New Husky Womens Basketball Coach

Like the fabled groundhog of Punxatawney, Todd Turner is about to emerge from his den at Tubby Graves and announce the naming of a new Husky women's basketball coach. (See photo of Todd being held by Mark Emmert at the press conference.)

On a serious note, Tia Jackson looks like an excellent choice, and has excellent ties to the West after her five year stay at UCLA previous to moving to Duke.

Tia Jackson, an assistant coach at Duke, will be hired as the Washington women's basketball coach, according to sources.Jackson told the Duke players this week that she had accepted the job, a source said. A news conference to introduce Jackson could come as soon as Friday. Jackson will first meet with UW players and the advisory committee that had been set up to hire a new coach, sources said.

The Tia Jackson Bio

Labeled as one of the top recruiters in the nation, Tia Jackson joined the Duke Blue Devil staff over the summer of 2005, after spending five years as an assistant coach on the UCLA staff.

Jackson is involved in all aspects of the Blue Devil program including recruiting, scouting, practice planning and instruction. A native of Salisbury, Md., Jackson joined the UCLA staff in July of 2000 and served as the recruiting coordinator each of those years. Since joining the Bruin staff, Jackson signed a top-six recruiting class in 2003 and a top-10 class in 2002, while bringing in five McDonald’s and Kodak/WBCA All-America selections.

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Jackson served as an assistant coach at Stanford in 1999 and was an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) from 1996-99.

Following the 1996-97 season at VCU, Jackson spent the summer playing professionally in the WNBA in its inaugural season. She was the ninth overall pick in the draft and played in 28 games that season for the Phoenix Mercury. The Mercury won the Western Conference Championship under Head Coach Cheryl Miller. Jackson averaged 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds, but was unable to continue her career due to injury.

Jackson was a 1995 graduate of the University of Iowa where she helped lead the Hawkeye’s to four top-25 final rankings in five seasons she played for coach C. Vivian Stringer. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies and film, emphasizing in television production and editing.

During her junior season, she helped Iowa, 27-4 that year, to a berth in the 1993 Final Four and earned NCAA Mideast Regional All-Tournament honors. Jackson completed her career at Iowa ranked 10th on the all-time school list for rebounds with 507 and seventh in steals with 168. She averaged 10.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. As a senior at Iowa, she played with fellow Duke assistant coach Shannon Perry in 1995 when Perry was a freshman with the Hawkeyes.

With her move to Duke, Jackson returned to the east coast where she grew up and was an honorable mention All-America honoree as a senior at Mardela Springs (Md.) High School. Jackson totaled 3,108 points during her prep career.