Jen Rizzotti on Playing for Championships
Today's guest is Jen Rizzotti. Jen is entering her third season as the head coach of the George Washington women's basketball team. Jen guided the Colonials back to the NCAA Tournament in her second season at the helm in 2017-18 after leading the program to the Atlantic 10 Championship.
Rizzotti was named the 10th head coach of GW women's basketball on April 15, 2016. Coach Rizzotti spent the previous 17 seasons as the head coach of the Hartford Hawks, where she built a conference powerhouse in taking the Hawks to all six NCAA appearances in program history, winning a pair of NCAA Tournament games, and distinguishing herself as the all-time winningest coach in America East history.
Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, Rizzotti is well-known in basketball circles around the world. After taking control of a Hartford program that went 8-19 in the year before she was hired and that had never won more than 15 games prior to her arrival, the Hawks enjoyed 11 seasons with more than 15 victories in her tenure and won at least 20 games seven times.
Following the 2009-10 regular season, Rizzotti was named a finalist for the Kay Yow National Coach of the Year award after leading Hartford to a school-record 20-game winning streak, a perfect 16-0 record in conference play and the program's first-ever national ranking.
Rizzotti is also deeply connected to international basketball through her involvement with the USA Women's Basketball national program. She served as head coach of 2010 FIBA Americas U18 gold medal winners as well as the 2011 U19 World Champions. In 2011 she was crowned as the USA Basketball National Coach of the Year. More recently Rizzotti served as an assistant for the 2014 FIBA World Championships and served in a support role for the USA Basketball Women's National Team's Gold Medal run at the 2016 Olympic Games.
As a student-athlete at the University of Connecticut, Rizzotti first vaulted into the national spotlight as the starting point guard for the Huskies' first national championship team in 1995 with an undefeated 35-0 record. During the run to the national title, Rizzotti was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
A former All-American and the NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player after her junior and senior seasons, in 1996 Rizzotti virtually swept the postseason awards as Big East Player of the Year, Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Associated Press Player of the Year, the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the Wade Trophy winner.
Rizzotti graduated as UConn's career leader in assists (637) and steals (349) and still ranks second all-time in those categories.
As a coach and formerly as a student-athlete, Rizzotti's focus on academics has always been exemplary. Under her guidance, Hartford was ranked among the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Academic Top 25 teams on three occasions. Another accolade from her playing days was awarded in June 2016 when the two-time Academic All-American and 1996 Academic All-American of the Year was officially inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
Rizzotti played eight seasons of professional basketball following her graduation from UConn in 1996. In addition to five seasons in the WNBA - two with the Houston Comets and three with the Cleveland Rockers - she competed for three seasons with the New England Blizzard in the American Basketball League. In the ABL she was a two-time All-Star.
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Thanks for listening.
-Brian
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