Original article (Stephanie Oliver Tabbed Head Women’s Basketball Coach) on the Long Island University’s athletic website liuathletics.com.
LIU Brooklyn Director of Athletics Brad Cohen has named Stephanie Oliver as head women’s basketball coach, it was announced on Monday. The top assistant at Seton Hall for the last two seasons, Oliver was an integral part of leading the Pirates to a school-record 28 victories and a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15.
“We are pleased that Stephanie will be joining our program,” Cohen said. “She has experienced winning as both a coach and a player, and we look forward to her development of a championship culture at LIU Brooklyn.”
Oliver helped former LIU Brooklyn head coach Anthony Bozzella turn around a Seton Hall program that had compiled just two winning seasons since 2002-03. The Pirates won 20 games in Oliver’s first season in 2013-14, and earned the program’s first postseason berth in nearly a decade.
This past year, the Pirates earned a national ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in almost 20 years, ascending to No. 23 in the country after a 70-51 victory over No. 14/16 Georgia on Dec. 28.
Seton Hall went 28-6 overall and 15-3 in BIG EAST play in 2014-15, earning a spot in the conference tournament finals and garnering individual honors along the way. Guards Ka-Deidre and Dasha Simmons were First Team All-BIG EAST selections, with Dasha earning Defensive Player of the Year honors.
“I am very excited to be provided the opportunity be the next head coach at LIU Brooklyn,” Oliver says. “LIU offers a tremendous academic reputation, outstanding facilities, and vibrant location. My staff and I will work hard to build a program that LIU and the Brooklyn community can be truly proud of.”
“I want to especially thank President Dr. Kimberly Cline, Vice President Gale Stevens-Haynes, Director of Athletics Brad Cohen, Deputy Director of Athletics Margaret Alaimo and the search committee for this amazing opportunity.”
Oliver joined Seton Hall following a three-year stint as head women’s basketball coach at the University of Bridgeport. In her three years at UB, Oliver improved the Purple Knights win total each year, culminating in an 18-10 year in 2012-13.
During her final season, Oliver developed a pair of First-Team All-East Coast Conference selections, helped the Purple Knights to a program-best 12-6 mark in the competitive ECC and advanced the program to a No. 10 ranking in the NCAA Division II East Region rankings.
Oliver additionally spent time on staff at Caldwell College and Stevens Institute of Technology, where she was promoted to interim head coach of the Ducks at the end of the 2009-10 season.
The former Stephanie DelPreore was a standout student-athlete at Marist College from 2000-04. Over her four-year career, she scored 1,114 points and pulled down 670 rebounds, averaging 10.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in 109 career games. Upon graduation, she ranked sixth on the all-time scoring list and fifth in career rebounds.
A Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) All-Rookie selection in 2000-01, Oliver went on to earn Second-Team All-MAAC honors in 2003-04. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2004 MAAC Tournament after scoring 30 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and hitting two key free throws with seconds left to help the Red Foxes defeat Canisius in the championship game and advance to their first-ever NCAA Tournament.
After graduating from Marist with a liberal arts degree in communication in 2004, Oliver played professionally for Club Irlandesas in Leioa, Spain, for one season, leading the team in scoring, rebounding and minutes played.
As a prep player at New Jersey’s Livingston High School, Oliver finished her standout career as the school’s all-time leading scorer (1,809 points) and rebounder (1,454 rebounds), and was inducted into the Lancer Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.
Oliver and her husband, Mitch, who is a former assistant men’s basketball coach at Quinnipiac and currently serves as head men’s basketball coach at Albertus Magnus, reside in Connecticut.