George Washington women’s basketball coach Mike Bozeman will not return next season, Athletic Director Patrick Nero announced Monday.
Bozeman, whose four-year contract expires in June, was 42-75 overall, 19-37 in the Atlantic 10. The Colonials’ season ended Friday with a 69-55 loss to Duquesne in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
“I am disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to return as coach here at GW, but I am thankful to all that worked hard these past four years, especially our student-athletes and assistant coaches,” Bozeman said in a statement released by the school.
Bozeman had the unenviable task of following longtime GW coach Joe McKeown, a recent inductee into the school's athletic hall of fame. Bozeman, who spent three years as an assistant to McKeown before becoming head coach, failed to replicate McKeown's success.
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McKeown was a five-time Atlantic 10 coach of the year and the school’s most successful coach with 441 career wins. He averaged 23 wins per season over his 19 years at the school and turned the Colonials into regular participants in the NCAA tournament.
Bozeman took GW to the WNIT in his first season but didn’t have another winning season. No GW player made any of the Atlantic 10 all-conference teams this season.
“We want to thank Mike for his four years as head coach and three seasons as an assistant coach with our women’s basketball program,” Nero said in a statement. “He worked very hard to bring the success to our women’s basketball program that we all hoped could be achieved. We wish him the best as we look forward to the future for GW women’s basketball.”
Nero’s search for GW’s next coach will begin immediately. Possible candidates include former GW standouts Lisa Cermignano and Tajama (T.J.) Abraham Ngongba. Cermignano spent the past three seasons as an assistant to Illinois coach Jolette Law, who was fired Friday, and was a candidate for GW the last time the job was open. Abraham Ngongba, who is in her fourth season as head coach at Radford, was the Big South coach of the year in 2011.
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