Missouri State to name Beth Cunningham as the Lady Bears' next head coach
Missouri State announced Wednesday night that Beth Cunningham will become the next head coach of the Lady Bears.
Cunningham will join the Lady Bears' staff after 20 years of college basketball experience. She spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Duke under Kara Lawson.
Cunningham signed a five-year deal through the 2026-27 season that will pay her $320,000 annually.
She will take over for Amaka Agugua-Hamilton who departed the Lady Bears program for Virginia last week. Agugua-Hamilton guided the Lady Bears for three seasons and made the NCAA Tournament in both of her opportunities.
Cunningham, a Bloomington, Indiana, native will be introduced on Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Plaster Student Union Ballroom located on the third floor of the Plaster Student Union.
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Before her career at Duke, Cunningham spent eight seasons as an associate head coach at Notre Dame under Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw. She was a part of one of the best stretches in Notre Dame history as they compiled a 244-19 record in that span with seven straight 30-win seasons, six conference titles, five NCAA Final Four appearances and the 2018 National Championship.
Before coaching at Notre Dame, Cunningham spent 11 years on the coaching staff at Virginia Commonwealth with one as an assistant, one as an associate head coach and nine years as a head coach starting in 2003-04. She is the program's all-time leader in coaching wins at 167-115 and had postseason appearances in each of her final five years. She left the program for the opportunity to be an assistant at her alma mater.
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At VCU, she coached three WNBA draft picks and two All-America selections.
Cunningham, a former player at Notre Dame from 1993-97, helped guide the Fighting Irish to their first Final Four appearance with a 31-7 season her senior year. She departed as the program's all-time leading scorer.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State basketball: Beth Cunningham to be named head coach
