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 land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

. The school competes in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

in Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA). The

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...

play their homes games at

Auburn Arena Neville Arena, formerly Auburn Arena, is a 9,121-seat multi-purpose arena in Auburn, Alabama, on the campus of Auburn University. Built in 2010 to replace Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum, the $86 million facility is the home of the Auburn T ...

Auburn, Alabama Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama, with a 2020 population of 76,143. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population o ...

on the university campus. The program began in 1972. Auburn has won five SEC regular season championships and four

SEC tournament The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sponsors nine men's sports and twelve women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. Also see the list of SEC national champions. Members The SEC was established on December 1932, when t ...

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 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, 1989, and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. Auburn has produced eight WNBA draft picks, including

DeWanna Bonner DeWanna Bonner (born August 21, 1987) is an American-Macedonian professional basketball player for the Connecticut Sun of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Bonner played college basketball for Auburn University. After a successf ...

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 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year refers to the most outstanding player for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in a given sport for a given season. For lists of individual sport SEC Players of the Year by year: *Southeastern Conference Bas ...

: Vickie Orr in 1988,

Carolyn Jones Carolyn Sue Jones (April 28, 1930 – August 3, 1983) was an American actress of television and film. Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy ...

in 1990 and 1991, Lauretta Freeman in 1993, and DeWanna Bonner in 2009. Former head coaches Joe Ciampi and

Nell Fortner Nell Fortner (born March 3, 1959) is the current women's college basketball coach at Georgia Tech. She is most well known for leading the 2000 Olympics team to a gold medal. She has received numerous awards including the 1997 National Coach of t ...

have been selected as National Coach of the Year a total of three times, and SEC Coach of the Year a total of five 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 (appr ...

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 state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and other competitive programs such as

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

and Vanderbilt, and more recently,

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

and

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, 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, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

and US National and Olympic team head coach,

. 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 Terri Williams (born January 11, 1969) is a women's basketball coach. From 2012 to 2021, she coached at Auburn University. From 2004 to 2012, she was coach at Georgetown. She had previously served as an assistant coach at Georgetown, Georgia ...

who had been the head coach at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

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,

, Chantel Tremitiere, Lauretta Freeman,

Le'coe Willingham Le'coe Willingham (born February 10, 1981) is an American professional basketball player. Attending Hephzibah High School, she won the 1998 AAAA Georgia State Women's state high jump title. She last played the forward position for the Atlanta D ...

, 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) *

(1990, 1991) *Lauretta Freeman (1993) *

(2009) SEC Tournament MVP *Becky Jackson (1981) * Vickie Orr (1987) *

(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 WNBA draft picks, including three in the inaugural 1997 draft.

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 WNBA draft picks, Auburn has had two

undrafted free agents In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

that went on to have WNBA careers. * Mandisa Stevenson (2004–2007) *

(2004–2013)

Awards and honors

Sixth Woman of the Year *

(2009, 2010, 2011) All-Stars * Ruthie Bolton (

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2001 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, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

) *

(

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

)

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

four times, all under Joe Ciampi. Auburn defeated rival

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

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 state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. Four Auburn players have been selected as SEC Tournament MVP: Becky Jackson in 1981, Vickie Orr in 1987,

in 1990, and Laticia Morris in 1997. Auburn has had 22 players selected to the SEC All-Tournament teams, including most recently

History

Players

Awards and honors

Retired jerseys

All-Americans

Other honors

Auburn in the WNBA

WNBA Draft picks

Undrafted free agents

Awards and honors

Auburn in the Olympics

Championships and postseason

SEC regular season championships

SEC Tournament

Season-by-season record

NCAA tournament results

References

External links