At least one SEC team will have a new women’s basketball coach next season.
The Gators finished this season with an 18-15 record, 5-11 in SEC play and were eliminated in the second round of the SEC Tournament by Oklahoma. Florida had a five-game losing streak to open SEC play and in the non-conference portion of their schedule suffered to mid-majors Navy and Tulsa.
A Minnesota native who played college ball at Northwestern and Colorado State, Finley came to Florida in 2017 as an assistant coach under Cameron Newbauer. In July 2021, Newbauer suddenly resigned citing “personal reasons,” but two months later reports alleged he created an abusive environment within the program. Finley took over on an interim basis and led them to 10 wins in the SEC and a No. 15 national ranking. The Gators made the NCAA Tournament before losing in the first round.
Finley had the interim tag removed after the 2021-22 season, but hasn’t been able to recapture that success. Florida has gone 5-11 in SEC play in each of the past four seasons. She’s had talented players — like Liv McGill and Me’Arah O’Neal — but hasn’t able to transform the roster into a consistent winner.
Aside from a run under Carol Ross in the 1990s, Florida doesn’t have much history of success in women’s basketball to point to. Between 1993 and 1999, they went seven consecutive NCAA Tournaments, with the high-water mark being an Elite Eight appearance in 1997 with a team powered by DeLisha Milton-Jones. Between 1997 and 2004, the Gators produced 10 WNBA Draft picks.
Since Ross resigned in 2002, the Gators haven’t gone to consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Florida has just five winning seasons in SEC play since 2002 and remains the only one of the Gators’ 19 sports that has never won a conference championship. Carolyn Peck, Amanda Butler, Newbauer and now Finley all came up short in finding a recipe for consistent success.
A recent report from the Gainesville Sun — a USA TODAY Network member — revealed Florida spent the least on women’s basketball in fiscal year 2024 of all 15 public school programs in the SEC. Florida spent just a little north of $5 million, which is less than half of what contenders like LSU and South Carolina spent. The Gators also rank last in the SEC in average home attendance, drawing about 1,895 fans per game.
Scott Stricklin has been the athletic director at Florida since 2016. He fired Butler, hired Newbauer — over Becky Hammon — and then handed Finley the keys after Newbauer left amid a scandal.
The list of coaches Stricklin might call this time include sitting SEC head coaches like Yolett McPhee-McCuin of Ole Miss, a former Florida great like Old Dominion head coach DeLisha Milton-Jones, a proven winner like George Mason’s Vanessa Blair-Lewis, and a rising mid-major coaching talent like Ayla Guzzardo of McNeese State.
Other names to watch: Samford head coach Matt Wise, Georgia Southern head coach Hana Haden, Arkansas State head coach Destinee Rogers, Rhode Island head coach Tammi Reiss, Columbia head coach Megan Griffith