Original article (San José State Names April Phillips as Head Women’s Basketball Coach) on San José State University’s athletic website sjsuspartans.com.

Director of Athletics Jeff Konya has selected April Phillips to lead the San José State women’s basketball program, announced on Wednesday. Phillips spent the last season as an assistant coach at the University of Texas where the Longhorns won the Big 12 tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight.

“I want to thank TurnkeyZRG and Katy Young Staudt for their expertise as we mutually identified some high-quality candidates during this national search,” said Konya. “April has extensive experience in recruiting as evidenced in signing top classes at Texas, Cal and Arizona. This is an incredible coaching opportunity and April is the right fit for our culture. Her positive energetic persona will lead the Spartans to new heights.”

In addition to helping lead Texas to the program’s first Big 12 tournament title in 19 seasons, Phillips helped Texas ink the No. 7 recruiting class in the country. While at Cal, she helped sign the sixth-best recruiting class and was part of upset wins over then-No. 13 Arizona, No. 20 Arkansas and No. 22 Arizona State in 2019-20. While at Arizona, she helped guide the Wildcats to the biggest turnaround in program history, 12 more wins than the previous year, and the 2019 Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) championship. Phillips has helped develop 21 all-conference team selections, as well as three conference Freshman/Newcomer of the Year players.

“I am thankful to Jeff Konya, TurnkeyZRG and SJSU Administration for their confidence in me leading this program,” said Phillips. “I also want to thank Vic Schaefer, Charmin Smith, Adia Barnes, Charity Elliott, Ty Grace and Anne Donovan for their leadership and guidance in preparing me to be a head coach. I am ready to start evaluating and bringing in top recruits to San José State. I am excited about developing young women and competing in the Mountain West.”

  • Before coaching at Arizona, Phillips brought in two of the top recruiting classes at Loyola Marymount as Associate Head Coach and was named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) “30 Under 30” list in both 2017 and ’18
  • Phillips spent one season as a graduate assistant coach at Georgia Tech (2014-15) and a year as an Assistant Coach at New Haven (2013-14)
  • A native of Long Beach, Calif., Phillips played collegiate basketball at Georgia Tech (2005-06) and Xavier (2007-10)
  • Led Xavier to three NCAA tournament appearances, two Atlantic-10 championships, and a 30-4 record in 2010 which included a NCAA Elite Eight appearance, falling to No. 2 Stanford, 55-53, to go to the Women’s Final Four
  • Competed on the track and field team as well at Xavier, winning the A-10 shot put title and setting the school record
  • Two-time Nike All-American in high school and was ranked as the nation’s sixth-best wing player