TCU extends Jeff Mittie's contract
7/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
July 23, 2005
FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU and Head Women's Basketball Coach Jeff Mittie have agreed on a multiyear contract extension, Athletics Director Danny Morrison announced. Specific terms were not released per university policy."The university recognizes and appreciates the outstanding program that Coach Mittie and his staff have built at TCU," Morrison said. "The Lady Frogs have had much success, and with Jeff's continued leadership and commitment, we look forward to many more highlights in the future."
Mittie, who in 2005-06 will enter his seventh year at TCU, boasts a 284-119 (.705) record in 13 collegiate seasons, including a 133-60 (.689) mark with the Lady Frogs. Throughout his career, he has never had a losing record and has averaged 21.8 wins and just 9.2 losses per season. Eight times Mittie has advanced his teams to either the NCAA or WNIT Tournaments, where he is a combined 12-8.
Appointed to the TCU post on Aug. 19, 1999, Mittie is the sixth head coach to guide the Lady Frog basketball program since the 1977-78 season. Mittie's .689 winning percentage at TCU easily ranks as the best in school history. He is also the all-time winningest coach in program history. Remarkably, it took Mittie less than four seasons to better Hall of Famer Fran Garmon, who spent 10 years at the helm. In addition, the five biggest wins in the school's records book (the league title-clinching win over Hawaii in 2001, the upset of Penn State in TCU's first NCAA Tournament game, a defeat of top-10 Vanderbilt in 2002, and wins over national powers Georgia and Michigan State in 2004) have all come under Mittie.
"My wife, Shanna, and I are very appreciative of the support that Chancellor (Victor) Boschini and the university as a whole have given to the women's basketball program during our time in Fort Worth," Mittie said. "It takes tremendous commitment to compete at the highest level, and it's obvious we have that at TCU. I'm grateful for the past support and am looking forward to working with Dr. Morrison as TCU moves into a new and exciting era."
The 39-year-old Mittie led TCU to new heights in 2004-05. The Lady Frogs knocked off their first top-five squad by defeating No. 3 Georgia in Honolulu at the Rainbow Wahine Classic. TCU followed up that performance with an 80-75 victory over No. 13 Michigan State in the title game the next day. The Spartans went on to finish the season as the Big Ten regular-season and tournament champions and were the NCAA Championship runners-up.
TCU ended the year with a 23-10 record, which was the school's fifth consecutive 20-win season and Mittie's ninth as a head coach. It made the Lady Frogs one of just 16 teams across the nation to win at least 20 games in each of the past five years. TCU made its fifth straight showing in the Big Dance, making it one of a mere 18 teams to appear in every tournament since 2001. TCU also claimed its second Conference USA Tournament crown in the Frogs' four years with the league.
In 2003-04, Mittie's Lady Frogs began and finished the year ranked in the top 25 of the Associated Press Poll and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll for the first time in school history. The Purple and White was the only team from C-USA to remain in the rankings every week the entire season, finishing at No. 20 and No. 22 respectively. The squad also achieved new program highs in the polls during the year, reaching 13th in the AP and 15th in the coaches.
Overall, the Lady Frogs registered a 25-7 slate and their 78.1 percent winning percentage was the best in school history. The 25 victories also tied a school record initially set in 2000-01. TCU advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship for the fourth consecutive year, becoming one of only 12 teams around the country to do so from 2001 to 2004.
In 2002-03, Mittie pulled off perhaps his greatest coaching job by doing a one-eighty with his team when it stood a mere 10-12 and appeared out of contention for a third consecutive NCAA bid. The squad entered the C-USA Tournament as the fifth seed and went on to oust the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds en route to the crown. It was the third straight year Mittie and the Lady Frogs won a conference title of some sort.
In the NCAA Tournament, TCU reached the second round and gave eventual national champion Connecticut one of its toughest battles of the tournament. The Lady Frogs took a halftime lead over the Huskies, becoming only the sixth team in the five seasons prior to lead Connecticut at the half of a home game. Mittie's squad finished the year with a 20-14 mark.
In 2001-02, Mittie captured the C-USA Coach of the Year award after the Lady Frogs claimed the conference's regular-season championship in TCU's first stint with the league. He also guided the Frogs to their first national ranking in program history and their second straight 20-win season despite the fact that just one starter returned from the previous year. TCU also made its second appearance in a row in the NCAA Second Round and finished 24-7.
The 2000-01 season was revolutionary for TCU, as Mittie led the Lady Frogs to their first NCAA Tournament. Mittie's squad, though, was not satisfied with simply making the tournament. The Lady Frogs upended the East Region's sixth-seed Penn State, a Final Four team the year before. The victory was the program's first against a ranked school and the triumph by the 11th-seeded Lady Frogs was the biggest first-round upset of the 2001 tournament.
Thanks to an incredible 25-8 record, the Lady Frogs' win total crushed the school's previous Division I best of 16 set the two seasons prior. Mittie was also tabbed the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for leading TCU to the regular-season and conference tournament titles, the first crowns in the program's history.
In the 1999-00 season, Mittie's first TCU squad posted a 16-14 overall record and compiled a 7-7 mark in WAC play, good for a share of fourth place in the league standings. Mittie established a trend that has continued during his tenure with the Purple and White of taking advantage of the home court. The Lady Frogs went 12-6 on their home turf that season, a mark that has grown to a stellar 78-20 (.796) under his direction.
In addition to increasing the win total, Mittie has sought to upgrade TCU's non-conference schedule and increase attendance. In 2000-01, the Lady Frogs hosted Tennessee in front of a then-arena-record 7,262 fans. A year later, TCU averaged a school-record 2,773 fans per contest over 17 home games. The Lady Frogs crushed that mark in 2003-04 by averaging a throng of 3,470 each game, tops in C-USA and 31st in the country. TCU came in a hair under that figure with 3,462 last season.
The overall attendance figures since Mittie's arrival on campus are staggering. Over 250,000 fans have attended TCU home games over the past six seasons for an average of more than 2,500 per contest. During the Lady Frogs' first 17 years in Division I before the Mittie era, just over 100,000 patrons witnessed a home game and TCU had on average less than 600 fans per game. Twenty-four of the top 25 home crowds in TCU women's basketball history have come during Mittie's tenure.
Prior to his move to Cowtown, Mittie made previous head coaching stops at Arkansas State and Missouri Western. A native of Blue Springs, Mo., he earned his undergraduate degree in sports management from Missouri Western in 1989 and his master's in sports management from the United States Sports Academy in Mobile, Ala., in 1992.
Mittie and his wife, Shanna, are the proud parents of three children, daughters Logan and Madison, and son Jordan.
