NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State women's basketball head coach Kristen Gillespie has signed a contract extension to remain the Redbirds' coach through the 2026-27 season, ISU Director of Athletics Kyle Brennan announced Wednesday.
Gillespie has led the Redbirds to a 87-61 record, including the program's first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth in 14 years during the most recent 2021-22 campaign.
"In her five seasons at the helm, Kristen has rebuilt the women's basketball program from the ground up and returned it to prominence in the Missouri Valley Conference," said Brennan. "She has been a tremendous leader and mentor for our student-athletes, building relationships on and off the court that will last a lifetime. The team's championship and NCAA Tournament appearance this year points to an amazing outlook for this program in the future, and we can't wait to support them in that journey."
When Gillespie was brought on five years ago, the team was coming off three-straight single-digit win seasons and a 2-28 campaign in 2014-15. Gillespie turned in ISU's first winning season in six years in her second season, went on to post back-to-back 19-win campaigns during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons before finally earning an invitation to the WNIT last year, the Redbirds' first postseason appearance in eight years. The Illinois State program continued taking steps forward under Gillespie last week, winning ISU's fifth MVC Tournament title to make its sixth-ever appearance at the NCAA Tournament.
"I am incredibly grateful to President Terri Goss Kinzy, Kyle Brennan and Leanna Bordner for their belief in me and the direction our program is headed," said Gillespie. "My staff and student-athletes have worked extremely hard to build something special here and I am thankful to be on this journey with them. I'm very excited for the future of Illinois State women's basketball and am so appreciative of the support from the University and our awesome Redbird fans!"
Gillespie's squads have not finished below their MVC preseason poll predictions in each year under her leadership and have exceeded them in four out of five. Gillespie has coached 11 All-MVC selections at ISU including three MVC Newcomers of the Year (Simone Goods, TeTe Maggett, Juliunn Redmond), an MVC Sixth Player of the Year (Redmond), an MVC Most Improved Player (Mary Crompton) and most recently, the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Crompton) and MVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player (Redmond).
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