Davidson Names Michele Savage Women’s Basketball Coach

Press Conference
Savage's Bio

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Davidson Director of Athletics Jim Murphy and President Tom Ross announced today at a press conference that the school has named Michele Savage head women's basketball coach.

Savage comes to Davidson from Tulane University, where she spent the last nine years as an assistant coach under Lisa Stockton. The Green Wave earned three trips to the NCAA Tournament and made one appearance in the WNIT during Savage's tenure, compiling an overall record of 165-109 and a 72-64 mark in Conference USA?contests.

Tulane went 26-7 in 2009-10 and won the C-USA regular season and tournament titles before falling to Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. During her time at Tulane, Savage coached two players, Teana McKiver and Gwen Slaughter, who went on to play in the WNBA.

“I am very excited to be part of the Davidson family,” said Savage. “Davidson is a tremendous opportunity for me as a new head coach, and I hope my staff and I can have an immediate impact on the program.”

Savage becomes the 11th head coach in the 31-year-old Davidson women's basketball program. She is the first female African-American head coach at Davidson and the third African-American head coach in school history in any sport (Junior Wade, 1975, baseball & Gwen Harris, 1983-86, men's and women's track). She takes over a program that has posted six straight winning seasons in the Southern Conference and has been above .500 overall in five of the last six campaigns, including a 23-9 mark and a WNIT appearance in 2006-07.

“Being a Hall of Fame player and All-America at Northwestern, Michele's coaching experience in highly-successful programs at Tulane, Cornell and Toledo will serve her well in guiding our team to significant achievement,” said Murphy. “She has worked with and learned from very strong head coaches during her career and we are excited to hand her the reins to our women's basketball program.”

After a storied playing career at Northwestern University, Savage began her coaching career at Chicago State, where she spent two seasons before becoming an assistant at Toledo. She helped guide the Rockets to a Mid-American Conference crown and a No. 25 national ranking in the 1998-99 season. Toledo advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 6 seed that year, and Kim Knuth, the two-time Mid-America Conference Player of the Year, was named honorable-mention All-American. From there, Savage moved on to Cornell University, where she spent two seasons, before joining the staff at Tulane.

Savage, who graduated from Northwestern in 1993 with a degree in human development and social policy, was chosen as one of the top-15 players in the nation as a senior in high school at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Westchester, Ill. She was the Chicago Sun-Times Girl's High School Basketball Player of the Year and named to the Chicago Tribune Girl's High School Basketball First Team.

One of only two players in NU history to be named a three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, she was a Kodak All-District choice and honorable-mention Kodak All-American from 1990-92 as well as earning All-America recognition from Street & Smith's in 1991. She helped lead the Wildcats to the 1990 Big Ten crown and back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament (1990-91), while also guiding the Wildcats to consecutive 20-plus win seasons.

She holds Northwestern's career records for field goal percentage (.606) while ranking among the school's leaders in points (1,688), rebounds (681) and steals (200). Savage was a second-team Big Ten Centennial Squad selection, which recognized the best players in conference history, and was inducted into the Northwestern Athletics Hall of Fame (2001) and the Illinois Sports Hall of Fame (2008).

Davidson, which went 14-15 overall and 12-8 in the SoCon last season, returns nine letterwinners, including two of its top three scorers, to the 2010-11 squad.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results