Manning joined the Arizona staff in 2008-09 and helped lead the Wildcats to their first postseason appearance since the 2004-05 season when Arizona earned a spot in the 2011 Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The following year, the Wildcats’ 11-1 start to the 2011-12 season was the best in program history since 1999-2000. The Wildcats beat UCLA twice in 2012, marking Arizona’s first wins over the Bruins since 2006-07.
While Manning was at Arizona, the Wildcats improved from 12 wins in 2008-09, to 14 wins in 2009-10, to 21 wins in 2010-11. In Pac-10 play, Arizona improved from four wins in 2008-09, to six wins in 2009-10, to 10 wins in 2010-11. The Wildcats’ 10-8 conference record for the 2010-11 season was their best since the 2004-05 campaign and their 21 wins overall was the most since the 2003-04 season. The 2010-11 season also marked the highest finish in the Pac-10 for Arizona (fourth), since tying for the Pac-10 regular-season crown in 2004.
On the recruiting side, Manning has been responsible for adding many stellar student-athletes to his programs. While at Central Florida, he assembled a class of eight recruits who would be largely responsible for driving the Knights to the 2009 and 2011 Conference USA championships as well as their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years. At Arizona, Manning was instrumental in bringing in another talented crop of players, including 2010 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and the recent 16th pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, Davellyn Whyte.
Manning joined Central Florida from Murray State, where he helped the Racers to a 21-10 record and a bid in the 2007 Women’s National Invitation Tournament, marking just the second-ever postseason appearance for the program. Manning spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at the Louisville from 2003-05. During that time, the Cardinals posted a record of 42-19 and advanced to the 2005 Conference USA Championship game. Louisville earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament in 2005 after participating in the WNIT the season prior.
Manning, a native of Stockton, Calif., graduated from Clark Atlanta in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He also holds a master’s degree in education from Louisville. He and his wife, Nakaya, have sons Brandyn and Quintyn.
Jualeah Woods is a 1994 graduate of USC, having won the 1994 Pac-10 Championship as Trojan alongside USC greats Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson. Most recently, Woods was named interim head coach at San Diego State after having spent the past two seasons as associate head coach and the six previous years as an assistant coach to Beth Burns.
While with the Aztecs, Woods served as recruiting coordinator, helping to secure San Diego State talent that has won two Mountain West Conference regular-season and tournament titles and also made three NCAA appearances. In 2010, the Aztecs reached the Sweet Sixteen. Some of Woods’ top student-athletes at San Diego State were four-time all-MWC center Paris Johnson and 2010 MWC Newcomer of the Year Jessika Bradley.
Prior to her eight seasons at San Diego State, Woods served as an assistant coach at Oregon State for five years. Recruiting coordinator at OSU for her last three seasons in Corvallis, Woods helped the Beavers to four straight WNIT appearances, including a run to the WNIT quarterfinals in 2004.
A Berkeley native, Woods’ first collegiate coaching job was as an assistant coach at California for two seasons (1998-2000) after beginning her coaching career at Santa Monica High School as an assistant and later as head coach from 1994-97.
Woods earned her bachelor’s degree in public administration from USC in 1994. She was a four-year starter and a two-time team captain at Troy, helping lead the Trojans to four NCAA appearances, including runs to the Sweet Sixteen in 1992 and to the Elite Eight in 1993 and 1994.
"I’m just so excited to have this staff come together and get started," Cooper-Dyke said. "We already have a fantastic group of student-athetes here at USC, and I can’t wait for this coaching staff and support staff to grow as a family in this program."
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