Women's basketball news: And One: Joan Bonvicini, overlooked coaching legend

A Long Beach state coaching legend and women’s hoops pioneer.

There are plenty of big names in women’s basketball who have built programs to consistent success. But few have done it over and over quite like Joan Bonvicini.

Earlier this season the basketball community celebrated the 1,000th win for C. Vivian Stringer, known for her history of building Cheyney State, Iowa, and Rutgers each into national contenders and Final Four programs. Out west, Bonvicini spent four decades taking three programs to new heights herself.

In the early 1970s, Connecticut product Bonvicini starred as guard at Southern Connecticut State University.

Title IX was signed into law early in her playing years, but the NCAA did not sponsor a national tournament until 1982. Bonvicini and crew instead played in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Tournament, finishing in third place in 1973 and 1974 and in fourth in 1975. In 1973, her team lost to the eventual champion Immaculata University, who dominated the AIAW Tournament through the ’70s.

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Like many coaching greats, Bonvicini played for a Hall of Famer herself, 2017 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Louise O’Neal; that influence undoubtedly set in to motion her future in basketball.

Directly out of college, she moved out west, where she would build a legendary career. She first accepted an assistant coaching position at Cal Poly-Pomona while working full-time as a computer programmer. Two years later, she accepted a similar position at Long Beach State University.

The Long Beach State program at the time was coached by Dr. Frances Schaafsma, the school’s first women’s basketball coach who had built a perennially successful team in her first two decades. They won 11 conference regular season championships, never finishing outside the top three before Schaafsma stepped down from the head coaching position. At that point, Bonvicini took over, starting her head coaching career.

Many women’s basketball coaches of the era took over at a young age. The late Pat Summitt was 22 years old when she took over at the University of Tennessee; similarly Tara VanDerveer at Idaho and Stringer at Cheyney State started as head coaches in their early 20s. Bonvicini took over at Long Beach State at age 25, but she had the added pressure of continuing a nationally successful program.

She did that, and more. Starting in 1979, Bonvicini took the 49ers to 12 straight AIAW or NCAA Tournaments, dominating their conference along the way. The program won 10 conference regular season championships and four conference tournament championships during that time.

Early in the ’80s, the 49ers were led by LaTaunya Pollard, a two-time All-American, two-time conference Player of the Year, and member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team. She was named the 1983 Wade Trophy winner before finishing her college career and is still the program’s all-time leading scorer with 3,001 points over her four years.

During that time, Bonvicini was named 1981 Division I Coach of the Year and Western Collegiate Athletic Association (predecessor to the Pac-10) Coach of the Year in 1984. In 1982, she was an assistant coach for the United State’s William Jones Cup team that earned a silver medal.

The pinnacle of Bonvicini’s time with Long Beach State came toward the end of the decade, when she took a team led by all-Americans Cindy Brown and Penny Toler to consecutive Final Four finishes in 1987 and 1988. Brown was a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team, and Toler went on to a successful professional career, playing three years for the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA before taking over as their general manager, a position she still holds today.

Each of those 12 seasons saw the 49ers win at least 24 games, including a 33-3 finish in the 1986-1987 season that ended in their first NCAA Final Four. Long Beach State became the first women’s basketball program to reach 500 wins during that time, and in 11 of Bonvicini’s 12 seasons, they finished in the AP Top 10.

With a career record of 325-71 at Long Beach State — still the best in terms of total wins and winning percentage in program history — Bonvicini was highly sought after for her recruiting and coaching prowess.

That’s when the University of Arizona came calling. A program struggling for success, the Wildcats were coming off five straight losing seasons when Bonvicini made the move from Long Beach over to Tucson to begin the rebuilding process.

During her first couple of years rebuilding, Bonvicini coached the U.S. team in the 1993 World University Games, walking away with a bronze medal.

Perhaps her biggest win came shortly thereafter, when she signed Adia Barnes, the 1995 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in Bonvicini’s fourth season as head coach.

Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini at Pacific-10 Conference Women’s Basketball Media Day at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images) /

The turnaround was undoubtable by the following year. The 1995-1996 season ended with a 22-8 overall record (10-8 in the Pac-10) and a WNIT Championship. Barnes was the WNIT MVP, and the program was on an upward trajectory.

Bonvicini led Barnes and crew to their first two NCAA Tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Connecticut in 1998. Barnes was the Pac-10 Player of the Year, an AP third-team All-American, and USBWA first-team All-American before going on to become the Wildcats’ first professional player in the WNBA.

In 1999 and 2000, Arizona returned to the NCAA Tournament, falling to juggernauts Rutgers and Tennessee, respectively.

The 2002-2003 season ushered in another major recruit for Bonvicini, when standout center Shawntinice Polk joined the squad. She led the Wildcats back to a 22-9 record (13-5 in the Pac-10) and an NCAA Tournament appearance, where they fell to Notre Dame.

Polk was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and AP All-America honorable mention in 2003. She repeated as an AP All-America honorable mention the following year after leading Arizona to a 24-9 record and another NCAA Tournament appearance. Sadly, Polk passed away unexpectedly in September of 2005 from a blood clot in the lungs, unable to finish out her stellar college career.

After their 2005 finish in the NCAA Tournament, the Arizona women’s basketball program dipped under Bonvicini. In her final three years, they failed to put together a winning season, but her success with the Wildcats over 17 years is undeniable.

In that time, she coached 18 conference first-team selections to seven NCAA Tournament appearances and two WNIT appearances, including that 1996 WNIT Championship. Her 288-224 record is still best for the program. That time included her becoming the 18th Division I coach to reach 600 wins in 2007.

Arizona Wildcats Women’s Basketball Head Coach Joan Bonvicini. Arizona Wildcats defeat the Oregon Ducks 70-66 in Women’s Basketball at McArthur Court in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images) /

Coming off that downturn, Bonvicini left Arizona and spent some time as a broadcaster for FOX Sports before another school came calling, looking for someone with a proven record of building successful programs.

In 2009, she took over as head coach at Seattle University, whose athletics program went through a challenging transition. Bonvicini led the women’s basketball team in their transition back to Division I and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

Very quickly, she was able to put together consecutive 20-win seasons in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. In 2013, they won the WAC regular season title, and Bonvicini was named conference Coach of the Year, taking the Redhawks to the WNIT.

Her time in Seattle was short, as she resigned following the conclusion of their season in 2016, but before she left she added one more item to her Hall of Fame résumé: in a win over Chicago State, she became the 17th coach to 700 wins.

At the end of her time in Seattle, she had 701 wins and 421 losses, good for 19th all-time in Division I victories.

A pioneer of the women’s game as we know it, Bonvicini is one of few to have had success at three different programs, not to mention leading a national powerhouse as a player. In 2017 she was a finalist for induction in to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and with the impact she has had over the lifetime of modern women’s college basketball, it’s just a matter of time.

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