Bonnie Henrickson Chosen to Coach UCSB’s Women’s Basketball Team
Spent the Last 11 Years Coaching at the University of Kansas
UCSB went for experience in choosing Bonnie Henrickson to lead the Gaucho women’s basketball team. Henrickson has spent 18 years as a head coach, the last 11 at the University of Kansas.
She led the Jayhawks to back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Sweet 16 (2012, 2013) but was fired after finishing 15-17 this past season. Prior to KU, where she had seven winning seasons, Henrickson turned around a losing Virginia Tech program and took the Hokies to a Sweet 16 in her second year. Her overall head coaching record is 344-233.
When she was introduced as UCSB’s new head coach last week, Henrickson cited the team’s past success – an average of 25 wins a season in the decade 1996-2005 – as a blueprint for the future. Carlene Mitchell, a longtime Rutgers assistant when she took the UCSB head coaching job in 2011, was fired last month after the Gaucho women went 2-27, their worst season record in history.