The media and fans a like filed into the club level of the West Stadium Center Tuesday for the introduction of Jeff Mittie as the ninth head coach of the Kansas State Women’s Basketball Program.
Mittie was announced as the successor of Deb Patterson who was let go by the University on March 9th after 18 seasons at Kansas State.
Mittie is one of the winningest active coaches in the NCAA Division I with more than 450 career wins, 15 postseason appearances, nine conference titles and five conference coach of the year honors in 22 years of coaching. He had spent the past 14 seasons as the head coach at TCU, a fellow Big 12 Conference member.
It’s not very common that a team looking for a new head coach would look within it’s league but John Currie, K-State Athletic Director, explained that they went about it the right way.
“Chris Del Conte, their Athletic Director, is one of my closest friends and we went about it the right way. Coach Mittie did talk to Chris before we talked to him and then Chris and I had a dialogue that I think was very healthy and constructive and open throughout this whole process,” Currie said.
The Manhattan region is close to home for Mittie and his wife Shanna. Mittie is a native of Blue Springs, Missouri, just on the outskirts of Kansas City and Shanna is a Junction City native and graduate of Chapman High School.
That is one thing that helped bring the Mittie family to Kansas State.
“We just feel like there’s just so many great things that we can do here. This fits our family very, very well,” Mittie said.
Having been in the Big 12 Conference the past two seasons allowed Mittie to have an idea of what he would be stepping into at Kansas State.
“I felt like watching from a far and scouting the young ladies who play here I felt like this was a basketball team that I would really enjoy coaching and really enjoy teaching.”
He will be hitting the recruiting trail right away and adding depth, not just specifically in size but in every other area as well he said.
“Because the one thing that can impact the season is foul trouble and injuries. We’ve got some young ladies that are bouncing back from injuries, so I would like to just improve our depth here in the spring.”
Mittie is retaining two coaches from the previous KSU Staff, Claire Coggins, Director of Basketball Operations and Tasha Dickie, Director of Video Operations. He is still unsure of if any of his staff from TCU will be coming with him as well, but expects to iron that out in the next seven to ten days.
He is inheriting a young team that finished 11-19 this past season with a 5-13 record in Big 12 play.