Rice Women’s Basketball has named former NC State assistant Lindsay Edmonds as its new head coach, the school announced on Friday.
On April 6, athletic director Joe Karlgaard met with the media to discuss the recently vacated Rice women’s basketball head coaching position. At the time, Karlgaard prognosticated a national search would begin imminently and wind down somewhere between “between 10 and 20 days.” He also alluded to a wider candidate pool given the timing of the search, including prospective coaches coming off NCAA Tournament runs.
Sure enough, with a few days remaining in that prescribed window, Rice has their new coach. On Friday the Owls announced the hiring of now-former NC State assistant head coach Lindsay Edmonds.
Edmonds joins Rice after seven seasons with the NC State, six as an assistant before being elevated to associate head coach prior to the 2019-2020 season. She helped lead the Wolfpack to Sweet 16 appearances in 2018, 2019 and 2021, three consecutive seasons in which the NCAA Tournament was held. Along the way, Edmonds aided multiple WNBA draft selections, including 2014 first-round selection Markeisha Gatling.
Rice could have gone in several different directions with this hire. They opted to follow a course charted previously by Karlgaard prior to the 2015 season when he hired now-former head coach Tina Langley, scooping her away from an extremely successful Maryland program while she was an assistant.
There’s no surefire way to guarantee following a similar method will work in successive hires, but there are no doubting Edmonds credentials as she arrives.
Athletic Director Joe Karlgaard had this to say about Edmonds’ arrival: “Lindsay Edmonds stood out among a very talented pool in our coaching search,” Karlgaard said. “She has the experience and track record we are looking for to continue the recent success of our program and build upon it. Everywhere Lindsay has coached, she has won. Her student-athletes have excelled in the classroom and in the community. I’m excited for her to lead the next chapter of Rice women’s basketball.”
