Original article (Bethann Shapiro Ord Named Head Women’s Basketball Coach) on Binghamton University’s athletic website bubearcats.com.
Binghamton University has announced the hiring of Bethann Shapiro Ord as its new head women’s basketball coach. She will be introduced at a press conference next Friday (June 22) at 3 p.m. in the Events Center TAU Bearcat Room.
A native of Rochester (N.Y.), Shapiro Ord, 50, becomes the 14th head coach in the 45-year history of the Binghamton women’s basketball program. She has been the head coach at Weber State for the past seven years. During that stretch, she rebuilt the Wildcat program and has steered it to a pair of seasons with at least 20 wins as well as national postseason appearances. Prior to arriving at Weber State, Shapiro Ord was an assistant coach for 22 years with several successful Division I women’s basketball programs in major conferences.
“We are very excited to introduce Bethann Shapiro Ord as our new women’s basketball coach,” Binghamton Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott said. “She comes with a tremendous amount of experience and success both as a head coach and assistant coach at the Division I level. Bethann is an outstanding recruiter and cares deeply about the student-athletes that she coaches. We are confident she will do an excellent job in leading our women’s basketball program.”
“I am very excited to be named the head coach at Binghamton University,” Shapiro Ord said. “The community support and academic excellence are outstanding. I look forward to continuing to build upon the success of this program and take it to new heights.”
Under Shapiro Ord’s watch, the Wildcats went 57-41 the past three years, advanced to the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) twice and attained the highest win total in program history (23 in 2015-16). Weber State finished this past season with a RPI of 150 out of 346 Division I programs. In the three years prior to Shapiro Ord’s arrival in 2011, Weber State did not win more than 10 games.
From 2007-11, Shapiro Ord was an assistant coach at Louisville. During that time, the Cardinals advanced to the Sweet 16 three times as well as the 2009 national title game. Shapiro Ord was instrumental in the Cardinals signing three Top 15 recruiting classes and one in the top five. She also helped bring two high school All-Americans to Louisville.
Before her years at Louisville, Shapiro Ord was an assistant coach at Colorado from 2005-07 and at Tulsa from 1999-05. The Golden Hurricanes reached the WNIT in both 2004 and 2005.
Shapiro Ord’s assistant coaching career also includes stops at Dayton (1997-98), Auburn (1996-97) and Pittsburgh (1992-96). Auburn won the 2007 SEC championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, advanced to the third round of the 1994 WNIT.
A 1989 graduate of UMBC, Shapiro Ord began her coaching career as an assistant at Nazareth during the 1989-90 campaign. She then spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Wagner (1990-92).
Throughout her coaching career, Shapiro Ord’s recruiting efforts have paid dividends. At Weber State, she landed six All-Big Sky selections including one Newcomer of the Year and one Defensive Player of the Year. As an assistant coach, she has recruited five WNBA draft picks including Angel McCoughtry, the 2009 top overall selection. In addition, Shapiro Ord has helped three different programs sign a total of seven recruiting classes that ranked among the top 40 nationally – including three in the top 15.
During her undergraduate career at UMBC, Shapiro Ord was a three-year starting point guard for the Retrievers. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to earn her master’s degree in elementary education from Wagner in 1992.
She married Jim Ord in August 2003.