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With a contract extension through the 2030- 31 season, Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis is committed to competing and winning — at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾.

Last March, Women’s Basketball Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis entered a postgame press conference in Lexington, Kentucky, with one message in mind. It wasn’t the Stags’ season that had come to an end at the hands of Kansas State in the NCAA Tournament — though the loss would certainly be on the third-year head coach’s mind for the next few days of reflection, film breakdown, and meetings. Nor was it the baseless noise on social media that “Coach Carly” would be leaving Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Women’s Basketball in the coming days. Coach Carly’s message was clear: the Stags’ exit from the 2025 NCAA Tournament was not a departure from the national spotlight, but a step in a journey that, in many ways, is just beginning. And both the coach and her student-athletes — present and future — are committed not just to competing and winning, but to doing so at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ University. 

“I have so much faith in our administration that we’re going to continue to be competitive. But I also think that we can do it our way,” said Coach Carly. “For us, finding your fit is something we talk a lot about with recruits. You might be able to go to ‘Power 4 School XYZ’ and make a little bit more money, but is that going to make you a better person for the next 40 years?”

“Coach Carly is building an elite program and an enviable model that is about people, process, and a deep-rooted sense of integrity,” said Vice President for Athletics Paul Schlickmann. “It was inspiring — but not at all surprising — for her to reaffirm in the moment and in the presence of her student-athletes, that we are going to compete, we are going to build something unique, and we are going to do it the right way.”

The road to that podium in Lexington began three years ago, when Coach Carly — then the associate head coach at the University of Minnesota — was introduced as the third head coach in the Division I history of Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Women’s Basketball. The first-time head coach was quick to assemble a staff, develop a culture, and begin to produce stellar results.

After a 15-15 start in the first year of the Coach Carly era, the Stags are 59-7 over the last two seasons, which includes a 45-1 mark against Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference competition. That dominant run through the conference has culminated with two MAAC Championships — the first time that Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Women’s Basketball has ever won back-toback titles — as well as two Regular Season Championships and a pair of trips to the NCAA postseason.

But some of the biggest results on the recent ledger have come outside of league play, where the Stags have earned victories over power conference opponents Rutgers, St. John’s, Arkansas, Wake Forest, and Villanova, in addition to a three-point loss at the SEC’s Vanderbilt in 2023-24 and a two-point loss this past November to an Oklahoma State team that contended for a Big XII Championship and finished ranked #22 in the nation.

The Stags’ emergence on the national stage has had Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ in the conversation for an NCAA at-large bid in both 2024 and 2025 and merited the program’s first-ever Associated Press national ranking when the voters slotted them at #25 in the country during the Stags’ historic 29-game winning streak two seasons ago.

In a college basketball landscape where student-athletes are on the move in record numbers and programs can find themselves looking to fill upwards of 10 scholarships, the Stags have thrived on a level of continuity that has allowed Coach Carly and her staff to build, not rebuild. In 2024-25, Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ returned over 90 percent of its scoring from the prior campaign. And next year, the Stags are slated to welcome back every point scored this past year, with the exception of the seniors and graduate students who have exhausted their eligibility.

“As basketball players, of course they want to win and they want to compete at a high level. But I think the biggest factor in our high level of retention is that our women enjoy the day-to-day experience at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾,” said Coach Carly. “They love their relationships with their teammates and classmates, they enjoy everything that Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ has to offer, and they know they’re getting an experience and an education that will prepare them for the next chapter of their lives. There are a lot of places where a student-athlete can compete and win basketball games, but there’s no other place, on and off the court, like Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾.”

With the commitment firmly in place from top to bottom — including a coaching staff that has been together for three seasons and counting — there are other factors that contribute to the Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ way. Whether a senior or a first-year, a guard, or a road runner — the Stags’ moniker for its post players — the standards for the program are quite literally written on the wall: Selfless. Tough. Accountable. Grateful. Those four words, not coincidentally forming the acronym “STAG”, appear prominently and permanently on the women’s basketball locker room wall and are just as palpable in the actions of the student-athletes who have taken the words to heart.

“The standards are evident in everything that they do,” said Schlickmann. “The on-court success speaks for itself, but that is a byproduct of how they go about their business every day. The young women in our program excel academically, are leaders to their peers on campus and have become valued role models in the community. They are achieving at a high level in every facet of their educational experience at Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ because of their belief in our culture and a relentless pursuit of excellence in all their endeavors. It is a testament to Coach Carly and her staff for their commitment to our core values and for weaving them into the fabric that makes Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ Women’s Basketball special.”

Much like the student-athletes, successful head coaches are often viewed as a hot commodity in the college basketball landscape. On the heels of back-to-back MAAC Championship seasons and with a program just scratching the surface of its potential, Coach Carly heeded her own advice: find your fit and do it your way. On April 18, she signed a contract extension spanning through the 2030-31 season.

“In a time where so many in college athletics are jumping at whatever opportunity presents itself next, I feel so blessed to be at a place that is all in on making Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ one of the best Women’s Basketball programs in the country,” Coach Carly said. “We have been able to set records and accomplish so many goals in the last three years, but none more important than our women growing, leading, and thriving as the best versions of themselves. Â鶹´«Ã½ÊÓƵÍøÕ¾ develops well-rounded, altruistic young adults that energize me every single day, and I am excited for what we can accomplish in the future. We aren’t done yet!”

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