Mary Elizabeth Burns (born October 7, 1957) is an American basketball coach who is currently the women's basketball associate strength and conditioning coach at the University of Louisville. Previously, Burns was the head coach at

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

for 1989 to 1997 and from 2005 to 2013 and at

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

from 1997 to 2002. With a 295-186 record at San Diego State, Burns has the most career wins in school history. She guided San Diego State to seven NCAA Tournament appearances and earned five Coach of the Year awards combined from the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

and

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

Career

Burns played college basketball at

Ohio Wesleyan Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Central Ohio residents as a nonsec ...

from 1975 to 1979. From 1979 to 1981, while completing her master's degree in physical education, Burns served as a graduate assistant at

. Burns then was an assistant coach at

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its orig ...

from 1981 to 1983,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

from 1983 to 1988, and

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

from 1988 to 1989. Burns's first tenure as women's basketball head coach at

was from 1989 to 1997. During these eight seasons, San Diego State appeared in the 1994, 1995, and 1997 NCAA Tournaments, and Burns won

Coach of the Year honors in those years as well. From 1997 to 2002, she served as the head women's basketball coach at

. Her teams went 81-65 during her tenure, and Ohio State won the 2001

Women's National Invitation Tournament The Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) is a women's national college basketball tournament with a preseason and postseason version played every year. It is operated in a similar fashion to the men's college National Invitation Tournam ...

. On March 4, 2002, Ohio State declined to renew Burns's contract, which expired after a 14–15 season in 2001–02. Burns founded BBHoops, a fitness and basketball instruction business in San Diego, after leaving Ohio State. In 2004, Burns joined

Tara VanDerveer Tara Ann VanDerveer (born June 26, 1953) is an American basketball coach who has been the head women's basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985. Designated the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball, VanDerveer led the Stanfor ...

's staff at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

as strength and conditioning coach. On April 8, 2005, Burns began her second tenure as head coach at San Diego State. San Diego State formally signed Burns to a five-year contract on August 30, 2005. Inheriting a team that went 8–20, Burns went 3–24 in her first season back in 2005–06, but her teams improved to 12–16 and 18–13 over the next two seasons. In the 2009 NCAA Women's Tournament, San Diego State was a 10 seed and advanced to the second round. During the 2009-10 season Burns led San Diego State to a 22-10 overall records and a 10-6 record in the Mountain West Conference (MWC), as well as the MWC Tournament Title. That season the team was an 11 seed in the NCAA Women's Tournament with an opening round match-up versus the sixth-seeded Texas Lady Longhorns, with San Diego State winning 74-63. Eight months after signing a five-year contract, Burns resigned on April 16, 2013. In 2014, Burns joined

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

as associate head coach under

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke Cynthia Lynne Cooper-Dyke (born April 14, 1963) is an American basketball coach and former player who has won championships in college, in the Olympics, and in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is considered by many as one ...

. After three seasons at USC, Burns joined

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

as assistant strength and conditioning coach.

Lawsuit against San Diego State

On February 19, 2014, Burns filed a

wrongful termination In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one or more terms of the contra ...

lawsuit against San Diego State University, alleging: "SDSU fired her in retaliation for her unwavering demands that SDSU put women’s basketball and men’s athletics on an equal footing." Burns also filed a similar claim against the

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

system in October 2013. Trial began in May 2016. In September 2016, Burns won the lawsuit, with an award of $3.35 million.

Head coaching record

Sources: Ohio State, San Diego State

References