Head Coach Greg Collins continued to fill out his coaching staff on Tuesday morning, announcing that WKU Athletic Hall of Famer Tiffany Porter-Talbert will join the Lady Toppers as an assistant coach effective immediately.
Porter-Talbert, who served last season as a graduate assistant at Doane University, an NAIA program in Crete, Neb., was a four-year letterwinner for the Lady Toppers from 2002-03 through 2005-06. The new assistant coach also competed in track and field for WKU, reaching the NCAA Championships as a member of WKU’s 4x100m relay team and was WKU’s Female Athlete of the Year in 2004-05.
“Tiffany will be a great addition to our coaching staff,” Collins said of the hire. “She is a WKU Hall of Famer and knows the history of our program, and she also brings several years of experience as a professional player from her years spent in Germany. She is a true athlete that will be able to connect with our players, having been through some of the same situations that they might be facing here at WKU not so long ago.”
One of only four players in program history to score 2,000 career points, Porter-Talbert ranks fourth in school history with 2,028 points. She also ranks among the program’s best in rebounding (sixth, 995), assists (10th, 378), steals (third, 257) and career points-rebounds double-doubles (seventh, 28). She will be the second active WKU Hall of Famer to serve as an assistant coach with the program, following in the footsteps of Lillie Mason, who was an assistant under Steve Small in 1997-98 and 1998-99.
“Really it’s unbelievable being back here. It’s an honor to be back here at WKU,” Porter-Talbert said. “I always tell everybody that I’ve had a passion for this place since I first stepped on campus in 2002. This is a program with great tradition and history that I continued to follow even when I was playing overseas in Germany. I feel like everything has come full circle for me; every time I come into Diddle I get excited to be here.”
In her four years with the Lady Toppers, Porter-Talbert led the team to an 89-40 record and captured the Sun Belt Tournament championship during her freshman campaign in 2002-03. The Lady Toppers reached a national postseason tournament in each of her four seasons, including an NCAA appearance (2002-03) and runs to the WNIT Quarterfinals (2003-04) and Semifinals (2005-06). Porter-Talbert was a five-time Sun Belt Player of the Week and was named to the Sun Belt All-Tournament Team in each of her four years.
Additionally, Porter-Talbert was selected as the Sun Belt Player of the Year (2004-05), the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year (2002-03) and was a three-time First Team All-Sun Belt selection in her final three seasons. Following her freshman season, Porter-Talbert was also named an Honorable Mention Freshman All-American by womenscollegehoops.com.
Following her playing days with the Lady Toppers, Porter-Talbert played professionally with Wasserburg am Inn and Halle in Germany from 2010-16.
“I feel like having done all the things that I did during my career here, I know how to speak about our program to recruits,” Porter-Talbert said. “I’m just going to do the best that I can do to help us get those recruits and to build relationships with our players. This whole experience doesn’t really feel like something new, it just feels like returning to my Old Kentucky Home. The whole thing is really incredible and I’m just really looking forward to getting going.”
Porter-Talbert joins a program that has reached the NCAA Tournament in four of the last six seasons and has captured back-to-back C-USA Tournament titles. This season, the Lady Toppers finished with a 24-9 record and reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling against eventual Elite Eight participant Oregon State.
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