Larry Vickers will be the next head coach of Auburn’s women’s basketball team, the school announced Sunday.
SB Nation had reported Saturday that Vickers was in the mix to lead the Southeastern Conference program. In the release announcing his hire, Auburn did not reveal any details about his contract.
Vickers comes to Auburn after leading his alma mater, Norfolk State, to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances out of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, a Division I league for historically Black colleges and universities. Vickers, who played for the men’s team at Norfolk State, has led the Spartans to a record of 177-99 in nine full seasons and part of one as the interim coach. He is 83-13 over the last three seasons.
A No. 13 seed in this year’s March Madness, Norfolk State led No. 4 Maryland at halftime on Saturday before falling 82-69. Vickers was asked about his future following the game and said, “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to my team. We all have visions and goals and — I don’t know, man. We’ll see.”
At Auburn, Vickers succeeds Johnnie Harris, who was fired earlier this month after four seasons on the job with a 58-63 overall record. Harris made the NCAA Tournament last season but lost in the First Four. The Tigers won just 12 games this past season, which included a 63-57 home loss to Vickers’ Norfolk State. She never finished a season with a winning record in SEC play.
The Tigers’ coaching search, led by athletic director John Cohen with assistance from the search firm TurnKey, took a lot of twists and turns. Initially, Auburn had the mindset of wanting to make a “splashy, big-name” hire, according to sources familiar with the situation. But when it came down to brass tacks, the Tigers didn’t want to pay a pricey buyout for a sitting Power 4 head coach, like Arizona’s Adia Barnes.
In addition to the pursuit of Barnes stalling out, Cohen also kicked the tires on Kellie Harper — before she accepted the job at Missouri — and former Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell. Eventually, the search pivoted to hiring a young and successful coach from the mid-major ranks who wouldn’t break Auburn’s bank.
“Coach Vickers has an incredible technical understanding of women’s basketball,” Cohen said in a statement. “He demands excellence from his student-athletes, while fostering an environment for young women to succeed. His understanding of the new landscape of college athletics is impressive. No one has worked harder for an opportunity like this than Coach Vickers
Vickers will certainly see a bump in pay at Auburn. While Harris was the second-lowest paid SEC coach at a total compensation of $568,000 annually, Vickers made less than a third of that at Norfolk State with a salary of $178,627. He was voted MEAC Coach of the Year three times.
The opportunity is a rare one for Vickers in that it’s incredibly uncommon to see a Power 4 school — in almost any sport, but certainly football and basketball — to hire a head coach from the MEAC or SWAC, the two Division I HBCU leagues. For example, Tomekia Reed had enormous success at Jackson State, winning five regular season titles and going to three NCAA Tournaments in six seasons, but wasn’t presented with the opportunity to make that big of a leap from job-to-job. She interviewed for Power 4 positions, but was ultimately hired at Charlotte last season. If Vickers succeeds at Auburn, it could embolden more major conference programs to take a chance on good HBCU coaches.
For now, all the openings in the SEC are filled — Missouri, Arkansas and Auburn — but Power 4 head coaching jobs remain open at Houston, BYU and Wisconsin.
