At the conclusion of the 2024 WNBA Season, the league experienced a record of seven head coaches fired from franchises along with three lottery teams without a coach expected to participate in the 2025 draft lottery on Sunday.
This month has been brutal for teams without a head coach still in search for a replacement in prep for Golden State’s expansion draft next month. But on the plus side, Indiana, Chicago and Atlanta have named a new head coach for the next season. Fever will be led by Stephanie White; Chicago welcomes former Aces assistant coach Tyler Marsh and Atlanta recently just hired Karl Smesko from Florida Gulf Coast.
Indiana Fever welcomes back Stephanie White after two great seasons with the Sun leading them to semifinal appearances in both years and winning the coach of the year her first season. White is a native of Indiana where she was national player of the year in high school in 1995 and won a national championship at Purdue in 1999.
White spent five seasons in the WNBA playing for the Charlotte Sting in 1999 and selected in the expansion draft for her hometown Indiana from 2000 to 2004. Stephanie later rejoined the Fever in 2011 to 2014 as an assistant coach where she won the franchise’s first and only title in 2012.
In 2015, White was named the head coach after the retirement of legend coach Lin Dunn and led the Fever to the finals in her first season as a head coach. Now, Stephanie White will begin her third go around with this franchise as she plans to bring Indiana back to the top where they have been in the early years of the franchise’s success.
“This is a great hiring for an Indiana Fever team trying to get back to the franchises dominating years of making the playoffs and appearances in the finals. Stephanie White is familiar with this franchise and is going to have great success of developing the talents of Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston to play at high level. Indiana could definitely be a great team in the next coming years with a championship in the future.”
Chicago Sky bring in talented coach in Tyler Marsh who has experience developing players in the NBA G-League, NBA and WNBA to play at a high level. Marsh started as a player development coach for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers (G-League) in 2012 to 2013 and Toronto Raptors (NBA) from 2018 to 2020 where he won a championship for both leagues.
He was also an assistant in the G-League and NBA for Fort Wayne Mad Ants from 2016-2017 and the Indiana Pacers from 2020 to 2022. In the summer of 2022, Marsh was hired as an assistant coach for the Las Vegas Aces where he helps lead the team to back-to-back WNBA championship in his first season as an assistant coach.
Tyler Marsh experience as a player development and assistant coaching will be helpful to a young Chicago Sky team trying to find their identity and in need of developing players for the future. Marsh has developed players like A’ja Wilson and Pascal Siakam to play at a high level in their careers.
“Marsh preparing for his first season as a head coach in his career will be a challenge of learning the Sky team and trying to implant his playing style into the system. Rookie forwards Angel Reese and Kamila Cardoso are going to get great development from Marsh who has a history of working with post players that make improvements in their basketball careers. Chicago is trying to find a core to build around towards future success.”
Atlanta Dream recently hired Karl Smesko as the eighth head coach of the franchise who knows how to win games and shoot many threes that can help open up the paint. Smesko spent the past 23 seasons as the head coach at Florida Gulf Coast with a posting record of 610-110 (.847). He has the third highest winning percentage among active head coaches in NCAA Division I women’s basketball.
He has led FGCU to 14 regular season titles, 11 tournament championship, 14 consecutive 25-win seasons, and seven NCAA Division I tournament appearances. He was also named the Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year thirteen times in his career as a head coach at Florida Gulf Coast.
Smesko has designed his program to be a consecutive three-point shooting team that can help the offense spread out and open the paint for his players to score. Atlanta last year was eleventh in three-point percentage (30.8), ninth in three-point attempts (19.4), and tenth in three-points made (6.0). Coach Smesko will definitely push the Dream to take a lot of threes to increase the percentage, attempts, and made to provide more points.
“I think Karl Smesko is an interesting for the Dream since he has never coached in a professional league but is going to have an opportunity to welcome his playing style into the league. The biggest question for Smesko is how he will utilize his lineups by playing small ball or three guards with two post players on the floor. Atlanta could possibly become the best three-point shooting next season and forcing opponents to defend the perimeter.”
