The Auburn Tigers women's basketball program is the intercollegiate women's basketball team that represents

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

. The school competes in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

in Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA). The Tigers play their homes games at Auburn Arena in

Auburn, Alabama Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama. The population was 76,143 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Auburn metropolitan area, Alabama, Aubu ...

on the university campus. The program began in 1971. Auburn has won five SEC regular season championships and four SEC tournament championships. Auburn has appeared in the NCAA tournament 21 times, making it as far as the championship game three times in a row in 1988,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, and

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

. Auburn has produced eight

WNBA draft The WNBA draft is an annual draft (sports), draft held by the Women's National Basketball Association, WNBA through which WNBA teams can select new players from a talent pool of college and List of WNBA players, professional women's basketball p ...

picks, including DeWanna Bonner who was selected with the fifth overall pick, the highest in Auburn history. Eight Auburn players have been named All-Americans and Auburn has had 73 All-SEC selections. Four Auburn players have been named SEC Player of the Year: Vickie Orr in 1988, Carolyn Jones in 1990 and 1991, Lauretta Freeman in 1993, and DeWanna Bonner in 2009. Former head coaches Joe Ciampi and Nell Fortner have been selected as SEC Coach of the Year a total of four times.

History

The Auburn women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team has been consistently competitive both nationally and within the SEC. Despite playing in the same conference as perennial powerhouse

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

and other competitive programs such as

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and Vanderbilt, and more recently,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, United States. It is classified among "R ...

and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, Auburn has won five regular season SEC championships and four SEC tournament championships. Auburn has made 21 appearances in the NCAA women's basketball tournament, advancing to the Sweet 16 seven times and the Elite Eight six times. Auburn played in three consecutive National Championship games in 1988, 1989 and 1990, and won the Women's NIT in 2003. When Coach Joe Ciampi announced his retirement after 25 years at the end of the 2003–2004 season, the resulting search snared the highly experienced, former

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

and US National and Olympic team head coach, Nell Fortner. Fortner coached the team through the 2011–2012 season, including a 2009 SEC regular-season championship and a 30–4 record. The Tigers made two NCAA Tournament appearances in Fortner's eight-year tenure. Fortner was replaced in 2012 by Terri Williams-Flournoy who had been the head coach at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

for eight seasons. Williams-Flournoy directed the Tigers to three NCAA Tournament appearances, a pair of 20-win seasons and two trips to the WNIT in her nine seasons. Williams-Flournoy was relieved of her coaching duties following the 2020–21 season. On April 3, 2021, Johnnie Harris was named the program's seventh head coach. Standout former Auburn players include: Mae Ola Bolton, Ruthie Bolton, Vickie Orr, Carolyn Jones, Chantel Tremitiere, Lauretta Freeman, Le'coe Willingham, DeWanna Bonner, Monique Morehouse, Blanche Alverson, Tyrese Tanner and Unique Thompson.

Players

Awards and honors

Retired jerseys

All-Americans

Other honors

SEC Player of the Year * Vickie Orr (1988) * Carolyn Jones (1990, 1991) *Lauretta Freeman (1993) * DeWanna Bonner (2009) SEC Tournament MVP *Becky Jackson (1981) * Vickie Orr (1987) * Carolyn Jones (1990) *Laticia Morris (1997) SEC Freshman of the Year *Mae Ola Bolton (1985) *Kristen Mulligan (1993) SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year *Blanche Alverson (2012, 2013) *Katie Frerking (2017)

Auburn in the WNBA

WNBA Draft picks

Auburn has produced eight

picks, including three in the inaugural 1997 draft. DeWanna Bonner holds the record for the highest draft pick from Auburn, selected 5th overall in the 2009 draft.

Undrafted free agents

In addition to its eight

picks, Auburn has had two undrafted free agents that went on to have WNBA careers. * Mandisa Stevenson (2004–2007) * Le'coe Willingham (2004–2013)

Awards and honors

Sixth Woman of the Year * DeWanna Bonner (2009, 2010, 2011) All-Stars * Ruthie Bolton (

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

) * DeWanna Bonner (

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

)

Auburn in the Olympics

Championships and postseason

SEC regular season championships

Auburn has won five regular season

championships in its history.

SEC Tournament

Auburn has won the SEC tournament four times, all under Joe Ciampi. Auburn defeated rival

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

in the 1981 tournament 85–71 to win their first ever SEC Tournament title in the second edition of the tournament. Six years later in 1987, Auburn routed

by a score of 83–57 to win their second championship. After losing in the championship game to

twice in a row in the following years, Auburn defeated Tennessee in the

championship game 78–77. Auburn won its most recent SEC Tournament championship in 1997, defeating

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

52–47. Auburn has reached the SEC Tournament final four other times, falling to Tennessee in 1985, 1988, and 1989 and falling to Vanderbilt in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. Four Auburn players have been selected as SEC Tournament MVP: Becky Jackson in 1981, Vickie Orr in 1987, Carolyn Jones in 1990, and Laticia Morris in 1997. Auburn has had 22 players selected to the SEC All-Tournament teams, including most recently DeWanna Bonner and Whitney Boddie in 2009.

Season-by-season record

NCAA tournament results

WNIT

Source The Tigers have participated in six WNIT tournaments, with an overall record of 13 – 5, including the 2003 WNIT championship.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Auburn Tigers women's Basketball