Hawaii women’s basketball: Laura Beeman receives 3-year extension
Hawaii women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman has been granted a three-year contract extension, Hawaii Warrior World has learned.
Beeman, whose existing contract was set to expire after the 2020-21 season, is now contracted through the 2023-24 season. UH is expected to make an official announcement today.
UH has reached the postseason five times (1 NCAA, 4 WNIT) since Beeman took over in in the 2012-13 season, including a WNIT appearance in the 2018-19 season after the Rainbow Wahine reached the Big West tournament championship game.
The eighth-year head coach is 124-110 for her UH career after Thursday night’s 80-57 rout of UC Riverside at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Wahine (7-9, 1-2 Big West) snapped a four-game losing streak and notched their first conference victory of the season by speeding up their offensive attack.
>> PHOTO GALLERY: HAWAII VS. UC RIVERSIDE
UH hosts Cal State Fullerton (10-6, 2-1) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
UPDATE: Here’s comments from athletic director David Matlin and Beeman about the extension, provided in a UH release.
Matlin: “Laura is an amazing leader and mentor for young ladies. She cares deeply about the holistic development of our student-athletes. She is an integral part of our ‘Ohana as a departmental leader and a great sounding board for myself and our administrative team. Simply put, she makes us better both on and off the court and we are excited to extend her contract.”
Beeman: “I want to thank President (David) Lassner, David Matlin, the athletics administrators and department for the opportunity to continue leading the Rainbow Wahine Basketball program into the 2023-24 season. My career dream has always been about making positive change and being apart of something bigger than me. The University of Hawai’i allows me to fulfill this dream while doing something I love.”
Glad to hear her contract got extended.
The lopsided loss to the University of Pennsylvania (of the Ivy League) opened my eyes: UH lost 55-70 at home. I did not see the game, but one thing I learned is that the Penn players were much taller than the Wahine. 6-2/6-4 forwards and centers were three to four deep. I mean strikingly so it tells me that Laura really needs to step up her recruiting.
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That’s wishful thinking, even for anybody. Most of the priority to the tall players 6’4″ and over usually would go to the big league schools. It’s hard to attract those kinds of players here, especially because of the concerns of travel mostly. Traveling is kind of stressful for any player in the east or midwest, especially because of how far you have to go to from there to here. We’re hundreds of miles off the ocean surface from the mainland. But likewise, I agree with your assessment on Coach B needing to step up her recruiting. It is always hard when you can’t attract 4 or 5-star recruits when we’re always having to fight our way to the top. But yeah, the next set of recruits should look promising, especially with another post at 6’2″, and some versatility with 5’10” and 5’11” in terms of height. It’s promising, but can she build their confidence with the bunch that she has on hand? We’ll just have to wait and see.