Stephanie Joanne White (formerly Stephanie White-McCarty; born June 20, 1977) is a former professional basketball player and head coach of the

Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established as the Orlando Miracle in ...

of the WNBA. She was previously head coach of the

Vanderbilt Commodores The Vanderbilt Commodores are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams (6 men's teams and 10 women's teams), 14 of which compete at the National ...

women's basketball team from 2016 to 2021. Prior to Vanderbilt, she was the head coach of the Indiana Fever of the WNBA for the 2015 and 2016 season. As an intercollegiate athlete, she was named the winner of the

Wade Trophy The Wade Trophy is an award presented annually to the best upperclass women's basketball player in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after three–time national champion Delta State University coac ...

in 1999, which recognizes the top female basketball player in the nation. White was the 1995 Indiana Miss Basketball and was also named 1995 Gatorade National Player of the Year and the

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

National Player of the Year. White attended

Seeger High School Seeger Memorial Junior-Senior High School is the single high school and middle school serving Warren County, Indiana, and is located a mile and a half north of the town of West Lebanon. It is administered by the Metropolitan School District of Wa ...

in West Lebanon, Indiana, where she was named a High School All-American by the WBCA. She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game in 1995, scoring seventeen points, and earning MVP honors. She led

Purdue University 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 mone ...

to the

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 shoot ...

NCAA 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 ...

Women's National Championship in basketball. She played five years in the WNBA, one with the

Charlotte Sting The Charlotte Sting were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization of ...

and four with the Indiana Fever. She retired in 2004. White joined the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2 ...

as an assistant coach in 2007, spending four seasons there until she joined her college coach,

Lin Dunn Lin Dunn (born May 10, 1947) is an American women's basketball coach, currently general manager with the Indiana Fever. She is most known for being the first coach and general manager for the Seattle Storm. She has more than 500 wins to her name. ...

, as the first former WNBA player to serve as an assistant coach on the Fever staff. She was named head coach on September 23, 2014, making her the youngest active coach in the league.

College

White attended

, where she was named National College Player of the Year, Indiana NCAA Woman of the Year, and

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

Player of the Year on the way to leading Purdue to the NCAA National Championship in 1999.

Purdue statistics

Source

USA Basketball

White competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1997 Jones Cup Team that won the silver medal in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. Several of the games were close, with the USA team winning four games by six points or fewer, including an overtime game in the semifinal match against Japan. The gold medal game against South Korea was also close, but the USA fell 76–71 to claim the silver medal for the event. White was the second leading scorer for the team, averaging 10.3 points per game.

Awards and honors

* 1999—

* 1999—Winner of the Honda Sports Award for basketball

Professional

White began her five-year WNBA career with the Charlotte Sting in 1999 under her married name, Stephanie White-McCarty. She was acquired a year later in an expansion draft by the Indiana Fever to lead the team's inaugural season roster. After four years with the Fever, she ranked third in games played (112) and three point field goals (92), and fourth in scoring (684). She averaged 5.9 points and 2.0 assists per game. She retired from the WNBA in 2004, and went on to become the assistant coach at Ball State (2003–04),

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

(2004–05), and the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of ...

(2005–06 and 2006–07), before going to the

. White was involved in all aspects of the basketball program, including recruiting, on-floor coaching, scouting, individual workouts and academic support. Since 2007, White has also served as a college basketball analyst for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and the Big Ten Network, including studio work and co-hosting the network's coverage of the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament.

Coaching

After a four-year stint as an assistant, White took over the head coaching duties for the Indiana Fever following

's retirement. In her first season, she led the Fever to their second

WNBA Finals The WNBA Finals are the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the league's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002. Starting 2016 Verizon is the officia ...

appearance, losing the best-of-five series to Minnesota. Indiana went 20–14 overall in White's debut season. In her second season with the Fever, White finished the season with a 17–17 record and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Phoenix Mercury. On May 23, 2016, White accepted the head coaching job for the Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball team. She completed the 2016 season with the Fever finishing her time there with a 37–31 overall record and a 6–6 record in the postseason. Through her first two seasons at Vanderbilt, White compiled a 21–40 overall record and went 7–25 against Southeastern Conference competition. Her fifth season at Vanderbilt was shortened in January 2021, due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

concerns, injuries, and a depleted roster. It would eventually be her final season with Vanderbilt, as the school parted ways with White on April 6, 2021.

Head coaching record

College

WNBA

, - , align="left" , IND , align="left" , 2015 , 34, , 20, , 14, , .588, , align="center" , 3rd in East , , 11, , 6, , 5, , .545 , align="center" , Lost in

, - , align="left" , IND , align="left" ,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, 34, , 17, , 17, , .500, , align="center" , 3rd in East, , 1, , 0, , 1, , .000 , align="center" , Lost in First Round , -class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , , , 68, , 37, , 31, , .544, , , , 12, , 6, , 6, , .500, ,

Personal life

She married Brent McCarty in 1998. They divorced in 2002. White resides in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, with her three young children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Stephanie 1977 births Living people All-American college women's basketball players American women's basketball coaches American women's basketball players Ball State Cardinals women's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Indiana Basketball players from Indiana Charlotte Sting players Connecticut Sun coaches Chicago Sky coaches Indiana Fever coaches Indiana Fever players Kansas State Wildcats women's basketball coaches LGBT basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) People from Warren County, Indiana Purdue Boilermakers women's basketball players Shooting guards Toledo Rockets women's basketball coaches Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball coaches Big Ten Athlete of the Year winners