This season, Samford’s Women’s Basketball team won the Southern Conference (SoCon) championship for the first time in six years and played in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 14 years, all under first-year head coach Matt Wise.
Wise had already been at Samford for three seasons as an assistant coach before taking the head role.
“The end result was wonderful, but the end result happened as a byproduct of a group of women that put in a lot of work, especially in times where it looked bleak and continued to develop and grow,” Wise said. “To see them blossom in their courage, bravery, confidence when the chips were down, those kind of things, was really probably the most rewarding part for me.”
Assistant coach Charity Brown played for Samford 2016-2020. When her team won the SoCon Championship in 2020, they were never able to go to the NCAA tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, when the team won the championship, they sent pieces of the championship net to the former players and coaches from that 2020 team.
“They’re a part of this championship because they’re a part of this program,” said Wise. “I wrote to them that we’ll be dancing extra hard for them since they didn’t get to dance at all.”
Next season, the team is bringing back 7 of the 14 players from the championship team, after four graduated and three transferred. Many of the players Samford is keeping are key contributors, and three were starters.
“What I’m so excited about is to build something new, to build something that has already a sturdy foundation from this past year with returning so many players,” Wise said.
The national average for losing players to the transfer portal is just below five players per team, so Samford is staying below that average.
Wise says he is a big believer in the law of attraction.
“Surround yourself with five millionaires, you’ll eventually become a millionaire,” he said. “Surround yourself with five jerks, you’ll eventually become a jerk.”
Wise believes the Samford and team community highly contributed to the team having such a high retainment rate.
“I think for so many of them coming back was being a part of this community, being a part of this team, being around this coaching staff, it’s the people you surround yourself with.”
Although he tries to practice and teach the players moderation in emotions, he says the players returning is definitely a high for him.
Wise said, “It fills my heart and I’m very, very grateful.”
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